Somehow "fair words and soft speech" produced a canon of ancient Irish laws, some dating back 3,000 years, that are so practical they should be reconsidered again today. They were not the brutal imperious laws of Hammurabi who demanded an eye for an eye, but they were severe enough to be a strong deterrent.

These were the Brehon Laws, and up until Queen Elizabeth had had it up to her crown with anything Irish, they were the laws the Irish people had been living with since long before Julius Caesar.

Irish Law was practical, "down home" law and Elizabeth had it banned. English common law was substituted and that was the end of Gaelic order, which as far as I can determine, was far superior to anything the English offered, and from a practical point of view seems superior to anything we have going for us today. Even Ireland's enemies, if there are any left, love Ireland's old simple justice.

Old Irish Laws

"When you become old your family must provide you with one oatcake a day, plus a container of sour milk. They must bathe you every twentieth night and wash your head every Saturday. Seventeen sticks of firewood is the allotment for keeping you warm."

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"February first is the day on which husband or wife may decide to walk away from the marriage." (Divorce was legal in Ireland until the twelfth century.)

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"If the doctor heals your wounds, but it breaks out anew because of his carelessness, neglect or gross want of skill, he must return the fee you paid. He must also pay you damages as if he himself had wounded you."

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"If an accident occurs while a building is under construction no fine is due for injury to the bystander who is present only out of curiosity. Should the owner of the building have knowledge of danger or defect, however, full payment shall be made to those present on legitimate business, and to beasts. But only half payment to idlers."

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"No fools, drunks or female scolds are allowed in the doctor's house when a patient is healing there. No bad news to be brought, and no talking across the bed. No grunting of pigs or barking of dogs outside."

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"Children shall be sent at an early age to distant members of the tribe to be reared in the hereditary professions of law, medicine, poetic composition or war, or of tilling the soil and wifeliness. Foster children shall be returned to their parents at the age of marriage: fourteen for girls and seventeen for boys."

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"If a woman makes an assignation with a man to come to her in a bed or behind a bush, the man is not guilty even if she screams. If she has not agreed to a meeting, however, he is guilty as soon as she screams."

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"The husband-to-be shall pay a bride-price of land, cattle, horses, gold or silver to the father of the bride. Husband and wife retain individual rights to all the land, flocks and household goods each brings to the marriage."


Some of these old laws were discovered in a book by Mary Dowling Daley -
"Irish Laws."