Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Sex and Marriage in Ancient Irelandby Patrick C. Power
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Even if the Claddagh Ring is from the medieval or later period of Irish History, the copy I had has a slightly different cover, what's between the covers is excellent and should be compulsary reading for writers writing about Celtic Ireland, pre-imposition of English Law. Power makes this quite readable and includes occasional side-swipes at modern laws and how he finds that the Brehon rulings are much more civilised and at least once he bemoans the fact that we didn't return to them when we achieved indpendence (though the Irish Civil War may have been instrumental in disrupting plans like that.) Marriage in Ireland was a fluid concept with a variety of forms, from temporary to more permanent, though all could be finished with a divorce and what a woman brought into a relationship and the fruits of her labours were part of the settlement when seperation occured. It's an interesting read, and as I said, should be compulsary for all authors who write romances set in Ireland in the pre-English Law period, Roman law is largely not applicable here. There was some inspiration took from some Roman law about property when Christianity entered the country but largely it wasn't used. This is a fascinating history of what laws existed in Ireland before they were changed by the church (and as they were changed by the church). The most interesting point is that laws regarding sex, marriage, etc. used to be very equivical, fair, and even "up to date" before Christianity. The laws changed as Christian morals were imposed (and they would change furthur in the future as the church zeroed in until they got the out of date laws like "no divorces" that are only now being remedied). no reviews | add a review
The Norman king, Henry II, came to Ireland in the 12th century with the intention of converting the Irish to the True Faith. What type of society had he come to convert? The outside accepted view was that Irish people were near-savages and that their marriage customs caused them to be regarded as incestuous, so that the invasion, in the eyes of the invaders, was in the nature of God's work, to redeem the people from their abominations and iniquities. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and InstitutionsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
Historians should be as wary of wishful thinking as they are of superimposing modern values onto ancient times, just as they should be aware that there is a difference between ideology and practice. That said, there can be no doubt that ancient Ireland possessed a far more egalitarian legal system, as it concerned women, than any other European culture of the time. Sex and Marriage in Ancient Ireland delves into issues such as property, divorce, and spousal abuse, and the modern reader might be somewhat surprised at the ways these issues were handled.
I found Power's small book quite informative, so far as it went, but finished it with the conviction that I would need to find a work that provided a much fuller account of women in ancient Irish society. And, as always, I cannot help but wish that there were a comprehensive history of the Brehon Laws available for the reader who is not a legal specialist. ( )