Unit Three Section I: Religion: The Irish Experience
Part three: Christianity in Ireland
Topic 3.2 Religion, Spirituality and land
Procedure
Brainstorm students on the meaning of the word ‘sacredness’.
Take feedback and refer to Section A part 2.2 The Tradition of Response (evidence of religious and spiritual behaviour in ancient societies, and the sense of the sacred in contemporary culture).
Explain that sacredness refers to a person, object or place that is set apart as the object of veneration or awe (sacred comes from the Latin word “sacer” meaning set apart or restricted). Sacred places are associated with God/gods or mysterious power. The sacred is always manifested as something different from the profane or normal reality. The supernatural or spiritual reality is said to manifest itself in the sacred.
Discuss: Why has land been at the heart of many disputes in Ireland when the landowner dies?
Take feedback and explain to students that land has been the source of power and wealth in Ireland since ancient times. As well as being the physical necessity for provision of crops and livestock it is deeply embedded in the Irish psyche as a symbol of family belonging and roots. People depended on the land for survival – poor land could mean poverty and starvation. Thus in ancient Ireland some pagan rites and festivals celebrated the fertility of the land and sacrifices were made to ensure the continued fertility of the land. The land in Ireland belonged to the “derbfine” and was considered a sacred inheritance and land ownership was usually kept within the derbfine.
Recall students’ knowledge of Junior Certificate History material on ancient Ireland.
Question: What was a ‘tuath’?
Take feedback and conclude that a tuath meant “a people” and it referred to the basic political unit in early Ireland (approximately 5th century). There were about 150 tuath or independent kingdoms, and the population of the country was about half a million. Sometimes tuatha joined together to form more powerful local kingdoms, ruled by more powerful over- kings. These larger groups formed provincial kingdoms under superior kings. The major kingdoms were ruled by the northern Uí Néill, the Airgialla, the Ulaid, the Connachta, the southern Uí Néill, the Laigin and the Eóganachta. A local king was called a rí but he had very little power. He could not be a judge of his people and could not enact laws. He led the people at war time and had some recognition as a sacred person. Certain taboos were associated with the rí. He had to be accompanied by an appropriate retinue and could not use implements that were considered degrading. For the king of Tara it was taboo to be in bed after dawn when near Tara or and to break his journey when passing through the plain of Breaga (Co. Meath). It was seen as lucky for him to eat fish from the river Boyle and bilberries from a place near Ardagh. The people gathered to watch the inauguration ceremony of the king. The local goddess was represented by a mare, with whom the king-elect mated in public. The mare was then killed, dismembered and boiled. Her flesh was eaten by all present and the king bathed in her broth. Thus pagan religious beliefs and practices were common at the inauguration of early Irish kings. Early Christians tried to have such rites and rituals abolished. Attempts were made to Christianise the inauguration of kings. Colum cille ordained kings when he anointed Aedán mac Gabráin as king of Dál Riata in Iona in 573. However, the “banais ríg” (initiation rite), the wedding of the king (symbolic marriage of the king and the goddess of the land/fertility), persisted for many centuries despite the efforts to Christianise it. The king and goddess would give birth not to a child but to a fruitful harvest. It was commonly believed that the fertility of the land within a kingdom was linked to the righteousness of the ruler, and the king’s inauguration was linked to the future fertility of the land. The king had to be a person of integrity, honesty and justice as well as possessing other noble qualities in order to prove himself acceptable to the goddess of fertility. The wealth and survival of the entire kingdom depended on this symbolic union of king and goddess. A king who was righteous and good would be rewarded by the goddess by her blessing of the land through its fertility. A king who proved himself unworthy of the goddess, unjust or dishonest could cause certain famine or drought and ultimately the death of the tuatha. Thus the bainis rí was a reminder to all of the sacredness of the land in early Ireland.
(Adapted from Religion: The Irish Experience, J.R. Walsh, Veritas, p49-51))
Reading suggested by teachers: Where Three Streams Meet. Celtic Spirituality – Seán Ó Duinn
Locate Israel on a map and recall students’ knowledge from Junior Certificate R.E. about the geography and historical background of the Holy Land (Section B), and (Section C) the historical and geographical background to life at the time of the foundation of a Major world Religion (Judaism).
Reading suggested by teachers - Religion: The Irish Experience – J.R. Walsh, Veritas, p51-54
Explain to students that throughout the history of Judaism there has been a recurring theme of having to leave the land due to famine, drought or oppression and be exiled in another place. At the beginning of Judaism Abraham was called by Yahweh out of Ur in Mesopotamia and asked to lead his people to the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. The nomads were asked to worship Yahweh in return for this great promise (Gen 15:7). Deuteronomy 26: 5-9 recalls how the Hebrews were kept as slaves in Egypt and how they implored the help of Yahweh to deliver them from this foreign land. Thus began the Exodus journey from Egypt, across the desert wilderness into the land of Canaan. The Book of Joshua 21:43-45 tells of the peoples’ entry into Canaan glorifying Yahweh for his intervention. The Hebrews had been promised the inheritance of this land in return for their loyalty and worship of Yahweh. The story of them worshipping the golden calf in the Book of Exodus shows that the people struggled to remain faithful to their promise. Leviticus 25:23 reminds us that the land still belonged to Yahweh, and the Hebrews would be as custodians on the land. Joshua 22:19 tells us that the true king was Yahweh and that the land was his domain. Therefore the people had no right to sell it. God’s ownership of the land resulted in early religious Jewish laws limiting the rights of human occupants. Deut 23:25-26 said that the wayfarer had a right to satisfy his hunger by consuming the grain in the field as he passed by. Leviticus 25:23 allowed land that had been alienated to be returned to its original owners in a Jubilee year (every 50th year) Prophets condemned wealthy absentee landlords who controlled huge estates of land (Isaiah 5:8 and Micah 2:2). The practice of letting of lands to tenants later emerged.
The land provided a livelihood for many people. Fishermen earned their living from the Sea of Galilee. We read of shepherds minding their sheep in the hills. The land also supported camels, donkeys, goats, vines, fig trees, mustard plants lilies, darnel, manure and topsoil. Farmers were at the mercy of the weather, prices and inflation and had to pay high taxes to the religious and civil authorities. Others earned a feeble existence as day labourers and servants. Jesus used much agrarian imagery in his parables – eg. The Wicked Tenants (Mk 12: 1-2), based on Isaiah 5:1-7 in which Israel is symbolised by the Lord’s vineyard. In this parable, the vineyard (the kingdom of Israel) will be transferred to other tenants (Jews and Gentiles) and that the Promised Land in no longer just Palestine and that the Chosen People are no longer just the People of Israel but all of humanity who believe in Jesus Christ.
(Adapted from Religion: The Irish Experience, J.R. Walsh, Veritas, p49-54)
Brainstorm the word ‘plantation’.
Recall students’ knowledge of the plantations from their Junior Certificate history course.
Take feedback and explain that plantations were systematically organised attempts by the British Government to gain control over Ireland by ‘planting’ different areas of the country in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with English and Scottish settlers who would be loyal to the English Crown. Since the native Irish were distrusted by the British monarchy their loyalty to Britain could not be secured. Thus the new settlers were granted large areas of land for small rents and in return they pledged their loyalty to Britain and encouraged the spread of the English language, the Protestant faith, British law and customs and British farming methods. They were discouraged from marrying the native Irish so that eventually British rule would remain strong and would not be watered down through intermarriage. Settlers were frequently attacked by the native Irish who had been driven off their lands and many returned home to Britain. This led to the failure of the first plantation in Laois and Offaly. The next plantation happened in Munster under Queen Elizabeth 1. English settlers (“undertakers”) undertook to introduce the English way of life and the protestant faith into the area. This meant that the land was confiscated from the native Irish who were Catholics. The result was that future land ownership would be linked to Protestant religious affiliation whereas Catholicism became linked to dispossession and poverty.
The most successful plantation was the Ulster plantation under King James 1, 1609. After the Flight of the Earls Ulster was without a leader and was therefore a prime location for plantation. Six counties were successfully planted. The new English and Scottish settlers built new towns and large stone enclosures (bawns) as fortifications to prevent the vicious attacks from the native Irish. The fertile land of the six counties now belonged to the British and Scottish and before long religious affiliation to the Protestant faith outnumbered Catholic dwellers. Thus the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian faith grew in strength. The Catholic minority resented this dispossession and engaged in prolonged hostilities with the Protestant settlers.
In 1649 Cromwell was responsible for banishing the remaining native Irish landowners to Connaught – land that was poor, rocky and had poor fertility. Thus came the expression “to hell or to Connaught”. This was soon the only part of Ireland where Catholics were allowed to own land. Laws were passed to limit the property rights of Catholics. Land ownership among the Catholic population fell from 22% in 1688 to 5% in 1778. Thus it became almost impossible to be Catholic and to own land in Ireland in the late seventeenth century. The Penal Laws in the 1700s cemented the control of the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, depriving Catholics of land ownership, education, political power and religious freedom. The presence of Mass-rocks and hedge-school sites in Ireland today is evidence of the determination of the Catholic Irish population to resist attempts to oppress and dis-empower them. The fact that Mass had to be celebrated in movable locations created a stronger bond between the Church and the dispossessed Catholic Irish who also had no real fixed abode.
Questions:
1. How might you have felt as a Scottish settler coming to live on confiscated lands in Ulster during the plantation?
2. How might you have felt as a dispossessed Catholic landowner during the plantation?
3. What was the result of the policy of plantation on the relationship between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
Questions:
1. Describe a time when you accidentally lost something of value to you. How did you feel?
2. Have you ever had something precious taken away from you deliberately? How did you feel? Was your reaction exactly the same as in question 1? Why / not?
Take feedback and explain that when something precious is taken away from us, and for an unjustified reason, we can feel a range of emotions such as sadness, loss, abandonment, disappointment and anger. We often want to retaliate and fight for what we feel was rightfully ours.
In the eighteenth century only about 5% of people in Ireland owned land. There was no real upper class of Catholics any more. Catholicism became synonymous with poverty and the lowest social class, lack of political power, subjection to the Protestant elite, and lack of education. Many sons of the dispossessed Catholic gentry went on the join the priesthood or else serve in the military. Political power was reserved only for those who were land owners. This meant that Protestantism was synonymous with political power, wealth, education and social respect. Protestants were viewed as the alien, colonial power who had acted unjustly. Huge social differences therefore emerged between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics felt angry not just for the way in which they had been dispossesses by the British monarchy but also because the burden of taxation fell on them, and their taxes were upholding the social exclusivity of the Protestant ascendancy. Protestant religious identity was equated with land ownership. Catholic religious identity was equated with landlessness. Many dispossessed Catholic expressed their anger at the Protestant ascendancy through open hostility and revenge. The protestant ascendancy was suspicious of the Catholics and perceived them as a real threat to their power and wealth. These ongoing divisions and tensions have left an indelible mark on Irish history to this day. People’s national, social and cultural identity became bound up with their religious affiliation in Ireland. These identities would clash and inflict huge acts of destruction on each other in the centuries ahead. The Plantations symbolised a travesty of injustice, a widespread betrayal and a mighty act of dispossession and disempowerment by the British in the psyche of the Catholic Irish. Cultures and religious traditions continue to heal from those wounds to this day, especially in Northern Ireland.