Copyright © 1993 John Kellnhauser/Cainteanna na Luise
May be reposted as long as the above attribution and copyright notice are retained
Note: this summary is concerned primarily with human druidism, the Great Schism and the Withdrawl of the Sidhe, and the first entries are included simply as way of introduction.
First Invasion: the Firbolg arrive and rule Ireland.
Second Invasion: the Tuatha D‚ Danann arrive, defeat the Firbolg but allow them to remain in Ireland. The foreign Fomor attempt to seize control but are defeated and destroyed by the Tuatha D‚ Danann, who then continue to rule unopposed for many centuries.
Third (and binding) Invasion: Amhairghin Gl£ingeal, a mortal poet-druid, arrives with his clanns, "The men of Mil", challenges the present Tuatha De Danann for the sovereignty of Ireland, and wins. While undeniably the most powerful mortal druid to ever exist (he dissolves the "magical mists of invisiblity" to call forth Ireland from where the Tuatha D‚ Danann have hidden it, a feat of power never afterward equalled), he succeeds in part because od shrewdly arriving when the High Lords of the Tuatha D‚ Danann are temporarily absent and Ireland is ruled by a triumvirate, no present lord having sufficent power to do so alone. Shortly afterward, when the Tuatha D‚ Danann "big guys" return, it is too late since not only has Amhairghin defeated the "lesser fry" but has secured their ritual oaths that Ireland will remain his. Relationships between the Tuatha D‚ Danann, the lesser Sidhe, and the remaining Firbolg with mortals remain strong and there is frequent interaction between mortals and the magical races.
200 BCE to 200 AD The most powerful druids, such as Cathbhadh, are attached to the royal courts and in Munster a druid, C£Ro¡ attains the kingship of Munster, the only example of a druid being also a king. However, while interaction between the Tuatha D‚ Danann and mortals remains generally on a fairly good basis, the gap between them widens greatly as humans become more envolved in mortal politics (this is the era of the T in B¢ Cuailgne, with the rest of Ireland aligned against Ulster) and many of the Sidhe, including most, but not all, of the high lords of the Tuatha D‚ Danann begin distancing themselves from mortal affairs. Individual mortals, themselves attched to the courts, however, remain on regular friendly terms with individual high lords.
200 - 300 AD Many druids have begun "following the Sidhe" away from the courts, while those druids remaining at the courts more and more neglect their duties toward the Otherworld and become involved in mortal politics. The Great Schism begins. The court druids become magically weaker, although the more magically powerful "wild" druids (so-named from living in the wilderness) remain "distant" friends of society and committed to its welfare. When Tara itself is attacked by one of rthe group of Sidhe now antagonistic to it, the high druid of Ireland and all of his followers are helpless and Fionn (better known as a warrior but in fact also a practicing druid) must be "called- in". Fionn saves the royal capital but then immediately returns to the wilderness. The Sidhe in general and Tuatha D‚ Danann distance themselves even further from society at large, although they remain on a friendly basis with both lone druids and with the Fianna or warrior bands only indirectly attached to the courts.
300-400 AD The schicism has now become complete. The most powerful druids with the true ancient tradition have removed themselves from all regular contact with the courts, the two groups of druids remain fuly separate. Wild druids may accept appendices on an individual basis, who remain apart from society once their training is completed. In some cases, such wild druids accept "consignments" from provincial kings, as does Mogh Ruith who agrees to defend Munster for its king only after the king has agreed to pay him and fully quarantee that Mogh Ruith's land and people will never be subject to the king's own dictates. Mogh Ruith easily defeats all of the assembled court druids of Ireland, demonstrating how badly the State Druidism has deteriorated. Only the lesser Sidhe remain interested in all mortal affairs, but the high lords of the Tuatha D‚ Danann have, like the wild druids, removed themselves from society at large, dealling only with outstanding specific individual mortals. Related to this is the rise of a new pagan cult devoted to Cromm Cruach, the traditional enemy of the Tuatha D‚ Danann, centred in what is now northwestern Leinster and which is the only verified Irish pagan path to employ human sacrifice.
400-500 AD A Welsh evangelicalist named Patrick arrives and contests with the court druids, Lonchru and Lucet Mael, winning out over them, and converting first the provincal courts and gradually much of the rest of Ireland to Christianity. In all reports of the contest the "arch- druids of all Ireland" are depicted as being unable to perform magic which was easily accomplished by ordinary druids centuries before (this is not Christian propaganda for the church retained the attitude of "the stronger our enemies, the stronger we are proven by defeating them"). The true, wild druids at first applaud his bring what they view as a corrupt instituton to an end and keep their distance from the new state Christian religion in the same way as they did from the old pagan one, but later discover the new faith's rabid intolerance for dissent and free thought far exceeds that of the old court druid system and severely limits their activities by actively attempting to hunt down and destroy them, while the pagan system had been content to allow them to practice as long as they kept their distance and did not middle in society.
500-600 AD Simultaneously two "neo-druidic" movements began in Ireland. Colmchille, a royal prince of Donegal and trained as a child as a druid converts to Christianity, attempts to create a synthesis between druidism and Christianity including such items as a respect for nature (he refuses to orientate the building of a new church according to the dictates of Rome in order to spare an oak grove and compared the sound of the woodsman's axe to a call from Hell). His efforts were defeated by rome and most of his theology was declared heresy. At nearly the same time Diarmaid MacCabeall (an actual foe of Colmchille), the high-king at Tara, re-introduces court druidism to the royal site and bans priests. He is likewise defeated, in this case by a coven of thirteen Christian priests all subsequently awarded sainthood by the church, who curse Tara with barrenness and end the last attempt to officially retaind druidism as a recognized public religion.
600-1100 AD Christianity gains almost total, at least official, dominance and the Irish paganism of the common people is diluted by Norse practices (which while alien have still more in common with the older Irish ways than either has with Christianity), but many Irish customs continue such as attendance at wells and pilgramages to hill-tops. Poets retain power nearly equal to that of bishops and the church prospers by adapting an outward "window dressings" of the older druidism resulting in a "Golden Age" which produces such masterpieces as the Book of Kells and the Tara Brooch. The church further feels it necessary to "repatriate" the pagan heroes and pseudo-seanchais (fake ancient texts) are produced inwhich the saints "recall" such people as C£chulainn and Fionn "from Hell", and pre-Patrick druids and high- kings clairvoyantly hear of the birth of Jesus and convert. Lebor Gab la, The Book of Invasions, is rewritten, adding spurious earlier invasions to nmake it accomidate Middle Eastern (i.e. Old Testement) mythology. The lesser Sidhe now too have distanced almost totally themselves from society although they frequently interact with individual humans.
1100-1300 AD The church triumphs. However, a moderate amount of older pagan ways survive. Poets still retain great power and are openly viewed as having the ability to perform magic. The Norman Invasion (1169) effects little as regards druidism because the "invaders" adopt the irish language and most native customs becoming "more Irish than the Irish" and extending their protection as patrons to the poets.
1300-1800 AD With the triumph of the English invaders the last vestages of Irish society are destroyed. Poets are harrassed and imprisoned. Queen Elizabeth orders harpers "hanged whenever found", and Irish children are severely beaten for speaking their own native language, in a deliberately campaign of cultural genocide exactly the same as that attempted against many New World Native tribes.
1800-1900 AD Simultaneously, centered in Ireland and Britain, two drastically different and totally incompatable "rebirths" of "druidism" occurred. In Britain, "druidic" orders were founded based loosely on already existing hermetic magical societies and incorporating imaginative (but now proven incorrect) archaeology and the writings of Julius Caesar and other anti-Celtic authors, the latter being rather like trying to construct a Judaism via the writings of Adolph Hitler. In Ireland itself, a study of druidism began, lead by Eugene O'Curry, based upon the actual Irish language texts. O'Curry argued as early as the 1850s that Irish druidism had nothing to do with pagan "priests" wearing white robes. At a time immediately after the famine (1846-1847 - a deliberate campaign of genocide by the English since Ireland's totally adequate non-potato food supplies were seized by the English and forcably removed to England) when Ireland was viewed by her English rulers as backward and barbaric, O'Curry's stance that the best evidence for Irish druids lay in native texts and not the far more modern inventions of Ireland's sworn enemies was herotic but fell largely on ears deaf outside of Ireland itself. During the next century, the British "druids" gained strength and became the precursors of most "neo-pagan" groups, while O'Curry remained largely, wilfully, ignored by all except Irish scholars themselves.
1900-date AD Particularly during the second half of the century, due to the successful resurgence of such pagan paths as Wicca, various "druid" groups continue to arise. Some of these are the hermetic groups of the previous century which have splintered into new groups either largely ceremonial tourist attractions or groups still committed to magic but which still incorporate additional elements of Wicca and the Occult into their framework. Others call themselves "reform" and proliferate into a mish-mash of "Jewish Druids", "Zen Druids", "Shaman Druids", etc., employing the name "druid" purely for "sales value" in a commercial attempt to gain followers and propogate their own totaly un-druidic views and practices in a movement less "neo- pagan" than it is "pop-pagan". At the same time, small group of researchers, descendants of O'Curry's approach, largely distance themselves from commercial pop- paganism and attempt to continue and further develope the tradition of the wild druids who left the courts, in effect re-inacting the Great Schism of sixteen centuries earlier! These latter begin an undertaking to lift the curses and Christian bindings on selected pagan sites and re-claim and re-activate them for druidism, receiving at least sporatically direct interventive help from the Sidhe.