Gaelic justice was advanced

High attendance at Saturday's St. Pat's parade underscored Americans' love affair with all things Irish.

These days we love 'em for a stereotypical sense of fun, emerald green shamrocks, questionable luck, and yes - Guinness. But the Irish hold my highest esteem for a little known fact of their pre-Christian, pre-English, Gaelic culture: equality of women.

Centuries before the English invasions forced changes, when the majority in Ireland believed in a different form of spirituality and intricate system of justice, women had power. They were even clan chieftains, although only one was a high king.

Irish women of old could aspire to almost any profession. They were lawyers, doctors, poets, church leaders, and judges. One judge named Br'g Bruigaid famously and publicly corrected a male judge's decision on women's rights. Women shared real authority.

Called the Brehon laws, the system was first codified in A.D. 438 and according to historians, a remarkably advanced system for its time. By the seventh century and partly revealed through a legal textbook written by a well known lady lawyer named Dar-i, the Brehon system assigned both defense and prosecution government lawyers. Each had rights of inquiry, there were rules of evidence remarkably not one-sided, and judges seemed to at least attempt to decide based upon those rules and the weight of evidence.

This is a very different picture than what existed in much of the rest of Europe at the time, despite Europe's self-described reputation as more "advanced."

These ancient Irish are often called Celts, although that's a misnomer. The term "Celtic" was first used in the English language in the 1700s and was later popularized to lift the Irish made miserable after the famine and violent English takeover. The word "Celtic" comes from the Greek "Keltoi," used to describe the people who lived to the north of Greece. Later Julius Caesar used "Celtae" to describe the combined languages of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

As so often happens, history is written by the victor."People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors."

-Edmund Burke

Sholeh Patrick is an attorney and columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Erin go bragh! E-mail her at sholehjo@hotmail.com.