Burial in Ancient Gaelic Cultures

by Degraine NicAnTsaoir

Human religious ritual is probably one of the most basic of all human activities, and yet one of the most difficult to identify archaeologically. While there are numerous reasons for this, including interpretive difficulties imposed by the archaeological record itself, a number of other factors outside the cultural material has served to effectively alienate many from the aggressive pursuit of ritual explanations. In many ways, archaeology is suffering from a backlash from earlier approaches in which ritual meaning was ascribed to any object or circumstance for which no functional explanation was available. In addition, the push to establish the field within the framework of a hard core science, coupled with the increasing association of ritual with occultism and the new age has effectively driven many archaeologists from the arena of ritual altogether. Ritual isn't easy to quantify; it does not lend itself to measurement, especially when it must be scrutinized from bits and pieces of vanished cultures for which there are few ethnographic parallels. However, difficult should not be equated with impossible, a pessimism which would prove fatal in any scientific pursuit. Archaeologists are faced with unknowns everyday, and ritual should be no more of an insurmountable breach than any other.

One of the problems with ignoring ritual aspects of human behavior is that it leaves the door wide open for speculation. A growing trend among pagan and new age groups, especially in light of the increasing criticism by Native American's regarding culture theft, is an attempt to legitimize religious claims based on connections to prehistoric populations. The hope is to discover European parallels to a tribal past in which their antecedents, unfettered by the trappings of the modern world, lived in a close symbiotic relationship with the natural environment. Unfortunately, such attempts often weave myth and reality in such a piecemeal fashion that archaeological data divorced from its cultural context serves simply to confound rather than inform. Books are published, they are read, and fantasy and reality become increasingly blurred in the minds of the public. Is it a problem? Ask the average person who built Stonehenge. If they don't respond by telling you it was the "goddess worshiping aliens who are making all the crop circles" then they'll probably say it was the druids. This is particularly important when information is just a mouse-click away. While the European Neolithic has been the major focus of such interest, attention has recently shifted to the Celts, demonstrated by the proliferation of popular books on Celtic Magic, Celtic Shamanism, and Celtic Wicca. Unfortunately there are numerous holes during this period waiting to be filled.

The Celtic period, in particular, is difficult to approach in terms of ritual largely because, with few notable exceptions, archaeologists have treated the "Celts" as one monolithic universal whole encompassing a wide geographic area. In this holistic approach, regional as well as temporal variation is lost. According to Hill, "What has been shown to be untrue, however, is that there ever existed a single Celtic race whose members all had the same religion, psychological traits, and type of society, and who recognized themselves as Celts" (Vol. 17, 1996). Most archaeologists recognize the Celts as deriving from two populations: the Battle-Axe people which are actually a fusion of Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures of the North European plain, who invaded Europe from the steppes of Southern Russia, and the native European Beaker culture of central and northwestern Europe. The cultural complex as a whole is sometimes called the Single Gave Corded Ware culture (Herm, 1976; Chadwick, 1970). The second ancestral population is the Urnfield culture of the Late Bronze Age, so named because of their tradition of cremation burial in which the ashes were interred in pottery urns. The Urnfielders originated in Eastern Europe and spread across the Rhine, Southern France, Northeastern Spain, and Northern Italy. The Urnfield culture ended in the 7th century, BC, replaced by the Hallstat culture, the name given to the earliest phase of the Celtic Iron Age. The earliest two cultural phases of the Hallstat, termed A and B, are dated to the Late Bronze age 12th-8th Century, BC, the next two phases Hallstat C and D, are true Iron age cultures which spanned the period from the 7th to the 6th century, BC.

Hallstat was eclipsed by the La Tene phase of Celtic culture in the 5th Century, BC, which in its zenith existed in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Bohemia, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Iberia, and Italy north of the Po River. Its influence was also felt in Northern and Eastern Europe. The La Tene phase lasted until Roman Conquest (Chadwick 1970; Ross 1986, Piggot 1965). The Celts then spanned 12 centuries and a good portion of Europe. An overwhelming amount of variation must have existed between regions, and must have occurred temporally as well.

Burial practices are one area which have received widespread attention, and, as a result, their analyses have contributed greatly to our understanding of cultural ritual beliefs and practices. Much of that understanding has been achieved through skeletal analysis, which has provided "crucial evidence in the analysis and interpretation of burial" (Harke, 1994; 37). In addition to archaeological evidence, so information is available from Greco-Roman ethnographic accounts, as well as vernacular written materials which when combined with archaeological evidence allows a greater understanding of Celtic culture as a whole. It is important to stress that burial practices among the Celts demonstrated great variation both in terms of regional differences as well as temporal change. During the Beaker period, native populations practiced collective burials in barrows, which were accompanied by personal possessions and drink or food vessels. The Urnfield period saw the introduction of cremations with ashes buried in cinerary urns both in barrows and flat cemeteries. A curious absence of burials appears in some regions during the late Bronze Age to the earliest Iron Age, signifying the dead were disposed of by invisible funerary rites, or in other words, in a way that left no recognizable archaeological record (Hill, 1995; 1997; Whimster 1981). This was followed by local variation of inhumation burial, mostly flexed or crouched, but with limited distribution, suggesting that the "invisible" funerary rites continued unabated in some locations (Champion et al, 1984; Harrison, 1981). During the Late La Tene phase, cremation was followed by burial of ashes, which was accompanied by grave furniture. In all cases populations demonstrated: Regional variation exhibited in the disposal of the dead, differences which occur both spatially during the period and exhibit wide geographical variation as well. The Iron age lasted for seven centuries of change and was not the same across Europe. While different types of cheiftainly or kingly societies existed at the end of the Iron Age in south-east England and north-east Ireland, they did not necessarily exist across all of Britain. While there were contacts and shared cultural elements across Europe, it is the differences in all aspect of life between neighboring areas that seems to have been more important that the similarities. One region might bury its dead in graves with grave goods, for instance, while next door the people treated their dead in archaeologically invisible ways (Hill, 97).

While it would be an interesting undertaking to document burial practices for the entire Celtic geographical expanse and temporal period, such a task is beyond the scope of one paper and probably beyond the scope of one person as well. Therefore, the focus will be primarily on British practices, partly because such practices have been well documented and in part because archaeologists working in the area have recognized the importance of a regional approach to Celtic archaeology. In addition, Britain offers some interesting evidence of ritual burial behaviors. British Iron Age burials have received particular attention primarily because of their non-ritualistic appearance. Most of the population is not even represented in burial, and it is assumed that incarnation, the removal of flesh followed by a burial of the skeleton or partial skeleton, was the primary means of disposing of the dead. However, it appears that remains were disposed of in such a way as to leave no visible archaeological record. This type of burial practice was not confined to Britain, but it also occurred in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, as well as among other Iron-age populations. According to Sjovold who has investigated Iron Age burials in Oland:

The number of graves known corresponds to approximately 1% of the number of individuals who actually lived on the island. So where did the remaining 99% go? If they were not buried They should not have any archaeological items to go with them, so the problem is not a purely Archaeological one, but an osteological, or even a geochemical problem relating to quarteneary geology. Even if roughly 90% of all the bodies were deposited in arable soil, the fact still remains that the soil on Oland conserves bone tissue very well, even in a fragmented condition. Fragmented Bones are possible to identify, and cremated bones in particular are very difficult to dissolve. It Seems that the answer to the question of missing graves and missing skeletons still has to be found (1992; 217).

Hill, who has done extensive work on Iron Age burials in Britain, suggests that: "Early Iron Age and Middle Iron Age human deposits represent only a tiny minority of the population of Iron Age Britain. It is generally agreed that the majority of Iron Age people were excoriated on death, their bones subsequently disposed of in non archaeologically traceable ways (1995; 12). However, it is apparent that some members of the population were singled out for special burial practices. These burials occur in domestic pits away from houses but within the periphery of the living space and are often found in crouched or flexed positions with recognizable orientations and a general lack of grave goods (Hill 1995; Whimster 1981). In fact, there is strong indications that "corpses were not clothed" (Hill 1995; 17). Often, "burials took place with domestic detritus and garbage, and there are no recognizable gender distinctions, although it appears that infants were generally deposited in the interior of the living space in comparison to the peripheral burial of the adults" (Hill, 1995; 17). This has raised a great deal of speculation. Cunliffe, for example, argues that these burials, "reflect a lifestyle or death that had been abnormal. Such as witches, criminals, suicides, death in childbirth and uses the ethnographic parallels of the Shante in support of this idea to deny damaged or incomplete persons normal rites by burial in rubbish middens" (Macleod 1981:36-8; Hill 1995; 7). However, it would seem, especially given the ethnographic and literary evidence for the Celtic belief in reincarnation, that such persons would be buried either outside of the occupational space or in such a way as to render them harmless; for example, face down or with an object placed on top of the body. Medieval Britons buried witches and other criminals at crossroads to confuse their spirits after death thereby preventing their spirits from doing mischief to the living. It seems unlikely that such persons would be placed within the domain of everyday existence but would instead be placed outside the domestic space altogether (Hilliday, 1996). Other archaeologists take the view that these burials are evidence for an ancestor cult in which remains were venerated as a source of supernatural power. Hill, however, takes the approach that the pits in which these burials occurred were not rubbish pits, but may have in fact been sacrificial in nature. According to Hill, "Humans are treated in similar ways and deposited in the same features as animals which archaeologists have interpret as having been deliberately killed in sacrifice. The association suggests a strong metaphoric link between animal sacrifices and human remains if not actual human sacrifice" (Hill 1995, 106). Many of the bones recovered from these pits represent wild animals, which Hill suggests did not normally constitute the diet of the occupants. It should be pointed out, however, that some recent studies suggest that Celtic people did consume a great deal of meat in their diet, much of which must have been from wild game (Richards, 1997; Vol. 12). Celtic vernacular literature, however, does suggest that some animals were considered taboo. Chief among them were waterfowl, such as swans which occupied a liminal position between water and earth and were therefore considered denizens of the other world (Rees, 1991). It is interesting that many of the skeletons found in these deposits are from birds, and often only the wing is represented (Hill 1995). It would seem then that, as Hill points out, "presence of these animals could indicate that consuming them under normal conditions may have been considered taboo and therefor were reserved for special occasions" (1995; 109). Caesar also noted the taboo nature of some animals stating that 'hares, fowl, and geese they think it unlawful to eat, but rear them for their pleasure and amusement" (Caesar in Hill 1995: 111). While fully articulated human skeletons are found in these pits, the largest majority of them represent partial burials. Archaeologists have noted that the general choice of body part selection seems to be the skull and occasionally the leg. Many archeologists theorize that the presence of reentered human skulls provides evidence for the presence of head hunting. Speculation regarding Celtic head hunting was often based on the evidence from Graceo-Roman ethnographic accounts describing the taking of heads as war trophies which Celts attached to their horses, displayed on poles, or tacked up on door facings. Some archaeologists suggest that there is physical evidence to support both head hunting and cannibalism. Whimster, for example, suggests that human remains excavated in Salisbury were broken when freshly green and were probably deliberately broken soon after death. In addition, human bones discovered at Woolsley Hole show signs of having been butchered, and an excavation at Crofts Abbey has produced bones with cut marks on the distal and humerous end, suggestive of butchering (Whimster, 1981: 183). The most convincing evidence comes from Gloucestershire, where the remains of a young woman were found scattered over an occupational floor. The radius, ulna, and right femur had all been broken intentionally after death, and, according to the researcher, appeared to indicate that dismemberment was made for the purpose of extracting marrow (Dunning in Whimster, 1981: 116-7).

In addition to evidence of cannibalism, human bone was frequently worked into tools, ornaments, and jewelry. Whimster also points out that many of the skulls recovered from sites bear holes where pieces of the bone have been removed. When first discovered, Piggot often cited trepanation as the probable explanation. However, further investigation has demonstrated that the manner in which these holes were bored into the skull was not delicate enough to have been surgical in nature. A recent discovery of a teenage boy recovered from a late 2nd century cite of St. Albans demonstrates the presence of at least 90 cut marks by a fine bladed knife. These are located on the sides and top of the skull. Despite the fact that the flesh had not been removed from the facial area, the disorderly pattern of the marks suggests that the skull was probably defleshed rather than scalped-although the disorderly pattern may have been caused by the careful avoidance of the wound which disabled the victim. The skull also contained four large holes caused by blows received at the time of death, suggesting he was battered to death before being decapitated and defleshed or scalped. There is damage to the base of the skull suggesting it was probably displayed on a pole. The absence of weathering on the skull suggest it may have been displayed indoors (Steele, 1996; Vol 11).

Ritual sacrifice may have also played an important role in the remains of hundreds of bodies and partial skeletons, which have been recovered from bogs across Europe, including a significant number from the British Isles. Tollund man, one of the best preserved and most famous of the prehistoric corpses, was recovered from a peat bog in Jutland, Denmark. The well-preserved corpse of this Iron Age man was clothed only in a cap, belt, and cloak. It is interesting to note that like the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age burials, many of the bog remains were probably unclothed. According to researches, the Tollund body had been hanged with a leather rope, which lead to speculation that he may have been a sacrificial victim. His stomach contents were sufficiently well preserved to show that his last meal had consisted of a gruel made of barley, linseed, knotweed, and other cultivated weeds; this evidence of a vegetarian meal has been confirmed by other peat-bog burials. Bog burials of the Tollund type have been found in Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, and Lower Saxony, and span the period from around 100 BC to Ad 500 (Glob 1969)

Grauballe Man, another Denmark find, is dated-between 210 and 410 AD. According to Gob, "A long cut ran round the front of the neck practically from ear to ear, so deep that the gullet had been completely severed. Another person evidently made the wound with several strokes; the direction and appearance of the cuts showed that they could not have been self inflicted nor could they have been made after death (Gobb 1969).

The most famous British discovery has been the Lindow man unearthed in 1984 in a peat bog near Manchester, England. The well-preserved corpse, approximately 2,200 years old, is regarded by some to have been a human sacrifice largely because of the method of execution employed on him. He was first bludgeoned and garroted, then his throat was slit and he was dropped into a pool of water. The lack of bodily scars (other than those, which occurred during the sacrifice) indicates he was from a noble, rather than a warrior, class.

While Lindow Man (actually Lindow II) has been the focus of most of the attention, excavations at Lindow Moss were conducted from 1983-1988 and have produced 4 separate finds, although some evidence suggests that only two individuals may be represented. The excavations began after the discovery of Lindow I, a well -preserved skull, which retained its outer membrane and some hair. The vault contained the decayed brain, part of the eyeball, and the optical nerve. An interesting side note is that its discovery led to the conviction of Peter Reyn Bardt for the murder of his wife, which he confessed to after hearing of the discovery and assuming the skull must be that of his wife whom he had buried in the vacinity of the bog after her murder. Lindow I was carbon dated 1740+/-80BP. Subsequent excavations lead to the recovery of a foot and ragged skin of a lower leg, a nearly complete body minus the head, and then the nearby complete remains of Lindow III. During the course of the excavation a number of tests were conducted including stratigraphic analysis, pollen analysis of the peat, carbon dating of the peat, pollen analysis of the body, insect analysis of the peat, and insect analysis of the body.

Radio carbon dating of the remains presented special problems because of an apparent conflict between radiocarbon dates of the body and stratigraphic analysis. The researchers involved believe that the earlier dates for the stratigraphy result from the bodies being pushed down into earlier stratigraphic layers during their deposition. The date now seems firmly established to range between the late Iron Age and the Early Roman period. To carbon date Lindow III, two samples of skin and two groups of bone samples were taken and subsequently divided between Oxford and Harwell Laboratories for dating. The results indicate that Lindow III dates to the late Iron-early Roman period. Other bog bodies in Britain give similar results;

Lindow I (Cranium) 1740-/+80 Lindow II 1940 +/-25 Worsley Man 1800 +/-70 (Truner & Scaife, 1995; 208)

One rather interesting finding was that both Lindow II and Lindow III exhibited the presence of magnesium, aluminum silicon, potassium, iron, sulfur, titanium, and copper. Though the chemical analysis demonstrated that the amounts of these chemicals differed in each case, they were probably indicative of some form of body painting. It appears that both Lindow II and III were utilizing some form of copper-based paint. This theory is supported by the green type dye found on the rope attached to Lindow II. It is possible that this painting is related to some form of tribal identification. To further test the hypothesis that this was indeed some form of body paint rather than the absorption of elements from the bog itself, single skin samples were taken from areas which might be expected to be pigmented if body painting was practices and measured against skin samples taken from the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, where body paint would not likely be applied. These were measured against each other, the results show statistically significant differences of iron levels present on those parts of the body where painting likely would have taken place. However, researches caution that there were higher concentrations of iron in the bog, as well. It is not know at this time whether the iron in the bog may have been elevated due to contact with the body or visa versa. In addition, the elevated skin content may be at least partially explained by the "substantial selective loss of organic body weight through decay leading to preferential enhancement of inorganic components" (Craddock 74).

In addition to chemical analysis on the bone, numerous analyses were conducted on the content of the stomach of both Lindow II and III. The results of these tests indicate that the last meals of both subjects were very similar in content consisting primarily of a cereal of either rye or wheat mixed with a significant number of weed seeds. Lindow III differed from Lindow II in the high level of hazelnuts present in the sample. The Lindow II specimen indicated the presence of mistletoe. The dominance of cereal pollens indicates that the final meal was some form of unleavened bread. The hazelnuts and mistletoe are interesting additions. Both appear in Celtic myth as having important religious significance. The hazelnut was considered sacred because of its connection to the otherworld. According to the myths, eating hazelnuts grown in a particular place would endow one with perfect knowledge. They were considered the seed of divine inspiration and so were highly sought by the bards and the Irish Filli. The Mistletoe was a plant particularly revered for its medicinal and spiritual properties because of its relationship to the oak tree (Rees, 1991). There was no evidence that meat consumption formed part of either meal-despite the fact that meat was a staple item in the ordinary Iron Age diet.

While the Lindow discoveries have certainly gained most of the attention, bog recoveries in Britain have not been limited to Lindow Moss. In fact, an important discovery was made in Worsley of a man dating to 1800BP (BP=Before Period) whose remains exhibited a fractured skull, and like Lindow I and Tollund, had a cord wrapped around its neck. In addition, his head had been severed at the second vertebra. The find consisted of a skull, the mandible, the first cervical vertebra, half the body of the second, and a considerable amount of overlying soft tissue. The skull appeared to have suffered much post mortem damage. According to Garland: When viewed from the front it was possible to see a partial metopic suture running upward from the nasion and a fracture extending downwards through the right side of the body of the mandible and into the empty socket towards the lower right canine tooth. A laceration approximately 28mm in length extended upwards behind the ear. Examination of the wound margins, using a dissecting microscope revealed a laceration with irregular edges and displacement of the hair follicles into the wound. When the skull was viewed from below it was possible to see the first two cervical vertebrae, and that the body of the second had been transected by a sharp cut. The two vertebrae were surrounded by an amorphous mass of dark-brown, soft tissue. Embedded inside this tissue was a twisted cord which when traced, appeared to encircle soft tissue of the neck and extend upward between the soft tissue and the bone of the right side of the face. It can be shown from the remains that he had received injuries sufficient to fracture the top of the skull, had had a cord tied around his neck, and had his head severed from his body at the second cervical vertebra (Garland, 1995: 104-107).

Similar finds have been made in Scotland and Ireland, though not always exhibiting the same symptoms of pre-mortem damage. A recent find, the Meenybraddan Women, was recovered from a bog in Donnegal, Ireland. According to researchers, she was found wrapped in a woolen cloak. No trauma was indicated, and it appears she may have suffered from infection of the lungs and pleura (Delaney & O'Floinn, 1995: 122-132).

The oldest bog bodies found in Ireland were recovered from Stoney Island Bog in Co. Galway, which dates to the Neolithic. The articulated skeleton was found face upward with arms extended, suggesting that the body had been placed in open water and had settled on the bottom. A similar explanation has been suggested for a skeleton associated with pottery of a Neolithic date in Sigerdal Moss, Denmark. The male was found clothed in a leather cape with a band of sally (straw) around his neck. A pointed wooden post or stake was placed at each side of the body. There are also numerous bog bodies that date to a more modern period, which are similar in nature (Brindley & Lanting: 1995; 133-145).

While sacrificial deposition is the most favored explanation for the bog body phenomenon, some researchers argue against ritual interpretation of bog bodies. C. S. Briggs suggests that all the damage to the Lindow bodies can be explained as ante-mortem injuries. According to Briggs, the Lindow skulls could have easily been broken by someone poking a stick at the emerged body in an attempt to figure out what it was. In addition, he feels that the ligature believed to have garroted the victim, was too weak and the absence of ante-mortem swelling suggests that the body was probably already deceased when the rope was placed around the neck. He suggests that Lindow man may have accidentally fallen into the bog, eventually someone would have discovered the body and tried to pull it out with a rope-the very rope that he felt was too weak to effectively hang the person. Such an attempt would account for the beheading, Briggs does not explain why, after attempting to pull the body out of the bog, the would-be-rescuer simply abandoned the body, nor does he explain why he then pushed the body into earlier stratigraphic layers (Briggs, 1995: 168-182). Good archeological explanations should be economical, and Brigg's explanation is not only uneconomical, but it borders on the ridiculous.

Apart from bogs, human remains have occasionally been found in rivers and lakes and in some cases in or close to crannogs. Recent excavations at Latgore yielded 200 human bones from levels below the crannog and from the earliest occupation levels. Among the finding were fourteen cut occipitals, evidence that the individuals concerned had been put to death by having the backs of their heads partly cut off and partly broken off with a sword or axe. While the skeletal remains spanned a period of time extending from the Bronze Age to the Modern period, a significant number date to the late Bronze Age (Stjerniquist, 1992) Interestingly, the increase in bog burials and water related finds coincides with the period of "invisibility" ascribed to the burial practices of the late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age and Late Iron Age displayed in certain areas of the Celtic landscape. Perhaps the Celts were interring their dead not only in bogs, but also in rivers, streams, pools, and marshes. This would make a certain amount of sense in terms of what we know about Celtic belief systems. The Celtics believed the other world was an island, which could only be reached by traversing a body of water. In some stories, this other world is reached by a journey under the sea, while in others it is reached by a journey in a magical boat. In addition, bog deaths provide the paradoxical union of opposites, so much a part of Celtic mythology. A bog burial could be described as being neither this nor that, and yet at the same time, both. Such a death is described in the myth of Suibne Gelt, in which Grag is told he will die by a weapon, by being burnt, and by drowning. In the myth, he meets his end while climbing an oak tree, during which he is wounded by his spear, and falls from the tree into fire, and then into water where he drowns. Mistletoe is also a between-world plant belonging neither to the earth, to the water, nor the sky (Rees, 1991).

Evidence for water burials is increasing. Recently the remains of a late Neolithic humans and animals have been found during quarrying work in an ancient channel of the River Trent in Nottinghamshire. According to Bishop, "the bones may provide evidence of river burial, ritual killing, or a catastrophic flood" (1996, Vol. 1996: ). The bones included at least a dozen human skulls, some belonging to children and young teenagers, a few other human bones, and a similar scattering of skulls and bones from sheep, goat, cattle and aurochs, and were radiocarbon dated to c 2300-2000BC. They were stuck in a log jam in the stream together with possible cut timbers and a piece of wickerwork. According to Mike Bishop, Nottinghamshire's County Archaeologist: The most likely explanation is that the bodies had been excarnated-exposed after death until decomposition-some way upstream, before being selectively thrown into the river as part of a funerary rite. Maybe this is how the hoi polloi were treated. Some people were buried in long mounds, but we don't know what happened to the bulk of the people, and river burial is one possibilty. A catastrophic flood is another possible explanation, sweeping humans, animals and timbers into the river in one event. This is supported to some extent by environmental evidence in the Trent for major flooding in the Bronze Age; though the preponderance of skulls suggests perhaps a more selective deposition. A third possbility is ritual killing, but the skulls contain no evidence of decapitation or other injury. (Bishop, 1996: Vol. 14)

It seems that the examination of Celtic ritual behavior based on inhumation practices does provide interesting glimpses into the ritual life of the Celtic people. However, it is evident that clearer answers could be obtained if a more regional approach to Celtic archaeology were adopted. It is only by looking at each individual population that differences between regions will ever be fully identified.

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prepared by Deograine NicAnTsaoir

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Since the early 1980s privately, and since 1993 publicly, Clannada na Gadelica, and ONLY Clannada na Gadelica, have used this terminology, (and more terminology which we are also Service Marking), as specific definitional phraseologies to explicate and expound upon the Gaelic Cultural Traditions of the Gaelic Hearthlands. Clannada na Gadelica have provided this original work and original service exclusively, and can documentably prove we were are the originators of the modern re-employment in the Diaspora of this terminology. We specifically do NOT grant permission to use this terminology to any other entity or individuals.

I am Service Marking this work because Kathryn Price a.k.a Kathryn nic Dhana, and the Celtic Reconstructionist identity thieves, and now other neo-pagans, as well as now a Canadian on-line t-shirt company, have been poaching this terminology and trying to crassly commercialize it.

Enough is enough. Clannada coined it and if it takes registering it as a commercial service mark to protect it, then, so be it, and I'll take the inevitable ass-whipping from the authentic Tradition Bearers in the Hearthlands for it. When and if authentic cultural entities in the Hearthlands want to assume the mark for themselves, I'll release it to them. Until then, this is the line.

Kathleen O'Brien Blair, Taoiseach
Clannada na Gadelica,
A Confederation of Gaelic Traditionalists in the Hearthlands and Diaspora

WWW Clannada.org