21 Facts About Gaels

The modern descendants of the Gaels have spread throughout the rest of the British Isles, the Americas and Australasia.

The Gaels have a strong oral tradition, traditionally maintained by shanachies.

The Gaels had their own style of dress, which became the belted plaid and kilt.

Scots Gaels derive from the kingdom of Dal Riata, which included parts of western Scotland and northern Ireland.

At the time, the Gaels were raiding the west coast of Britain for hostages, and they took part in the Great Conspiracy; it is thus conjectured that the term means "raider, pirate".

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Since the fall of Gaelic polities, the Gaels have made their way across parts of the world, successively under the auspices of the Spanish Empire, French Empire, and the British Empire.

Gaels is described as a Scythian prince, who is credited with creating the Gaelic languages.

The Gaels are depicted as wandering from place to place for hundreds of years; they spend time in Egypt, Crete, Scythia, the Caspian Sea and Getulia, before arriving in Iberia, where their king, Breogan, is said to have founded Galicia.

Gaels are then said to have sailed to Ireland via Galicia in the form of the Milesians, sons of Mil Espaine.

The Gaels fight a battle of sorcery with the Tuatha De Danann, the gods, who inhabited Ireland at the time.

Gaels emerged into the clear historical record during the classical era, with ogham inscriptions and quite detailed references in Greco-Roman ethnography.

The Gaels had relations with the Roman world, mostly through trade.

Gaels, known to the Romans as Scoti, carried out raids on Roman Britain, together with the Picts.

The abbot and the monk eventually took over certain cultural roles of the aos dana as the oral culture of the Gaels was transmitted to script by the arrival of literacy.

The Dublin Norse—some of them, such as Ui Imair king Ragnall ua Imair now partly Gaelicised as the Norse-Gaels—were a serious regional power, with territories across Northumbria and York.

Gaels attempted to colonise the Isle of Lewis with settlers from the Lowlands.

The Gaels have always had a strong oral tradition, maintained by shanachies.

The Gaels had their own style of dress, which became the modern belted plaid and kilt in Scotland.

The Gaels believed that certain heroic persons could gain access to this spiritual realm, as recounted in the various echtra and immram tales.

Gaels underwent Christianisation during the 5th century and that religion, de facto, remains the predominant one to this day, although irreligion is fast rising.

Gaels tried to explain its doctrines by using elements of native folk tradition, so Gaelic culture itself was not completely cast aside and to some extent local Christianity was Gaelicised.