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The Mother Of
All Cultural Rip-Offs For Ireland?by W. Finnerty. Wed Aug 30, 2006
15:21
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An e-mail was sent
yesterday to several senior public officials in the
European Union, and
in the
Council of Europe (which deals with human rights law, and cultural
heritage issues).
This was an attempt to try and make those
concerned aware - while there is still time - that there are important links
between the
Hill of Tara,
Brehon Law, and the
Cultural Heritage
of the Irish People.
As some people will already know, though
not nearly enough (at the present time) to "save" Tara perhaps, the stamping out
of
Brehon Law in Ireland (roughly between
1169 and 1650 AD), and
its replacement with
"Roman" Law, was the most cruel injustice in
recorded history that the people of Ireland ever suffered, and that none has had
more far reaching consequences for Irish people.
In effect, it was
this forced switch-over of legal systems which enabled the bulk of the land of
Ireland to be taken away from the people of Ireland, during the lengthy period
in question. It really does appear to be as simple, as basic, and as important
as that.
Assuming the writers of the "
Annals of Ireland by the
Four Masters" got things right, the origins of Brehon Law first appeared on
the Hill of Tara at some time during the 40 year reign of
King Ollamh
Fodhla, which they claim was between
1317 and 1277
BC.
As many who have visited the Hill of Tara will know, strong
traces of what many believe are the remains of the foundations of "
The Great
Banqueting Hall" associated with the triennial meetings used - primarily it
seems - for updating and maintaining Brehon Law, can easily be seen on top of
the Hill of Tara; and, it really does seem to have been "Great" in terms of size
at least - as can be judged from the photograph at the following location:
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/32463
.
One of the several problems with digging things up around the
Hill of Tara at the present time is that there are many valuable Brehon Law
documents which remain untranscribed in places such as the
British
Museum, the
Bodleian Library (Oxford University, England), and
Trinity College, Dublin. Among other things, some of these documents may
contain direct references to the Hill of Tara which nobody doing the digging
around Tara at the present time knows anything about. All things considered, and
for whatever reason, there appears to be an amazing lack of "joined-up" thinking
between the historians and the archaeologists who are at present directly
involved in the excavations near Tara.
One other point about Brehon
Law which is not as well known as it might be perhaps, is that in terms of
producing and sustaining social justice, and the genuine peace associated with a
high-quality social justice system, Brehon Law seems to have been many times
more efficient than Roman Law. For example, Brehon Law does not appear to have
relied to any great extent (if at all) on such things as police, prisons,
lawyers, and politicians - certainly not to anything remotely like today's
situation. The reason for this appears to be simple: Brehon law was widely
accepted by the vast majority of Irish people, and deeply appreciated by the
vast majority of them - so much so that the judges ("brehons") were easily able
to deal satisfactorily with most crimes and disputes by applying fines (called
"erics") where appropriate, which were very finely tuned to "make the punishment
fit the crime", and which took full account of both the perpetrators' and the
victims' social status and circumstances.
Last, but not least,
there is the almost completely forgotten matter of the
Celtic Christians,
who are sometimes referred to by such names as "
Ceile De" (roughly
meaning "
Partners of God" in the Irish language), and by other anglicized
versions of these two Celtic words such as "
Culdees", "
Colidei",
and so on. Unfortunately, when Brehon Law was stamped out, the Celtic Christians
were stamped out with it - as were their monasteries. One of several sad and
regrettable aspects of this is that it was the Celtic Christian monks who were
responsible for the fabulous works of art produced during the so called
Dark
Ages in Europe. Such items included "
The Book of Kells", for example,
and a sample page from this particular work can be viewed at the following
address:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/protest/nov21_stone.htm#bmkells
.
Clonmacnoise, founded in
548 AD, and destroyed
(almost completely) in
1552 AD, was probably the most famous of the
Celtic Christian monasteries to be very deliberately "decommissioned" in order
to make room for Roman Law in Ireland; and, many might strongly argue that
Clonmacnoise was the first major Christian university in the world - not least
because of the fact that many members of its student population in the first
millennium AD came for countries all over Europe, and some from as far away as
present day
Russia it is believed.
For anyone interested, a
copy of the full text of the e-mail sent yesterday to the European Union and
Council of Europe officials, and to
16 Irish MEPs (Members of the
European Parliament), can be seen at the following address:
http://www.europeancourtofhumanrightswilliamfinnerty.com/Politicians/EuropeanUnion29August2006/Email.htm It
is my hope that the senior public officials working in
Strasbourg and
Brussels might now show more respect and more regard for the Hill of Tara
than our own senior public officials here in Ireland are doing. I further hope
the officials in Strasbourg and Brussels will assume, until (and if) someone
proves otherwise, that the authors of the "Annals of Ireland by the Four
Masters" got things right: and that The Great Banqueting Hall on top of the Hill
of Tara really was
the birthplace of Brehon Law (sometime around 1300
B.C.) - in addition to being its "home-base" for several centuries
afterwards.
Related Link:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74630#comment141435 ======================================
The
above text has been copied from the following
Indymedia (Ireland)
location:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78059?comment_limit=0&condense_comments=false#comment165178 .
