Isle Of Man Flag
Ireland flag
As one of the leading online suppliers
of the Flag of Ireland {Irish Flags}Polyester flags combine excellent durability with low cost and
attractive appearance.
We offer top quality polyester Irish flags made by a leading UK Flag company
from durable polyester. They are made of coloured polyester material and are
a great feature for organizations who fly Irish Flags on a every day basis.
We stock the Ireland flag in Feet and Inches 5' x 3' or Metres 1.5 x 0.9m
and Ireland flag 8ft by 5ft.We aim to deliver to European destinations
within three working days and worldwide within five.
Introduction Ireland
Background:
Ireland has been inhabited since Stone Age times. For more than five
thousand years peoples moving westwards across the European continent have
settled in the country and each new group of immigrants, Celts, Vikings,
Normans, English, has contributed to its present population.
In the Stone and Bronze Ages, Ireland was inhabited by Picts in the north
and a people called the Erainn in the south, the same stock, apparently, as
in all the isles before the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. About the 4th
century B.C., tall, red-haired Celts arrived from Gaul or Galicia and
established their distinctive culture , although they do not seem to have
come in great numbers. Ancient Irish legend tells of four successive peoples
who invaded the country?the Firbolgs, the Fomors, the Tuatha De Danann, and
the Milesians.
The Irish mythological cycle, which seems to be a history of this period,
can be divided into four major divisions. The first is the
historical-mythological cycle. Two important texts are part of this cycle:
the Leabhar Gahbala (Book of Invasions), a mythological history of Ireland;
and the Dinnshenchas (History of Places), a mythological geography of
Ireland. The main theme in the historical-mythological cycle concerns the
peopling of Ireland and the fortunes of the Tuatha De Danann (People of the
Goddess Danann), who were the mythological ancestors of the Irish.
In the historical-mythological cycle the story of the predecessors of the
Irish settlement is told. The first group to come to Ireland is led by a
woman, Cesair; the majority of her group is composed of women. This group
arrives before the great flood, and all are destroyed in the flood except
one, Fintan, who in the form of a salmon, eagle, or hawk witnesses all of
the later settlements. Fintan is the patron of the traditional lore and
storytelling. The next group is led by Partholan, but he and all of his
people die in a plague. A third group is led by Nemed; after suffering many
vicissitudes, this group divides into three parts and abandons Ireland. Two
of these groups, the Fir Bolg (Bolg Men) and the Tuatha De Danann (People of
the Goddess Danann), occupy the subsequent history. The Fir Bolg return to
Ireland, which they divide into the five provinces of Ulster, Leinster,
Munster, Connacht, and Meath; they also introduce kingship. When the Tuatha
De Danann arrive, warfare ensues over possession of the land. One tradition
states that after the First Battle of Mag Tuired, the Fir Bolg and Tuatha De
Danann make peace and agree to live together in harmony.
The Tuatha are described as demigods; they are beautiful people, possessed
with skill in music and the arts. They are always spoken about within a
context of fabulous magical powers and wonders, which define the essence of
their manifestation. A central theme in the myth of the Tuatha is that of
the Second Battle of Mag Tuired. During the First Battle of Mag Tuired the
king of the Tuatha, Nuada, is wounded. Because he is now physically
blemished, he can no longer serve as king. The kingship is then given to his
adopted son, Bres. Bres's father is a king of the Fomoire, a group of people
with whom Nemed and his people had fought in previous times. Bres's mother,
Eriu, is, however, a Tuatha. The choice of Bres is apparently an attempt to
accomplish an alliance between the Tuatha and the Fomoire.
The Tuatha are themselves later defeated by the Sons of Mil, the immediate
ancestors of the Irish people. The Tuatha are said now to live in the
underground of Ireland, in the fairy regions, where the fairies are subject
to them.
The second division is the Ulster cycle. These myths are stories of the
warriors of King Conchobar. The themes of those of honor and prestige
revolve around heroic deeds and the hero Cu Chulainn (or Cuchulainn).
The third division is that of Fenian. The Fenian Cycle recounts the exploits
of Finn Mac Cumhail and his companions and deals with the cult and
institution of warriors.
The last division deals with the institution and founding of the great and
lesser kings of Ireland.
Oddly enough, the Romans, who occupied Britain for 400 years, never came to
Ireland, and the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain, who largely replaced the
Celtic population there, did not greatly affect Ireland.
The earliest settlers arrived around 7,000 BC in the Mesolithic or middle
stone-age period. They arrived in the north across the narrow strait from
Britain. These people were mainly hunters.
Colonists of the Neolithic, or new stone-age, period reached Ireland around
3,000 BC. These were farmers who raised animals and cultivated the soil.
Many remnants of their civilisation - houses, pottery, implements have been
excavated at Lough Gur in Co. Limerick and some can be seen at the folk park
now developed around the lakeside site.
The Neolithic colonists were largely self-sufficient but engaged in a
limited form of trading in products such as axe-heads. Many of their
religious monuments have survived, the most impressive of which is the great
megalithic tomb at Newgrange in Co. Meath.
Prospectors and metalworkers arrived about 2,000 BC. Metal deposits were
discovered and soon bronze and gold objects were being manufactured. Many
artefacts made by these bronze-age people have been found, among them
axe-heads, pottery and jewellery.
About 1,200 BC another movement of people reached Ireland, producing an even
greater variety of weapons and artefacts. A common type of dwelling in use
at this time was the crannóg, an artificial island, palisaded on all sides,
constructed in the middle of a lake.
The people who made the greatest impact on Ireland were the Celts. The
earliest waves of Celtic invaders may have reached the country from central
Europe as early as the 6th century BC with subsequent groups arriving up to
the time of Christ. The Celts belonged linguistically to the great
Indo-European family. They soon came to dominate Ireland and it's earlier
settlers. The Celtic culture of the La Tene civilisation - named after a
Celtic site in Switzerland - reached Ireland around the 2nd century BC.
Celtic Ireland was not unified politically, only by culture and language.
The country was divided into about 150 miniature kingdoms, each called a
tuath. A minor king ruled a tuath, subject to a more powerful king who ruled
a group of tuatha, who was in turn subject to one of the five provincial
kings. This political situation was very fluid, with constant shifts in
power among the most important contenders.
Celtic Ireland had a simple agrarian economy. No coins were used and the
unit of exchange was the cow. People lived on individual farms and there
were no towns. Society was rigidly stratified into classes and was regulated
by the Brehon Laws, an elaborate code of legislation based largely on the
concepts of the tuath as the political unit and the fine, or extended
family, as the social unit.
Christianity was introduced in the 5th century. This is traditionally
associated with St Patrick (d. 461) although there were some Christians in
the country before his arrival. The first written documents date from this
period.
A distinctive feature of the development of early Irish Christianity was the
important role played by monasticism. The great monasteries such as
Glendalough, founded by St Kevin, and Clonmacnoise, founded by St Ciaran,
were famous centres of culture and learning and the illuminated manuscripts
which they produced were among the glories of Irish monasticism. It was
through the monasteries that Irish influence on Britain and Europe was
exerted from the 6th century onwards.
Setting out first as pilgrims, Irish monks preached the Gospel and
established new communities across the continent. Ireland, unlike most of
the rest of Europe, did not suffer barbarian invasion and so acted as a
repository of Christian civilisation at a time when it was almost
extinguished elsewhere.
Irish monks are associated with a number of continental centres - St Fursey
at Peronne in France, St Kilian at Wurzburg in Germany, St Vergil at
Salzburg in Austria, St Columbanus at Bobbio in Italy. They brought
Christianity to pagan peoples, established centres of learning and paved the
way for the intellectual flowering in 9th century France known as the
Carolingian Renaissance. One of the most notable of these monks was the
philosopher and theologian Johannes Scotus Eriugena.
The successful missionary efforts of the Irish abroad were matched by rich
cultural achievements at home. Elaborate chalices, croziers and ornamental
jewellery were fashioned while the scribes committed the rich classical
tradition to their magnificently illuminated manuscripts. This period from
the 6th to the 9th century has been seen by many as the Golden Age of Irish
history.
info supplied by
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