The Brehons

[Milesian]

Some informative stuff here

A (much) smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland

1. The Brehon Laws

Law formed a most important factor both in public and private life in ancient Ireland. The native legal system, as briefly outlined in this chapter, existed in its fullness before the ninth century. It was somewhat disturbed by the Danish and Anglo-Norman invasions, and still more by the English settlement; but it continued in use till finally abolished in the beginning of the seventeenth century. In this short chapter I merely attempt a popular sketch of the main features of the Brehon laws, devoid of technical legal terms.

In Ireland a judge was called a brehon, whence the native Irish law is commonly known as the "Brehon Law": but its proper designation is Fénechas, i.e. the law of the Féine or Féne, or free land-tillers. The brehons had absolutely in their hands the interpretation of the laws and the application of them to individual cases. They were therefore a very influential class of men and those attached to chiefs had free lands for their maintenance, which, like the profession itself, remained in the same family for generations. Those not so attached lived simply on the fees of their profession, and many eminent brehons became wealthy. The legal rules, as set forth in the Law Books, were commonly very complicated and mixed up with a variety of' technical terms; and many forms had to be gone through and many circumstances taken into account, all legally essential: so that no outsider could hope to master their intricacies. The brehon had to be very careful; for he was himself liable for damages, besides forfeiting his fee, if he delivered a false or unjust judgement.

To become a brehon a person had to go through a regular, well-defined course of study and training. It would appear that the same course qualified for any branch of the legal profession, and that once a man had mastered the course he set up as a brehon or judge proper, a consulting lawyer, an advocate, or a law-agent. In very early times the brehon was regarded as a mysterious, half-inspired person, and a divine power kept watch over his pronouncements to punish him for unjust judgements : "When the brehons deviated from the truth, there appeared blotches upon their cheeks." The great brehon, Morann, son of Carbery Kinncat (king of Ireland in the first century), wore a sín [sheen] or collar round his neck, which tightened when he delivered a false judgement, and expanded again when he delivered the true one. All this agrees with the whole tenor of Irish literature, whether legendary, legal, or historical, which shows the great respect the Irish entertained for justice pure and simple according to law, and their horror of unjust decisions. It was the same at the most ancient period as it was in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Sir John Davies -an Englishman- the Irish attorney-general of James I., testified :-"For there is no nation of people under the sunne that doth love equall and indifferent [i.e. impartial] justice better then the Irish; or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it bee against themselves so as they may have the protection and benefit of the law, when uppon just cause they do desire it." But later on the Penal Laws changed all that, and turned the Irish natural love of justice into hatred and distrust of law, which in many ways continues to manifest itself to this day.



2. The Senchus Mor and other Books of Law

The brehons had collections of laws in volumes or tracts, all in the Irish language, by which they regulated their judgements, and which those of them who kept law-schools expounded to their scholars ; each tract treating of one subject or one group of subjects.

Many of these have been preserved, and of late years the most important have been published, with translations, forming five printed volumes (with a sixth consisting of a valuable Glossary to the preceding five).

Of the tracts contained in these volumes, the two largest and most important are the Senchus Mór [Shanahus More] and the Book of Acaill [Ack'ill]. In the ancient Introduction to the Senchus Mor the following account is given of its original compilation. In the year 438 A.D. a collection of the pagan laws was made at the request of St. Patrick; and Laegaire [Laery] King of Ireland, appointed a committee of nine learned and eminent persons, including himself and St. Patrick, to revise them. At the end of three years these nine produced a new code, from which everything that clashed with the Christian doctrine had been carefully excluded. This was the Senchus Mór.

The very book left by St. Patrick and the others has been long lost. Successive copies were made from time to time with commentaries and explanations appended, till the manuscripts we now possess were produced. The existing manuscript copies of the Senchus Mór consist

1) The original text, written in a large hand with wide spaces between the lines

2) An introduction to the text:

3) Commentaries on the text, in a smal1er hand

4) Glosses or explanations on words and phrases of the text, in a hand still smaller: commentaries and, glosses commonly written in the spaces between the lines of text, but often on the margins. Of these the text, as might be expected, is the most ancient.


The laws were written in the oldest dialect of the Irish language, called Bérla Féini [Bairla-faina] which even at the time was so difficult that persons about to become brehons had to be specially instructed in it. Even the authors of the Commentaries and Glosses who wrote hundreds of years ago, and were themselves learned brehons, were often quite at fault in their attempts to explain the archaic text: and their words show that they were fully conscious of the difficulty. It will then be readily understood that the task of translating these laws was a very difficult one, rendered all the more so by the number of technical terms and phrases, many of which are to this day obscure, as well as by the peculiar style, which is very elliptical and abrupt-often incomplete sentences, or mere catch-words of rules not written down in full, but held in memory by the experts of the time. Another circumstance that greatly adds to the difficulty of deciphering these mss. is the confused way in which the Commentaries and glosses are written in, mainly with the object of economising the expensive vellum. The explanatory note under fig. 31 will give some idea of this.

The two great Irish scholars-O'Donovan and O'Curry-who translated the laws included in the five printed volumes, were able to do so only after a life-long study ; and in numerous instances were, to the last, not quite sure of the meaning. As they had to retain the legal terms and the elliptical style, even the translation is hard enough to understand, and is often unintelligible. It is, moreover, imperfect for another reason: it was only a preliminary and provisional translation, containing many imperfections and errors, to be afterwards corrected ; but the translators did not live to revise it, and it was printed as they left it.



3. Suitability of the Brehon Laws

The Brehon Code forms a great body of civil, military, and criminal law. It regulates the various ranks of society, from the king down to the slave, and enumerates their several rights and privileges. There are minute rules for the management of property, for the several industries - building, brewing, mills, water-courses, fishing-weirs, bees and honey - for distress or seizure of goods, for tithes, trespass, and evidence. The relations of landlord and tenant, the fees of professional men - doctors, judges, teachers, builders, artificers, - the mutual duties of father and son, of foster-parents and foster-children, of master and servant, are all carefully regulated. In that portion corresponding to what is now known as criminal law, the various offences are minutely distinguished - murder, manslaughter, assaults, wounding, thefts, and all sorts of wilful damage ; and accidental injuries from flails, sledgehammers, machines, and weapons of all kinds ; and the amount of compensation is laid down in detail for almost every possible variety of injury.

The Brehon Law was vehemently condemned by English writers ; and in several acts of parliament it was made treason for the English settlers to use it. But these testimonies are to be received with much reserve as coming from prejudiced and interested parties. We have good reason to believe that the Brehon Law was very well suited to the society in which, and from which, it grew up. This view is confirmed by the well-known fact that when the English settlers living outside the Pale adopted the Irish manners and customs, they all, both high and low, abandoned their own law and adopted the Brehon Code, to which they became quite as much attached as the Irish themselves.