Coming of Age in Irish Culture

Is breá an rud an óige ach í a cheansú.

Youth is a fine thing, if it is tamed.[1]

Coming of Age in Medieval Ireland

In traditional Irish society, a person's status at birth determined his or her path in life. Children born to slaves and farmers learned what they needed to work land and raise children of their own. Members of the upper classes studied trades, entered the clergy, or became warriors, mothers, and leaders. Ruling families elected heirs among themselves in a system known as tanistry.[2][3]

Fosterage in Ireland

Under the fosterage system, Irish children were often sent away to be raised by another family. This was especially important among the nobility, who relied on close family ties to maintain their power. Artisans, doctors, and scholars also fostered children as apprentices. Girls remained with their foster family until they reached marrying age at 14; boys stayed until maturity at 17.[5] Because so many children grew up away from home, medieval Brehon Laws paid particular attention to their rights and welfare.[6]

Irish Youth and Emigration

Over time, land inheritance became a pressing problem for Ireland's youth. Penal Laws imposed by the British government required Catholic tenants and landowners to divide their lands equally among their sons. As the population grew, each new generation of Irish farmers inherited a smaller plot of land to live on.[7] While some found employment on Anglo-Irish estates, others left to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The main wave of Irish emigrants began in the 18th century and peaked in the 19th and 20th.

These modern emigrants were hardly the first of their kind. Young men had left the island routinely for hundreds of years beforehand. First they set sail as monks, then as mercenaries in foreign wars, and last as laborers in Europe and America. The millions swept up in the Irish diaspora were the latest in a long line of emigrants.[8][9]

Growing Up in Modern Ireland

The families who remained in Ireland chose sides in a long-standing conflict over religion and English rule. While many led relatively normal lives, some took leading roles in the independence movement. After Ireland’s independence, the island was divided between two nations. The Troubles, a religious and political conflict in Ireland and Northern Ireland, shaped the early lives of many modern Irish people. Today, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland work together to emphasize tolerance and a strong education for Irish children.[10]

Bibliography

1. "Proverbs for BBC Irish," BBC News, BBC, accessed February 28, 2017.

2. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Early Medieval Ireland, 400-1200 (London: Longman, 1995).

3. Patrick W. Joyce, A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland (London, NY, and Bombay: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1906), 22-23.

4. Fergus Kelly, "Cattle in Ancient Ireland: Early Irish Legal Aspects" in Cattle in Ancient and Modern Ireland: Farming Practices, Environment and Economy, ed. Michael O'Connell, Fergus Kelly, and James H. McAdam (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2016), 44-50.

5. Patrick W. Joyce, A Social History of Ancient Ireland, Volume 2 (Dublin: Gresham, 1903), 13-19.

6. Seán Duffy, Ailbhe MacShamhráin, and James Moynes, eds., _Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia _(New York: Routledge, 2005), 10-16.

7. Henry Parnell, A History of the Penal Laws Against the Irish Catholics from the Year 1689 to the Union (London: Printed for Longman, 1825), appendix x-xi.

8. John O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees (Dublin: J. Duffy and Sons, 1887), 608-609.

9. Kevin O'Neill, Family and Farm in Pre-Famine Ireland: The Parish of Killashandra (Madison, WI: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1984), 121-122.

10. Joshua Hammer, "In Northern Ireland, Getting Past the Troubles," Smithsonian, March 01, 2009, Smithsonian Institution, accessed February 24, 2017.

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Traditions of the Ancestors

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