CHAPTER I

CIVILIZATION AND LEARNING IN IRELAND IN
PAGAN TIMES

The precise state of civilization and learning in Ireland in pre-Christian times is difficult to determine owing to the fact that there is no native contemporary evidence of a documentary nature, while the references in the works of foreign writers are few in number and generally vague in character. Fortunately, however, there are a few sources of information which have been made available by the laborious and scholarly researches of generations of investigators. The principal of these sources are:

  1. Archæology.
  2. The so-called Brehon Laws.
  3. Early Irish Literature.
  4. Foreign Testimony.
  5. Ogam Inscriptions.

A brief survey of the evidence supplied by each of these may be helpful in determining the nature and extent of Irish pagan culture.