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Understanding the Irish to Understand Samhain (SAH-win, SOW-win)
Understanding the Irish to Understand Samhain (SAH-win, SOW-win)
Before someone can understand the Celtic festival of Samhain (SAH-win, sometimes pronounced SOW-win), they first need to understand the older cultures that gave birth to it — and left their fingerprints on its traditions.
While Roman cultural influences did reach Ireland, it's important to note that the Romans never invaded Ireland, unlike Britain. As a result, most Irish people do not carry Latin or Roman DNA, which is more commonly found in English populations. The Irish were influenced by Roman culture, but not genetically descended from Romans.
Understanding who the Irish are — and where they came from — requires the expertise of many fields, including:
Population geneticists (who study DNA from ancient burials and modern people to unlock history from before writing),
Archaeologists (who study the physical remains left behind by past peoples),
Historians (who analyze varying and contradictory written records of the past to determine those details corroborated between them or otherwise supported by physical evidence, discounting evidence of strong opinion or bias or exaggeration and considering the historical context of every event),
Linguists (who study how spoken and written languages evolve and how they relate to one another), and
Cultural anthropologists (ethnographers and ethnologists), and folklorists ( who study the beliefs, stories, customs, and traditions of different groups of people—especially those passed down by word of mouth from long ago, even before Jewish or Christian [Judeo-Christian] influence; they do this by spending time with the people they study [called participant observation] and writing about what they learn: (a) An ethnography is a report about one group of people based on what the researcher sees, hears, and learns by asking questions, and (b) An ethnology compares two or more of these reports to look at how the groups are similar or different)
For much of the 20th century (1900s CE/AD), the origins of the Irish people remained a mystery. But thanks to:
advances in genetic science;
the discovery of new burials and artifacts;
reinterpretation of previously discovered burials and artifacts with new technology;
comparative analysis of mythologies and annalistic [historical] records, ethnologies, and folklore; and
improved research technologies,
we are now gaining a clearer picture of Ireland’s deep ancestral past.
It's only in first understanding that deep history that we are able to truly understand Samhain (SAW-win or SOW-win) and its folk traditions, as handed down by the Irish Celts (but previously influenced by the Romans in the British Isles), and then changed by the Catholic Christians and later Victorian Spiritualists that we can truly understand Halloween and its traditions.
Section Introduction: Who were the Irish?
Section Introduction: Who were the Irish?
Introduction: The “Native" , “Dark" Irish
Introduction: The “Native" , “Dark" Irish
Fir Bolg & Fomarian (1/3)*
Introduction: The Invaders
Introduction: The Invaders
Tuatha & Milesian Celtic Invasions (2/3)*
Vikings Invasion (3/3)*
The first third of what we call “native" Irish DNA—the oldest kind—comes from two main groups:
The Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers came to Ireland about 10,000 years ago (8,000 BCE/BC). They were the only people living on the island for about 3,000 years.
The Early European Farmers came later, around 7,000 to 6,000 years ago (5-4,000 BCE/BC). They were mostly from the south of Europe. These farmers quickly took over and mixed with the hunter-gatherers. They ruled Ireland for about 2,000 years, until the first Celtic groups arrived and pushed them out too.
We call both the hunter-gatherers and early farmers together the “Dark, native Irish." That’s because Irish myths and stories often talk about them in a mean or hostile way, like they were strange or dangerous outsiders—even though they were the island’s first real people.
To learn more about these groups, click the link below.
The second third of Irish DNA comes from two separate waves of invaders who crossed the English Channel from what is now France to England and across land and Scotland into Ireland, both. These people had pale skin (Caucasian or pale-skinned people who appeared about 12,000 years ago in the Caucasus Mountains of Central Asia) and spoke Indo-European languages (a group of ancient languages that later became many of the languages in Europe and South Asia).
These Indo-Europeans were Celtic (say it KEL-tick, not CELL-tik).
The first wave arrived around 3,000 BCE (about 5,000 years ago).
The second wave came around 1,000 BCE (about 3,000 years ago).
These two groups quickly mixed and had children together, becoming one people as they were from the same culture and spoke the same language(s). They also replaced most of the earlier, darker-skinned native Irish within just a few generations (more on that on The Invaders page).
For this website, we call this second third of Irish DNA: The (Celtic) Invaders.
Radiant Tuatha & Milesian Invaders (1/3)*
The last third of Irish DNA comes from the Viking invasions during the Dark Ages—almost 2,000 years after the last Celtic groups arrived in Ireland.
The Vikings came from Scandinavia—the northern lands we now call Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Their languages came from an older group called Germanic languages.
Long before they became Vikings, their ancestors had moved north from mainland Europe between 1500 and 500 BCE. In the Norse Bronze Age, their population grew because of farming. But there wasn't enough good farmland (called arable land), and their leaders (called competitive chieftainships) began to fight each other to gain more power, land, and treasure.
This led to the rise of raiding culture—where they attacked other places by sea to steal and get rich. Their raids — called ransacking (sacking for short) — often meant:
Killing the men
Raping the women
Taking children as slaves
Stealing gold, silver, and anything valuable
They invaded Ireland because of these pressures and to gain wealth and land.
For this website, we call this last third of Irish DNA the the (Norse or Viking) Invaders.
Nose/Viking Invaders (1/3)*
To learn more about the “native" Irish, the two different cultures that invaded (both Celtic waves, and the Viking or Norse invaders), and the invaders of England in the Romans who influenced our traditions, continue reading, and the navigation at the bottom of the page (or Table of Contents on each page like a site map) will acquaint you with what we know about Halloween.
*DISCLAIMER: Interpretive Mythology & Migration Theory
*DISCLAIMER: Interpretive Mythology & Migration Theory
This section draws on the idea that Irish mythology, though symbolic and mythological, may reflect actual prehistoric migrations.
While these associations are interpretive and not entirely proven through archaeology, many folklorists and cultural anthropologists believe that works like the Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of Invasions, LYEV-ur guh-BAWL-uh AIR-en or LYEV-ur guh-BAWL-uh EH-ren) encode collective cultural memory of real population shifts (Irish prehistory, or the time before the Irish kept written records).
These figures—Fir Bolg, Fomorians, Tuatha Dé Danann, and Milesians—are mythological, but may correspond to remembered or reimagined prehistoric groups.
For further reading:
- Lebor Gabála Érenn – Wikipedia Overview👈
- Mythological Cycle – Irish Euhemerism👈
- John Carey’s The Irish National Origin-Legend: Synthetic Pseudohistory👈
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