by Luke Eastwood
Much has been written of the Druids and their knowledge and wisdom being an oral tradition that was carried down generations through schools and teachers of Druidism. While it is entirely true that the oral tradition was of primary importance, it is not the whole of the truth. In the post-Pagan era the Druids and Pagans generally have been portrayed as largely illiterate and uncomfortable or unconcerned with the written word. However, from my investigations and study over the last 30 years, I’ve concluded that this is not the case at all.
Julius Caesar noted (in his account Gallic Wars) that Gaulish Druids used Greek (in chapter 14, book 6) to write. Although it must be noted that Greece is rather far from Gaul, the Greek trading colony of Massalia (modern Marseille) was well established by the Greeks from the city of Phocaea by 600BCE. It is most likely that the Druids learned Greek and other popular languages (such as Latin or Akkadian) via entrants to Gauls first city, lying on the south-east coast of France.
There are various other indicators regarding the use of written language, such as carved sticks described by Pliny as having characters on them, but it is to Ireland that we must turn for the most striking evidence of writing by the Druids.
The generally accepted academic opinion is that Ogham (the unique Irish alphabet) was a creation of the 5th century CE, most likely in response to Latin and Greek being introduced to the country by French Bishop Palladius (a few decades before St. Patrick) or by St. Patrick after his arrival as a Roman Catholic Bishop, given officially as 432CE, by tradition. Why anyone would create a special unique alphabet instead of just adapting Greek or Roman characters remains a mystery to me. Other examples of this set a precedent (Hebrew and Cyrillic) where another alphabet was recycled for use by early cultures. Before St. Patrick, Palladius had been a Deacon in Gaul Pope Celestine I consecrated him a bishop and sent him to Ireland “to the Scotti believing in Christ”. The Church itself undermined the role of Palladius later on, in the creation of the fantastical hagiography of St. Patrick, most of which is pure invention and not based on any verifiable information about Patrick’s actual life or works.
The tradition that St. Patrick ‘educated’ the Irish and taught them writing is completely unproven an Ireland’s own annals and physical evidence (including at Killeen Cormac), contradict this ‘establishment’ view of Irish lack of literacy and sophistication. Some of the early literature acknowledges the sagacity and erudition of the Druids, but nowhere does it acknowledge their ability to write. However, some of the annals of Ireland do inadvertently tell the truth on this matter.
The famous king Cormac Mac Airt (of Connacht and High King of Ireland) is recorded in the ‘Annals of the Four Masters’ to have lived in the late 2nd Century CE and during his reign he ordered that all of the knowledge of Ireland be written down into books. Cormac was the grandson of Conn Cétchathach (Conn of the Hundred Battles) who was a contemporary of the legendary Fionn mac Cumhaill. Interestingly the Ogham device ‘Fionn’s Window’ , sometimes referred to as ‘Fionn’s Shield’, is named after Fionn mac Cumhaill who was reputedly both a warrior chieftain and Druid. The ‘window’ is a circular diagram that can be marked on ground or on cloth and used in divination, in a similar way to ‘I Ching’. The origin and age of this novel ‘window’ is unknown but if it did originate at least two generations before Cormac Mac Airt, then it could be from the end of the 1st century CE, which would shatter preconceived ideas about writing in Ireland.
References to Ogham go much further back, even to the time of Cú Chullain, the legendary Ulster hero, who famously left messages written in Ogham for his enemies in the ‘Táin Bó Cúailnge’ (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). There are 3 clear examples in this story:
“So, much unwilling, the charioteer drove to the fortress of the sons of Nechtan, and there on the green before it they found a pillar-stone, and round it a collar of bronze having on it writing in Ogham.”
“…so he went into the forest, and there, standing on one leg, and using only one hand and one eye, he cut an oak sapling and twisted it into a circular withe. On this he cut in Ogham characters how the withe was made, and he put the host of Maev under geise [taboo] not to pass by that place till one of them had, under similar conditions, made a similar withe ; “and I except my friend Fergus mac Roy,” he added, and wrote his name at the end.”
“But before they left the Ford they took the body of Ferdia and laid it in a grave, and built a mound over him and set up a pillar-stone with his name and lineage in Ogham.”
Interestingly enough, of the 3 Bríatharogaim (Word Oghams) that describe the Ogham alphabet, the Bríatharogam Con Culainn is named after and reputedly written by Cú Chullain himself. This comprises of a list of two-word ‘kennings’, which explains the meanings of the names of the letters of the Ogham alphabet. Three variant lists of bríatharogaim or “word-oghams” have been preserved, dating to the Old Irish period, although the only extant copy of this particular Bríatharogam comes from the 16th century CE.
Before returning to king Cormac and his life and legacy, I should also mention the discovery of the ‘Dovinia stone’ which is on the Dingle Peninsula in county Kerry. The name of the Goddess Dovinia (goddess Duibhne) was clearly marked in Ogham on this stone, which still stands at Dunmore Head and which reads ‘ERC MAQI-ERCIAS MU DOVINIA’, commemorating both Erc (a person) and the Pagan goddess!
Such evidence would be shocking enough were it the only example to be found in Ireland that referenced Paganism, but it is not. At a site know as Killeen Cormac, on the border of counties Kildare and Wicklow we find an ancient graveyard, attributed to the Pagan era and High King Cormac Mac Airt. Later analyses of this site in the modern era have veered away from this towards a Christian attribution and a King/Bishop of similar name – Cormac mac Cuilennáin. This Cormac was a bishop (later made a saint) and also King of Munster from 902-908CE, meeting his death at the Battle of Ballaghmoon (Cath Bealach Mughna). Bishop Cormac was beheaded and his head taken to Flann Sinna (the High King) and his body was buried at Cill Corban (in modern day Naas town).
From the story of Cormac mac Cuilennáin, it is clear that he was not buried at Killeen Cormac, but far away in Naas, which leads me to believe that Killeen Cormac is indeed named after the esteemed High King Cormac Mac Airt, as believed by the locals in oral legend and recorded by those writing about the place in the 19th century.
I have been fortunate enough to visit this site on two occasions and draw my own conclusions from those visits. Today this site has a stone wall enclosing it and it is full of trees, but this wall was constructed around 1830 and drawings of the site, from the early 1800s show that it was not originally forested – with only a few trees beyond the perimeter of the large mound.
Another change to the site is that some of the stones, in particular a unique stone that we will come to shortly, have been removed. This uncredited pencil drawing shows Killeen Cormac before it was enclosed and completely covered in trees.The remains of a building on the mound were described in the 19th century, but this has not been confirmed by later writers or modern archaeologists. King Cormac Mac Airt was reputedly buried here but with no major archaeology undertaken, no bodies have been exhumed from this ancient site. Whatever it once was, this place is deeply significant within ancient Pagan society, but its importance seems to have been completely forgotten if not deliberately excluded from modern narratives about Irish history.
This site was almost completely forgotten but knowledge of it was spread by the late Ben MacBrady, a Druid (of Druid Clan Of Dana/DCD and ‘The Order’) and close friend of the late Lady Olivia Durdin-Robertson. She of course knew well all three of the Chosen Chiefs of OBOD, including former Chief (Philip Carr-Gomm) and our current Chief (Eimear Burke) is still also Arch-Druidess of DCD. Some of MacBrady’s writing from the 1990s are preserved in the republication of one his articles in ‘Pagan Ireland’ magazine. Ben MacBrady highlighted the ancient stone that has now been removed to The National Museum: Archaeology, in Dublin that is the sole example of a bi-lingual Ogham/Latin stone in Ireland or anywhere in the world.
This stone references the Druids buried there ‘Four True Druids’ and inscriptions were written in both Ogham (Irish script) and Latin (Roman script). In Ogham: ‘OVANOS AVI I/VACA/TTOS’, in Latin: ‘IVVEṇ/̣ṛE DRVVIDES’ although they may not have the same meaning. In the drawing the stone is show lying down here for convenience, but it was upright in situ and is also upright on display in the museum. According to the Ogham in 3D project it is currently on display at Kildare Street, however it has not been on display for most of its time at the museum over the last 100 years or so. You can see a photograph of the stone here: https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/stone.php?lang=en&site=Colbinstown&stone=19._Colbinstown_I&stonei
This is perhaps the most important and significant stone that was once standing at Killeen Cormac and perhaps in all of Ireland. While there is not a single book remaining from the pre-Christian period (St. Patrick is credited with burning 400+ Pagan books), I believe that this stone proves that the pre-Christians, of the Druidic era, could write and not just in one language! Despite, the modern view has long been that the ancient Irish could not read or write, evidence of contact with Rome and Greece Stretches back to the beginning of that millennium. If King Cormac was buried here and also Druids of his time period, then this stone could date to the late 2nd century CE or perhaps even earlier.
Cormac was a significant king in late Pagan Ireland, no less so due to a work that has survived the purges of Elizabethan Ireland and the prohibition of Gaeilge (the Irish language) to be with us today. This work attributed to Cormac Mac Airt is a short book entitled ‘The Wisdom of Cormac’ (Tecosca Cormaic), which was only translated into English in 1909 by German academic Kuno Meyer. While some would question whether it is genuinely the words of Cormac, considering the book burnings by the early Catholic Church (under Patrick) and subsequent prohibitions in the post-Norman (Tudor) period, I see no reason to believe that it isn’t a genuine survival, like so many of the medieval texts that somehow survived the purges and are miraculously still with us today.
The significance of Killeen Cormac has been downplayed, to the extent that it is barely discussed. However, there is a long history to this place, which you can still find in books from the 19th and early 20th century, but it has been largely overlooked in the last 100 years. To the due North, facing the entrance and to the due East are two matching Ogham stones, constructed from a light coloured stone that is different from all of the stones inside the graveyard. Given their orientation and similar distance, I wonder if there were once 2 more stones, to the South and West, which are no longer present. Whatever the case may be, this is a significant site from the late Druidic era and early Christian era, that may well date to long before that. We simply do not know the truth of this place, as it has not been professionally examined in any depth with modern equipment and techniques.
From “On Some Inscribed Stones at Killeen Cormac,Near Dunlavin” by The Rev. John F. Shearman (1866):
“A very curious legend is told about this stone.Tradition says that it marks the gatateof Cormac King of Munster, whose name is an affix to that of the cemetery where he rests; it more-over states that he was carried to Killeen Cormac by a team of bullocks, which were allowed to follow their own instinct—a mode of settling disputes regarding sepulture not uncommon among the ancient Irish. The same tradition, though unable to state at what period or under what circumstances King Cormac died, avers that he was carried through Ballynure, from the direction of Timolin, in the county of Kildare; and when the team reached that part of Ballynure known as The Doon, the bul-locks, in the eagerness of their thirst, pawed the earth, and that water issued forth.
Another version states that the teamster struck his goad into the ground, and thereupon gushed up a bubbling fountain, which is still to be seen near the roadside, and is used as a watering place for the herds of the fertile pastures of The Doon of Ballynure. The bullocks, having satiated their thirst, journeyed on till they came to the place now called Bullock-hill, beside the Griese, and opposite to Killeen Cormac. Here they halted, and would proceed no farther; so that Killeen was thus determined to be the last resting place of King Cormac.”
Another interesting text from 1897, Lord Walter Fitzgerald’s “Killeen Cormac” contradicts the current academic view and that held by bodies such as the Office of Public Works (OPW). To accept that Ireland was a land of ‘Scholars’ before the arrival of the ‘Saints’ seems to be unthinkable to many, even today when the Roman Catholic Church no longer has a tight grip on Irish society. Fitzgerald, also quoting others of his time, has this to say about the site’s pre-Christian origins:
“This monument was evidently created in the pagan age ; the absence of any sacred emblem or pions formula- such as we find on the earliest of our Christian memorials—all evidence to its pagan character. It is a monument to its four members of the Druidic order, probably priests, whose names are given in the Ogham legend, whose profession- that of True or Just Druids—is given in the Roman letters : 1Y VERE DRVVIDES.
In conclusion, Brash sums up thus :—
‘The inscribed monuments at Killeen Cormac are of exceeding interest. Firstly, as having been found in a part of our island hitherto supposed to hare been destitute of this class of our national antiquities; secondly, as having been found in situ in what was evidently a pagan cemetery of the prehistoric period; thirdly, as presenting us with the only Irish example of an Ogham-inscribed stone bearing also an inscription in Roman letters probably of the same date.’
Sir Samuel Ferguson writes :-
‘There can be no doubt that the word ‘Druids’ forms part of the Roman epigraph; and this being the only instance of the mention Druids on any known lapidary monument anywhere, the double inscription cannot but be regarded with extraordinary interest.’ “
This site has perhaps (or rather once did have) the largest collection of original Ogham inscriptions (7) in one location. Unfortunately, time and the weather have made the ogham inscriptions either invisible or incredibly difficult to read, although modern scanning techniques may still reveal what is written on them. When I visited this site on two occasions and was unable to decipher the few Ogham inscriptions that I was able to find. The 19th century accounts mention a temple that once stood on the top of the mound, that had been dismantled and the stones re-used for Christian burials. One can only guess as to what this was and what it might have once looked like.
Who knows what Killeen Cormac can teach us about the Druidic past and what secret it holds under the ground? Apart from the one stone at the Kildare Street museum. where were the missing stones taken and why were they removed? While some dismiss the idea of Pagan graves, from my own inspection of the early graves, one can see a clear distinction in style from the flat headstones and the stone pillars, which were used as grave markers. I suggest that at least some of the graves are of Pagan style and may predate the Christian era. Of course, the reality of the transition from Paganism to Christianity is that it took approximately 400 years to complete – with overtly Pagan burials being found as late as 800CE.
How many Pagan graves are at this site and will they ever be excavated? At the moment few (if anyone) have answers to these questions. One can only hope that this significant site will be re-examined and its full significance might come to light. While some dispute that is is a pre-Christian site at all, the links to Cormac Mac Airt, the style of some of the grave markers and the reference to Druids would suggest otherwise – a complete excavation of the site would prove whether or not this is the case.
As stone is near enough impossible to date unless it references a specific time period, we can only hope that excavations would yield organic matter that can be dated (e.g. bodies) or some other physical evidence, such as grave goods, remains of a temple or other artefacts that might enable us to definitively place Killeen Cormac in the correct time period. Given the clear resistance to any re-examination or revision of the ‘establishment view’ of the time-line of Irish literature, the creation of Ogham and the transition of Ireland from Paganism to Christianity, it is down to some brave archaeologists to actually excavate this site before the truth of my theory, outlined above can be entirely proven or disproven.
Regardless of what academia has to say about Killeen Cormac, or indeed fails to say, based on the evidence that I have laid out, it is a highly significant site in Irish early medieval history and should be remembered as such, rather than shoved into a forgotten corner of the Irish consciousness. Not only is it significant for Irish Druidism and Irish history, its existence poses questions about our attitudes towards Druids across Europe and how we perceive them today, in modern Druidry.
Luke Eastwood is a graduate of City University in London, he has worked for financial institutions and publishers in London and Dublin. He is a student of Druidry since 1995 and an OBOD member since 2004. After ‘dropping out ’and retraining in horticulture he began his career as a part-time author, he currently lives in the west of Ireland. You can read more of his work at https://lukeeastwood.com
Here is a virtual tour of the Graveyard:
