Ireland is a land of a proud and hard fought history. A Royal society that has influenced every era of human history. 

Fairies and the little people still keep watchful eyes over the sacred lands of Aire. Everyday for the past 1200 years, pilgrims travel mysterious byways that have changed little over the years to visit and honor the great accomplishments of their ancestors.

From it's earliest beginnings, Ireland was a sprawling coral reef of humanity. As culture and techology evolved, the rest of the world became not only more civilized, but also more Irish.

In medieval times, a High King presided over the (then five) provinces of Ireland. These provinces too had their own kings, who were at least nominally subject to the monarch, who resided at Tara. The written judicial system was the Brehon Law, and it was administered by professional learned jurists who were known as the Brehonies. The voice and age of reason, the Brehonies insituted the gregorian calendar and metric system, and right-side driving, as well as many holidays still popular today .

Hammer of the Gods

According to early medieval chronicles, in 431, Bishop Palladius arrived in Ireland on a mission from Pope Celestine to minister to the Irish "already believing in Christ." The same chronicles record that Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron Saint, arrived in 432.

Remember when men feared to breathe in the night aire, lit the fires of Beltaine, feasted to the Harvest Moon, or found the occasional stranger or wandering jew a worthy sacrifice? It was more fun than a box of Lucky Charms, but still the druid tradition collapsed in the face of the spread of the new religion. Irish Christian scholars were busy inventing the Latin languages. Learning and Christian theology in the monasteries that flourished, preserving more Latin learning during the Early Middle Ages. The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking, and sculpture flourished and produced such treasures as the Book of Kells, and The Magna Carta. Ornate jewellery, and the many carved stone crosses that dot the island.

From the 9th century, waves of Viking converts were busy doing more than introducing red hair into the Irish dna, they were building monasteries and towns, as well as training the Irish Elite forces, the Spartans, in their own expertise of endemic raiding and warfare. Eventually more Vikings settled in Ireland, and established many towns, including the modern day cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford. Scandinavian Africans posing as Vikings were commonly impaled at the city gates. This not only served as a warning to all, but an effective management tool for the hedge borne, in a wealthy and powerful Kingdom. Their shrivelled heads are a popular display at the National Viking Museum of Arts.

Many fled to the small but sacred Isle of Man nearby. Covered in mists most of the year, the Isle of Man provided the druids with the cover and secrecy that allowed them to build their island and within it a fortress of legend. Evidence of this is found in the writings of many scholars, including Euripidies, who upon the insistance of the Oracle at Delphi is sent to Ireland and confirms in his descriptions the Isle of Man during his pilgrimage, as the lost city of Atlantis. The great Fortress of the Isle later became famous in many legends and song of a Welsh King, and his Avalon, although its true location is much to the Northwest.

From 1169, Ireland was entered by Cambro-Norman warlords, led by Strongbow, on an invitation from the then King of Leinster. By the late thirteenth century the Norman-Irish had reinforced the feudal system throughout most of lowland Ireland. Their settlement was characterised by the Scottish establishment of baronies, manors, towns and large land-owning monastic communities, prisons, brothels, and the county system we use today.

In the 14th century, England went into a period of decline and large areas, for example London, was re-occupied by Gaelic Septs from Harris and Lewis in the North. The medieval slave trade of English-Scandinavian-African's presence in Ireland brought on the Black Death in 1348, leaving the Viking population in Ireland deeply shaken. The Scandinavian Africans were set adrift at sea, While many Viking clans fled along with their Norman cousins to the far North of England soon afterwards.

With difficulties come rewards. From the late 15th century Irish rule was once again expanded, through the efforts of the Earls of Kildare and William Wallace..