Brehon Law
1. Understanding and Return to Brehon Law 1
2. The Brehon Law System
3. Brehon Law is caring for the land
4. The Spirit of Brehon Law is in its intention
2. The Brehon Law System
3. Brehon Law is caring for the land
4. The Spirit of Brehon Law is in its intention
1. Understanding and Return to Brehon Law 1
Today the ancient indigenous law system of Ireland is often called Brehon Law. Its correct name is Senchus Mor or Gael Law and best understood as the ‘laws of the land tiller’ and was and is known to Gaelic speakers as Feineachus. A general term for all law, without special reference to that of Ireland, was Recht. But the law of the Gaels was Feineachus. Its very important to know that these ‘laws’ were not made by Brehons (singular Brithem in Irish) but by the people themselves to protect the people. English Law (as used in Ireland today ce 2013) and Church Canon Law protect only themselves and the head of their imperial system, mostly from loss of revenue or assumed status forced by fear or by the sword...
During the times of Brehon / Gael Law / Celtic Irish Law, there was no police force or prisons in Ireland. The Brehons (male and female) were arbitrators who remembered the laws in poems and had to be able to recite them when needed. A Brehon is not really a judge - its more like an arbitrator whose responsibilities included preservation and relevant interpretation of existing laws. Their status was displayed by the wearing of a torque around their necks. We are told in the old manuscripts that it would tighten chocking them if they told untruths and it would only loosen when the truth was told in place of falsehoods. Their interpretations were made public and could be challenged, so they had to stick to truth. This is very unlike the English Law system we suffer at present because today the ‘legal wigs’ stick only to the word of law as written and not to the intention of the wrongdoer.
During the early christian era,churchmen got far more severely punished than the ordinary man. After paying the eric or other fine imposed upon him, a layman would still carry a stigma and endure continued loss of status for some time; but eventually by good works and restitution etc he could recover his good name and honour-price. A churchman was never allowed to recover his honour-price or his former status - he must do penance for the remaining life allowed to him.
We dont have a start date for this ‘law of the land tillers.’ We do know that it was used in ancient times and there is some evidence of this type of system being used even during the Bronze age - 4000 years ago. It has also been used in modern times and there are even many examples / evidence of its use by the indigenous people of this land in 1920-22. Celtic Irish Law is seen as the oldest, most equal rights law system and as the most involved / complicated extensive of all European law systems. Known as the Book of Achill - four texts were brought together and bound in the 18th century in full sprinkled calf leather with the quires sewn twice on five flexible cords. This manuscript is from the late 1700s and
is being rebound in a limp vellum, adhesive-free binding, and stored in a pressure box by Trinity College - see pic below
Today the ancient indigenous law system of Ireland is often called Brehon Law. Its correct name is Senchus Mor or Gael Law and best understood as the ‘laws of the land tiller’ and was and is known to Gaelic speakers as Feineachus. A general term for all law, without special reference to that of Ireland, was Recht. But the law of the Gaels was Feineachus. Its very important to know that these ‘laws’ were not made by Brehons (singular Brithem in Irish) but by the people themselves to protect the people. English Law (as used in Ireland today ce 2013) and Church Canon Law protect only themselves and the head of their imperial system, mostly from loss of revenue or assumed status forced by fear or by the sword...
During the times of Brehon / Gael Law / Celtic Irish Law, there was no police force or prisons in Ireland. The Brehons (male and female) were arbitrators who remembered the laws in poems and had to be able to recite them when needed. A Brehon is not really a judge - its more like an arbitrator whose responsibilities included preservation and relevant interpretation of existing laws. Their status was displayed by the wearing of a torque around their necks. We are told in the old manuscripts that it would tighten chocking them if they told untruths and it would only loosen when the truth was told in place of falsehoods. Their interpretations were made public and could be challenged, so they had to stick to truth. This is very unlike the English Law system we suffer at present because today the ‘legal wigs’ stick only to the word of law as written and not to the intention of the wrongdoer.
During the early christian era,churchmen got far more severely punished than the ordinary man. After paying the eric or other fine imposed upon him, a layman would still carry a stigma and endure continued loss of status for some time; but eventually by good works and restitution etc he could recover his good name and honour-price. A churchman was never allowed to recover his honour-price or his former status - he must do penance for the remaining life allowed to him.
We dont have a start date for this ‘law of the land tillers.’ We do know that it was used in ancient times and there is some evidence of this type of system being used even during the Bronze age - 4000 years ago. It has also been used in modern times and there are even many examples / evidence of its use by the indigenous people of this land in 1920-22. Celtic Irish Law is seen as the oldest, most equal rights law system and as the most involved / complicated extensive of all European law systems. Known as the Book of Achill - four texts were brought together and bound in the 18th century in full sprinkled calf leather with the quires sewn twice on five flexible cords. This manuscript is from the late 1700s and
is being rebound in a limp vellum, adhesive-free binding, and stored in a pressure box by Trinity College - see pic below
Murder and Physicial Injury
Gael Law is seen as an expression of a cultured humane society that protects itself. It did not use capital punishment ie death, violent punishment was seen as of no value to society. Only deliberate murder could get a death penalty but the heavy fines system was the first option. The emphasis on fines instead means that fines extend to the entire family of the wrongdoer - such as loss of land, animal stock, posessions, future earnings. This was not just for the wrong doer but for his or her family for eternity... The chief factors in determining the amount of penalty for any given crime were, (1) the damage done; (2) the status of the injured person; (3) the status of the criminal; (4) the accompanying circumstances. The result was that like punishments did not always follow like crimes. A murderer could after all these fines also be sentenced to serve the family of the injured as a slave for life! Intentional and unintentional injury were seen as separate things - both require compensation because both were seen as unlawful. This cleverly avoided any ‘set up’ or trickery and made the wrong doer pay a fine. This made everyone stay awake and take care of others.
A legal text we have called Bretha Dein Checht tells of the various fines regarding the type, severity and place of wounds. A physician would define the wound after 9 days had passed. It may seem strange to us but a system of measuring the severity of a wound was to see how many grains or seeds of a certain plant would fit in the wound. High status persons that had been unlawfully wounded had their wounds measured with smaller seeds than the wound of a low status person. This system used a range of seeds from wheat to beans... When wounds did not heal and the cut of scar was to be a problem then the fine was increased in relation to this aspect. If the wound got better but the patient still had not returned to 100% health then the wrongdoer was in trouble / fines etc for a longer period called sick-maintenance. The (Brehon / Gael Law / Celtic Irish Law) names for sick maintenance are - crólige, folog n-othrusa, folog and orthus in various texts. Bretha Crólige explains the responsibility of the injurer in great details - he or she had to pay for the food and keeping of the wounded, had to have someone do the duties of the injured, had to protect the family of the wounded and there was an extra type of fine if the wounded or injured person missed or lost the ability to procreate.
Murder was probably the most serious crime and the two fines imposed used terms that are still known of today in many circles. Eraic / Eric or body fine was a fixed fine and Log nEnech was an honour price that related directly to the status of the murdered. This is an important piece of the laws of Celtic Ireland because it extended byond the perpetrator and the victim. When the murderer could not pay his or her family had the fine or the balance of the fine that the murderer could not pay imposed on them. If the murderer or his/her family did not pay or could not pay then the victims family took custody of the murderer. The family of the murdered had 3 options of what to do with the murderer - they could await payment of the fixed fine and the honour price, sell the murderer into slavery or kill the murderer. This was taken so seriously that if the murderer could not be caught or made to pay the body fine and the honour price then they (victim’s family) were under obligation to launch a blood feud. There had to be closure and some form of restitution - obscure or pointless words (as often given by judges today) were no good, it had to be real and things had to get balanced.
From The Brehon Laws by Laurence Ginnell, 1894 “The names of the fines are retained untranslated, for reasons already mentioned. They were eiric or eric, reparation; einachlan, honour-price (not strictly a fine); dire, fine; coirpdire, body-fine; smacht, usually a fine of five seds; and airer, a fine amounting to one-seventh of the honour-price. Eric is defined as the fine for separating body from soul, that is for killing, whether murder or manslaughter. But of course the amount of it was not the same in these cases; for one of the most important distinctions made by the law in crimes was the presence or absence of intention. A man who happened by pure accident to kill another who was about his lawful business did not go wholly unpunished, as such a one does here at the present time. Having destroyed human life and inflicted an irreparable injury on a family, he had to pay eric to the family of the deceased, and so alleviate suffering by sharing it. But one who committed wilful murder with malice aforethought had to pay at least a double fine.”
The best book on the Gael Law is - The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook by Laurence Ginnell, 1894 and a full online copy can be found at http://www.libraryireland.com/Brehon-Laws/Contents.php
Con Connor, Ard Druí, Winter 2012
Gael Law is seen as an expression of a cultured humane society that protects itself. It did not use capital punishment ie death, violent punishment was seen as of no value to society. Only deliberate murder could get a death penalty but the heavy fines system was the first option. The emphasis on fines instead means that fines extend to the entire family of the wrongdoer - such as loss of land, animal stock, posessions, future earnings. This was not just for the wrong doer but for his or her family for eternity... The chief factors in determining the amount of penalty for any given crime were, (1) the damage done; (2) the status of the injured person; (3) the status of the criminal; (4) the accompanying circumstances. The result was that like punishments did not always follow like crimes. A murderer could after all these fines also be sentenced to serve the family of the injured as a slave for life! Intentional and unintentional injury were seen as separate things - both require compensation because both were seen as unlawful. This cleverly avoided any ‘set up’ or trickery and made the wrong doer pay a fine. This made everyone stay awake and take care of others.
A legal text we have called Bretha Dein Checht tells of the various fines regarding the type, severity and place of wounds. A physician would define the wound after 9 days had passed. It may seem strange to us but a system of measuring the severity of a wound was to see how many grains or seeds of a certain plant would fit in the wound. High status persons that had been unlawfully wounded had their wounds measured with smaller seeds than the wound of a low status person. This system used a range of seeds from wheat to beans... When wounds did not heal and the cut of scar was to be a problem then the fine was increased in relation to this aspect. If the wound got better but the patient still had not returned to 100% health then the wrongdoer was in trouble / fines etc for a longer period called sick-maintenance. The (Brehon / Gael Law / Celtic Irish Law) names for sick maintenance are - crólige, folog n-othrusa, folog and orthus in various texts. Bretha Crólige explains the responsibility of the injurer in great details - he or she had to pay for the food and keeping of the wounded, had to have someone do the duties of the injured, had to protect the family of the wounded and there was an extra type of fine if the wounded or injured person missed or lost the ability to procreate.
Murder was probably the most serious crime and the two fines imposed used terms that are still known of today in many circles. Eraic / Eric or body fine was a fixed fine and Log nEnech was an honour price that related directly to the status of the murdered. This is an important piece of the laws of Celtic Ireland because it extended byond the perpetrator and the victim. When the murderer could not pay his or her family had the fine or the balance of the fine that the murderer could not pay imposed on them. If the murderer or his/her family did not pay or could not pay then the victims family took custody of the murderer. The family of the murdered had 3 options of what to do with the murderer - they could await payment of the fixed fine and the honour price, sell the murderer into slavery or kill the murderer. This was taken so seriously that if the murderer could not be caught or made to pay the body fine and the honour price then they (victim’s family) were under obligation to launch a blood feud. There had to be closure and some form of restitution - obscure or pointless words (as often given by judges today) were no good, it had to be real and things had to get balanced.
From The Brehon Laws by Laurence Ginnell, 1894 “The names of the fines are retained untranslated, for reasons already mentioned. They were eiric or eric, reparation; einachlan, honour-price (not strictly a fine); dire, fine; coirpdire, body-fine; smacht, usually a fine of five seds; and airer, a fine amounting to one-seventh of the honour-price. Eric is defined as the fine for separating body from soul, that is for killing, whether murder or manslaughter. But of course the amount of it was not the same in these cases; for one of the most important distinctions made by the law in crimes was the presence or absence of intention. A man who happened by pure accident to kill another who was about his lawful business did not go wholly unpunished, as such a one does here at the present time. Having destroyed human life and inflicted an irreparable injury on a family, he had to pay eric to the family of the deceased, and so alleviate suffering by sharing it. But one who committed wilful murder with malice aforethought had to pay at least a double fine.”
The best book on the Gael Law is - The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook by Laurence Ginnell, 1894 and a full online copy can be found at http://www.libraryireland.com/Brehon-Laws/Contents.php
Con Connor, Ard Druí, Winter 2012
2. The Brehon Law System
The Brehon law system is reputedly the second oldest recorded law system after Sanskrit. The Gaelic society which produced this body of law maintained an oral tradition for at least one thousand years. With the influence of the early Coptic Christian monastic sects which came to Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries came the first writing. The monks were fascinated by the Brehon law and transcribed from the poets called “Na Filidh” who held the law in their heart literally; these poets would recite the law in four line stanzas, having learnt the law after a long initiation period. As new cases occurred new poems were added to the body of law ensuring the law was in synch with ever-changing life.
Brehon law is a natural law system based on the sustainable principle of common sense, this system was assimilated easily into the early Christian Gaelic order and continued to be used long after the introduction of English common law after the Norman and English invasions. The law survived into the seventeenth century in remote parts of Ireland. Common law was established in the thirteenth century after the Magna Carta was signed by some Irish chieftains who, after signing, reverted back to their own superior law system, “any thing for a quiet life”.
Common law is based on precedent, and international law is based on common law, and Brehon law has precedence over both by virtue of the fact fifty ancient law texts survive, as manuscripts copied from seventh and eight century originals. These copies were made between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries at which point the Old Gaelic order finally collapsed after the battle of Kinsale. The Gaelic leadership consisting of kings, chieftains, herbalists, poets, scholars and soldiers agreed after defeat at Kinsale to leave Ireland. This is known as the “Flight of the Earls”. In exchange for relocation and no more resistance they were promised that their now leaderless, vulnerable, people would be spared by the crown forces.
Brehon Law Manuscript
The Brehon law system is reputedly the second oldest recorded law system after Sanskrit. The Gaelic society which produced this body of law maintained an oral tradition for at least one thousand years. With the influence of the early Coptic Christian monastic sects which came to Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries came the first writing. The monks were fascinated by the Brehon law and transcribed from the poets called “Na Filidh” who held the law in their heart literally; these poets would recite the law in four line stanzas, having learnt the law after a long initiation period. As new cases occurred new poems were added to the body of law ensuring the law was in synch with ever-changing life.
Brehon law is a natural law system based on the sustainable principle of common sense, this system was assimilated easily into the early Christian Gaelic order and continued to be used long after the introduction of English common law after the Norman and English invasions. The law survived into the seventeenth century in remote parts of Ireland. Common law was established in the thirteenth century after the Magna Carta was signed by some Irish chieftains who, after signing, reverted back to their own superior law system, “any thing for a quiet life”.
Common law is based on precedent, and international law is based on common law, and Brehon law has precedence over both by virtue of the fact fifty ancient law texts survive, as manuscripts copied from seventh and eight century originals. These copies were made between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries at which point the Old Gaelic order finally collapsed after the battle of Kinsale. The Gaelic leadership consisting of kings, chieftains, herbalists, poets, scholars and soldiers agreed after defeat at Kinsale to leave Ireland. This is known as the “Flight of the Earls”. In exchange for relocation and no more resistance they were promised that their now leaderless, vulnerable, people would be spared by the crown forces.
Brehon Law Manuscript
It is recorded as soon as the Gaelic ships were out of sight, the whole-scale slaughter of the remaining Gaels commenced and with it the final annihilation of the primeval woodlands of Ireland which had been the bedrock of the Gaelic order for so long. The context for the sophisticated Brehon laws was removed.
Common law places material objects (property, goods, manmade objects, profits, etc) over and above living entities. Brehon law places people, life and nature before property.
From common law we have the example of property being nine tenths of the law, which explains how stolen property is hard to retrieve. Now we see how common law was used to legalise stolen property for the English crown. Under the Gaelic order there was no personal property; the most people could say was WE own this land. Like many earth based peoples the concept of land ownership was alien; the tribe were caretakers of the land. The Brehon laws ensured that the uses of the land were sustainable, which is why we can learn so much from this wise system of natural law today as we struggle to come to grips with the massive environmental and social degradation witnessed today.
As more and more people become aware that we are an integral part of the environment and not separate from it, we are in it and it is in us, it becomes clearer than ever that our human rights to clean air, water, access to the natural world, spiritual fulfilment and economic sustenance via native natural forests, which are the recognised lynchpin for biodiversity restoration, cannot be protected by common/international law.
Common law places material objects (property, goods, manmade objects, profits, etc) over and above living entities. Brehon law places people, life and nature before property.
From common law we have the example of property being nine tenths of the law, which explains how stolen property is hard to retrieve. Now we see how common law was used to legalise stolen property for the English crown. Under the Gaelic order there was no personal property; the most people could say was WE own this land. Like many earth based peoples the concept of land ownership was alien; the tribe were caretakers of the land. The Brehon laws ensured that the uses of the land were sustainable, which is why we can learn so much from this wise system of natural law today as we struggle to come to grips with the massive environmental and social degradation witnessed today.
As more and more people become aware that we are an integral part of the environment and not separate from it, we are in it and it is in us, it becomes clearer than ever that our human rights to clean air, water, access to the natural world, spiritual fulfilment and economic sustenance via native natural forests, which are the recognised lynchpin for biodiversity restoration, cannot be protected by common/international law.
There is a need to urgently re-examine how the Brehon laws, although dormant due to historic circumstances, can help us today to safeguard the future for the generations of unborn.
Make no mistake about it Brehon law is a living, breathing, vibrant law system of huge significance for this island and the world. As well as holding precedence over common law/international law, it is my understanding Indigenous people in North and South America have used aspects of Brehon law as an example of earth based peoples principles to regain territories lost to common/international law. They related to the Brehon laws as the nearest law system they could identify with, and the courts were forced to allow Brehon law into the arguments as it was written down four or five centuries before common law, and therefore had precedent.
International copyright law is derived solely from Brehon law from a famous recorded case from the sixth century involving a dispute between two monks. One monk said Colmcille had copied an illustrated manuscript created by another monk, called Finian. The case was resolved using the Brehon law and the judgement maintained as the original manuscript was created on vellum (a natural material) the Brehon poets decided in favour of compensation to Finian, as they stated to every cow its calf, to each manuscript a copy with compensation to the creator. This judgement has not been bettered to this day.
It would appear the reason for Brehon laws amazing longevity and continued use was the simple fact that it worked and it was built on respect for life allied to common sense ensuring the conditions upon which all life depends were respected and therefore maintained.
Andrew St Ledger, Woodland Druid
http://www.woodlandleague.org/info/info/brehonlaw.htm
Make no mistake about it Brehon law is a living, breathing, vibrant law system of huge significance for this island and the world. As well as holding precedence over common law/international law, it is my understanding Indigenous people in North and South America have used aspects of Brehon law as an example of earth based peoples principles to regain territories lost to common/international law. They related to the Brehon laws as the nearest law system they could identify with, and the courts were forced to allow Brehon law into the arguments as it was written down four or five centuries before common law, and therefore had precedent.
International copyright law is derived solely from Brehon law from a famous recorded case from the sixth century involving a dispute between two monks. One monk said Colmcille had copied an illustrated manuscript created by another monk, called Finian. The case was resolved using the Brehon law and the judgement maintained as the original manuscript was created on vellum (a natural material) the Brehon poets decided in favour of compensation to Finian, as they stated to every cow its calf, to each manuscript a copy with compensation to the creator. This judgement has not been bettered to this day.
It would appear the reason for Brehon laws amazing longevity and continued use was the simple fact that it worked and it was built on respect for life allied to common sense ensuring the conditions upon which all life depends were respected and therefore maintained.
Andrew St Ledger, Woodland Druid
http://www.woodlandleague.org/info/info/brehonlaw.htm
3. Brehon Law is caring for the land
Let’s get away from the false idea of ownership and look at a better and more respectful attitude to being here on and with planet Earth. Stewardship is close to the ideal but caretaker is more hands-on when it comes to explaining what it really means to be caring for the land. You’re not in control of the land anyway but this only becomes clear when you realize your own impending mortality and the notion that the land existed before you and will certainly outlive you.
There are three options when you have land – extract wealth, ignore it and tend it. Extracting wealth without facilitating re-growth damages the natural harmony that the land has created itself through time. In Ireland in the 1500’s when Henry 8 and Liz 1 harvested by clear fell, thereby destroying the great Oak forests of Ireland to build the ships and the huge buildings of their empire, they destroyed the entire sustainability of the natural system or order of things that had been protected for thousands of years by Gael or Brehon Law. The natives could no longer enjoy the abundance of the forest i.e., fuel, food, shelter but instead they now had shortages instead of plenty. The wild herbs, plants and animals had their support system seriously reduced with the large scale deforestation in the 1500s.
After Henry 8 the natural forest existed only in areas that were too difficult to harvest the wood cheaply. Even today our native forests have only minimal presence and our government has not made any serious efforts to re-grow or restore our native woodlands. Did Henry 8 and Liz 1 know what they were doing? They certainly did. They saw huge abundant natural wealth that they could steal by force of arms and they knew that there would be a huge catastrophic negative effect on the indigenous peoples and Celtic traditions of this land at the same time. These acts of theft or destruction led directly to the dissolution of the old Celtic traditions and within 100 years we also see the end of the independence of the Gaelic Order. The end of the old order is referred to as the ‘Flight of the Earls’ and this doesn’t sound too bad. But when you know that the Irish Earls had made a deal with the English army (who heavily outnumbered the Gaels in manpower and weaponry) that would ensure the safety of the Gael soldiers and women / children, you can get a clearer idea of what was happening at the time. It was the last great heroic stand by the Irish in the medieval era, but the Earls chose to leave Ireland because they got an agreement that their people would be spared punishment. After the Earls had gone – the invading army slaughtered all the Gaels they could find. History records this as the ‘Devastation of Munster’ because their army burned everything it could not lift or carry away.
This foreign army then began to starve and asked for food supplies from home and the little that did arrive did not stop the hunger for their army. Imagine it – the army usually lived off the land where ever it was but in their extreme violence they had killed almost all the farmed and wild beasts and burned the crops and homesteads so there was nothing left to rob. Then, with the next wave of activity, they began to cut down the great Oak forests. This clear fell of wild forest was a great crime against the people, the land and all the wild creatures and their homes. It was a blitzkrieg designed for re-population by English lords and their tenant farmers and a total change in land use that would now generate taxable profits for the empire.
For the first time in Ireland trees were seen merely as profit and the natural respect by the people for their forests became secondary to actual human survival.
This meant that in a very short period of time the natural habitat for the flora and fauna was gone, never to be restored. Hunting and harvesting from the wild was not a viable option for the invader or the native population any more. Of course there were hunters but the herds had diminished and hunting became illegal for the native. A total shift in land use from the traditional respect for the forests and all that they provide in a sustainable relationship because of Brehon Law now became a series of big monoculture fields of grain for export back to their empire. The native people were seriously impoverished without their forests. A slow and continual genocide followed.
Let’s go back nearly 500 years before Henry/Liz to when the Anglo Normans invaded in 1170s. They were the first in Ireland to force the ‘ownership’ concept. It was very simple. They stole land by force of arms and killed everyone who would not serve them. They gave each other pieces of paper that said ‘we own this’ and then they could sell or trade the ‘deeds’. All this was revised and modified and updated by successive English kings who sought merely to increase the tax take. The robber kings were thus robbing (taxing) the land robbers who in turn robbed the natural fertility that the old Brehon / Gael traditions had guarded and protected for thousands of years. In the 1500’s Henry’s ship building and the roofing of huge new buildings using Irish Oak across England was further supported by the burning of Irish Oak in their fires. Their upper class preferred Oak to coal for their palace fires.
Then there was a forced land grab under the title of Plantation that pushed the remaining Gael into the worst land. This was followed by the change from tillage or crop farming and rearing cattle to sheep farming. This sheep farming caused displacement of people and was followed in time by the so-called famine. (Note – there were huge supplies of food in Ireland at the time of the so-called famine that the natives were not allowed to eat, the invading army guarded these supplies as they were taken to the shipping ports). The native people were put off the tillage land they were renting and giant sheep farms were established. In the 1840’s Irish men, women and children were once again sold off into slavery again as they had been in the 1500’s and in the 1650’s.
Ireland today has the lowest % of forestry cover in Europe – this shows that as a nation we have not recovered from the foreign imperial idea of land ownership yet. The remains of the great forests exist now only in hard to harvest areas. This is because modern farming / forestry practice now uses the land that was once forest. But in the last 20 years there has been phenomenal decrease in the amount of farmers who work full time on the farm from over 120 thousand to approx 50 thousand farmers, many of whom have second jobs and there has been a corresponding decrease in the actual ‘reclaimed’ land use as well. The natural forest has not been allowed to re-grow, nor has its re-growth been seen and understood as vitally important and there has been little or no government support for the re-establishment of the great forests. The short term cash needs of the politicians never goes away – its part of the profit cake that they bake to cut up between themselves – the system simply will not invest money in real forestry if that money can be spent elsewhere first. In Ireland there has been only lip-service with regards to long-term planning for restoring our great forests because there is little or no willingness to reconsider core values of the forests real value and the relationship of forests to and with the people.
Today, many parts of Ireland are ignored by farmers / growers because there is no way to grab wealth from them. Here in Connaught, west of the Shannon, land is valued at approx E2000 / acre or E5000 / hectare. But rearing cattle on this low quality land does not return any profit. We have 16 acres on our farm but we could not make a living from cattle or sheep today. 100 years ago – a small farm like ours could still return a tidy profit if it was worked with awareness of the needs of the land itself but today it would be foolish to even try to farm here. The old days the winter stocking rate would be only 2 or 3 cows and their calves but today that amount of stock would be seen as a hobby… Now isn’t that amazing? A lot of people won’t be able to understand this but its true – some where along the line the fertility was stolen and kept being stolen until now the value of ‘stock’ as farmers call cattle and sheep has gone too. The commonage (low grade land that’s shared by a group) such as the mountain side and the edges of the turf bogs has even lower value and farming there has to be supported by grant aid or the grade of those lands will reduce even further in a commercial sense.
But when stock farming stops something wonderful happens…
Nature returns restoring fertility when we get ignorance and greed out of the way. How does Nature do this? The answer is simple – the forest returns. First we see the rushes and ferns begin to grow in the damp and wet areas. Then the pioneer trees begin to re-colonize – Birch, Alder and Hazel etc. They start out as shrubs and in time grow in to trees and as they do this the wildlife begins to visit dropping seeds and bit by bit the great forest is re-grown. Bigger animals create tracks to good drinking water, the birds follow the insect populations and within only 20-30 years the damp wet ground has begun to stabilize. Nature does all this for free when we get greed out of the way. We call living with this awareness ‘Permaculture or Forest Gardening’ when we humans have conscious involvement in supporting abundance from Nature.
Tending a Permaculture or Forest Garden is similar to parenting – you have to protect the young forest but the time comes too when you have to let it go…. But if you have done it right you will always enjoy a positive exchange both ways. This understanding is enshrined in the principles of the Brehon or Gael Law system – to tend and care for the people, the animals and the forest land.
So we went and sought advice about grants for tree planting on our 16 acres of rough grazing land. A professional tree planting man called and took a simple soil sample, and tested it and quickly said – “you’ll never get a grant for native woodland”. After a few more questions he said we would only qualify for ‘sitka spruce’ planting grant. I said “sure that’s not native or needed – the forest of monoculture pines damages the air, water and earth – there’s no life i.e. birds or animals in a pine forest”. The tree planter said his reputation would be compromised if he applied for native broadleaf planting on our farm. So I suggested that we might simply plant it up ourselves with volunteer support and donations etc. He reckoned we would be breaking regulations… I said “sure if we did nothing then Nature would re-colonise with pioneer trees and eventually the big trees”. When he went quiet I asked if he reckoned “they’d take Nature to court for breaking their regulations”. He just put his head down; I thanked him for his openness and honesty and he left on good terms understanding our purpose but unable to help.
We could get a full establishment grant for sitka spruce and an annual payment of e200 per hectare / year for 20 years but no support at all to plant native trees. We could not get permission to plant Irish trees and if we plant native trees we are in breach of regulations that were made for cash profit. Therefore an outside commentator could have the opinion that our government has made regulations prohibiting native woodlands in favor of profit making foreign cloned sitka spruce…
So what did we do? We planted and will continue to plant our native Irish trees on our farm in Ireland. We have begun the re-establishment of the native broadleaf woodlands on our little farm regardless of imperial style regulations based on theft and exploitation of natural resources. We have bought hundreds of native trees and been gifted hundreds more. Willows from our Reed Bed tertiary sewerage treatment system have been cut and re-planted – this is a fast growing coppice wood and land colonizer. With our Druí, student volunteers and friends we plant Scots Pine, Ash, Alder, Willow, Hazel, Birch, Chestnut, Oak and even a few Yews and Junipers. We make sure the Gorse and Broom with their beautiful yellow flowers are protected from the horses that graze the grass and rushes on the main part of the farm and we don’t let our friendly farmer (who has the grass of 10 acres for his horses in exchange for fencing, ditching and topping the rushes) spray any chemicals. Our hedges are growing up to 20 foot into the fields. We have created wildlife corridors and added many trees to the banks of the field drains.
Its so rewarding to plant trees, almost all our guests in the planting season are asked to plant some trees with us. People from many countries have planted trees with us – people from Hong Kong, Brazil, Alaska, USA, Sweden, France, New Zealand, Australia, England and of course many Irish natives too.
We have 5000 black Irish Bees as well.
It’s a start.
Con Connor, Ard Druí Imbolg 2013
Let’s get away from the false idea of ownership and look at a better and more respectful attitude to being here on and with planet Earth. Stewardship is close to the ideal but caretaker is more hands-on when it comes to explaining what it really means to be caring for the land. You’re not in control of the land anyway but this only becomes clear when you realize your own impending mortality and the notion that the land existed before you and will certainly outlive you.
There are three options when you have land – extract wealth, ignore it and tend it. Extracting wealth without facilitating re-growth damages the natural harmony that the land has created itself through time. In Ireland in the 1500’s when Henry 8 and Liz 1 harvested by clear fell, thereby destroying the great Oak forests of Ireland to build the ships and the huge buildings of their empire, they destroyed the entire sustainability of the natural system or order of things that had been protected for thousands of years by Gael or Brehon Law. The natives could no longer enjoy the abundance of the forest i.e., fuel, food, shelter but instead they now had shortages instead of plenty. The wild herbs, plants and animals had their support system seriously reduced with the large scale deforestation in the 1500s.
After Henry 8 the natural forest existed only in areas that were too difficult to harvest the wood cheaply. Even today our native forests have only minimal presence and our government has not made any serious efforts to re-grow or restore our native woodlands. Did Henry 8 and Liz 1 know what they were doing? They certainly did. They saw huge abundant natural wealth that they could steal by force of arms and they knew that there would be a huge catastrophic negative effect on the indigenous peoples and Celtic traditions of this land at the same time. These acts of theft or destruction led directly to the dissolution of the old Celtic traditions and within 100 years we also see the end of the independence of the Gaelic Order. The end of the old order is referred to as the ‘Flight of the Earls’ and this doesn’t sound too bad. But when you know that the Irish Earls had made a deal with the English army (who heavily outnumbered the Gaels in manpower and weaponry) that would ensure the safety of the Gael soldiers and women / children, you can get a clearer idea of what was happening at the time. It was the last great heroic stand by the Irish in the medieval era, but the Earls chose to leave Ireland because they got an agreement that their people would be spared punishment. After the Earls had gone – the invading army slaughtered all the Gaels they could find. History records this as the ‘Devastation of Munster’ because their army burned everything it could not lift or carry away.
This foreign army then began to starve and asked for food supplies from home and the little that did arrive did not stop the hunger for their army. Imagine it – the army usually lived off the land where ever it was but in their extreme violence they had killed almost all the farmed and wild beasts and burned the crops and homesteads so there was nothing left to rob. Then, with the next wave of activity, they began to cut down the great Oak forests. This clear fell of wild forest was a great crime against the people, the land and all the wild creatures and their homes. It was a blitzkrieg designed for re-population by English lords and their tenant farmers and a total change in land use that would now generate taxable profits for the empire.
For the first time in Ireland trees were seen merely as profit and the natural respect by the people for their forests became secondary to actual human survival.
This meant that in a very short period of time the natural habitat for the flora and fauna was gone, never to be restored. Hunting and harvesting from the wild was not a viable option for the invader or the native population any more. Of course there were hunters but the herds had diminished and hunting became illegal for the native. A total shift in land use from the traditional respect for the forests and all that they provide in a sustainable relationship because of Brehon Law now became a series of big monoculture fields of grain for export back to their empire. The native people were seriously impoverished without their forests. A slow and continual genocide followed.
Let’s go back nearly 500 years before Henry/Liz to when the Anglo Normans invaded in 1170s. They were the first in Ireland to force the ‘ownership’ concept. It was very simple. They stole land by force of arms and killed everyone who would not serve them. They gave each other pieces of paper that said ‘we own this’ and then they could sell or trade the ‘deeds’. All this was revised and modified and updated by successive English kings who sought merely to increase the tax take. The robber kings were thus robbing (taxing) the land robbers who in turn robbed the natural fertility that the old Brehon / Gael traditions had guarded and protected for thousands of years. In the 1500’s Henry’s ship building and the roofing of huge new buildings using Irish Oak across England was further supported by the burning of Irish Oak in their fires. Their upper class preferred Oak to coal for their palace fires.
Then there was a forced land grab under the title of Plantation that pushed the remaining Gael into the worst land. This was followed by the change from tillage or crop farming and rearing cattle to sheep farming. This sheep farming caused displacement of people and was followed in time by the so-called famine. (Note – there were huge supplies of food in Ireland at the time of the so-called famine that the natives were not allowed to eat, the invading army guarded these supplies as they were taken to the shipping ports). The native people were put off the tillage land they were renting and giant sheep farms were established. In the 1840’s Irish men, women and children were once again sold off into slavery again as they had been in the 1500’s and in the 1650’s.
Ireland today has the lowest % of forestry cover in Europe – this shows that as a nation we have not recovered from the foreign imperial idea of land ownership yet. The remains of the great forests exist now only in hard to harvest areas. This is because modern farming / forestry practice now uses the land that was once forest. But in the last 20 years there has been phenomenal decrease in the amount of farmers who work full time on the farm from over 120 thousand to approx 50 thousand farmers, many of whom have second jobs and there has been a corresponding decrease in the actual ‘reclaimed’ land use as well. The natural forest has not been allowed to re-grow, nor has its re-growth been seen and understood as vitally important and there has been little or no government support for the re-establishment of the great forests. The short term cash needs of the politicians never goes away – its part of the profit cake that they bake to cut up between themselves – the system simply will not invest money in real forestry if that money can be spent elsewhere first. In Ireland there has been only lip-service with regards to long-term planning for restoring our great forests because there is little or no willingness to reconsider core values of the forests real value and the relationship of forests to and with the people.
Today, many parts of Ireland are ignored by farmers / growers because there is no way to grab wealth from them. Here in Connaught, west of the Shannon, land is valued at approx E2000 / acre or E5000 / hectare. But rearing cattle on this low quality land does not return any profit. We have 16 acres on our farm but we could not make a living from cattle or sheep today. 100 years ago – a small farm like ours could still return a tidy profit if it was worked with awareness of the needs of the land itself but today it would be foolish to even try to farm here. The old days the winter stocking rate would be only 2 or 3 cows and their calves but today that amount of stock would be seen as a hobby… Now isn’t that amazing? A lot of people won’t be able to understand this but its true – some where along the line the fertility was stolen and kept being stolen until now the value of ‘stock’ as farmers call cattle and sheep has gone too. The commonage (low grade land that’s shared by a group) such as the mountain side and the edges of the turf bogs has even lower value and farming there has to be supported by grant aid or the grade of those lands will reduce even further in a commercial sense.
But when stock farming stops something wonderful happens…
Nature returns restoring fertility when we get ignorance and greed out of the way. How does Nature do this? The answer is simple – the forest returns. First we see the rushes and ferns begin to grow in the damp and wet areas. Then the pioneer trees begin to re-colonize – Birch, Alder and Hazel etc. They start out as shrubs and in time grow in to trees and as they do this the wildlife begins to visit dropping seeds and bit by bit the great forest is re-grown. Bigger animals create tracks to good drinking water, the birds follow the insect populations and within only 20-30 years the damp wet ground has begun to stabilize. Nature does all this for free when we get greed out of the way. We call living with this awareness ‘Permaculture or Forest Gardening’ when we humans have conscious involvement in supporting abundance from Nature.
Tending a Permaculture or Forest Garden is similar to parenting – you have to protect the young forest but the time comes too when you have to let it go…. But if you have done it right you will always enjoy a positive exchange both ways. This understanding is enshrined in the principles of the Brehon or Gael Law system – to tend and care for the people, the animals and the forest land.
So we went and sought advice about grants for tree planting on our 16 acres of rough grazing land. A professional tree planting man called and took a simple soil sample, and tested it and quickly said – “you’ll never get a grant for native woodland”. After a few more questions he said we would only qualify for ‘sitka spruce’ planting grant. I said “sure that’s not native or needed – the forest of monoculture pines damages the air, water and earth – there’s no life i.e. birds or animals in a pine forest”. The tree planter said his reputation would be compromised if he applied for native broadleaf planting on our farm. So I suggested that we might simply plant it up ourselves with volunteer support and donations etc. He reckoned we would be breaking regulations… I said “sure if we did nothing then Nature would re-colonise with pioneer trees and eventually the big trees”. When he went quiet I asked if he reckoned “they’d take Nature to court for breaking their regulations”. He just put his head down; I thanked him for his openness and honesty and he left on good terms understanding our purpose but unable to help.
We could get a full establishment grant for sitka spruce and an annual payment of e200 per hectare / year for 20 years but no support at all to plant native trees. We could not get permission to plant Irish trees and if we plant native trees we are in breach of regulations that were made for cash profit. Therefore an outside commentator could have the opinion that our government has made regulations prohibiting native woodlands in favor of profit making foreign cloned sitka spruce…
So what did we do? We planted and will continue to plant our native Irish trees on our farm in Ireland. We have begun the re-establishment of the native broadleaf woodlands on our little farm regardless of imperial style regulations based on theft and exploitation of natural resources. We have bought hundreds of native trees and been gifted hundreds more. Willows from our Reed Bed tertiary sewerage treatment system have been cut and re-planted – this is a fast growing coppice wood and land colonizer. With our Druí, student volunteers and friends we plant Scots Pine, Ash, Alder, Willow, Hazel, Birch, Chestnut, Oak and even a few Yews and Junipers. We make sure the Gorse and Broom with their beautiful yellow flowers are protected from the horses that graze the grass and rushes on the main part of the farm and we don’t let our friendly farmer (who has the grass of 10 acres for his horses in exchange for fencing, ditching and topping the rushes) spray any chemicals. Our hedges are growing up to 20 foot into the fields. We have created wildlife corridors and added many trees to the banks of the field drains.
Its so rewarding to plant trees, almost all our guests in the planting season are asked to plant some trees with us. People from many countries have planted trees with us – people from Hong Kong, Brazil, Alaska, USA, Sweden, France, New Zealand, Australia, England and of course many Irish natives too.
We have 5000 black Irish Bees as well.
It’s a start.
Con Connor, Ard Druí Imbolg 2013
4. The Spirit of Brehon Law is in it's intention
(or why do Irish politicians lie so much?)
Irish politics has changed a lot in the last few years. A growing number of our politicians have been caught doing wrong things and various tribunals have repeatedly exposed numerous and huge corruption scandals, with brown envelopes full of money being given to top politicians for planning and other favors. Very few politicians and no judges seem to get convicted as they deny, lie and twist events to effectively say “you can’t catch me”. There seems to be no end to the size of this problem. We even had an attempt by politicians under tribunal investigation to limit the financial cost of tribunals so (we are informed seriously) as to not cripple the exchequer that has to pay the excessive legal fees for both sides in some cases.
But the reality is that any such limit would be a great mechanism to exhaust the process of proper investigation into the corruption and leave the tribunal judges with insufficient information on which to base their judgments. This type of trickery is in fact an attempt by the corrupt to bully the judges. Most judges are political appointees as seen with each new government appointing their favorites. But we are lucky in Ireland in that many of our judges are not controlled by the corrupt politicians and their financiers. Some Irish judges are very obviously influenced or guided by their money masters; some judges have openly declared as and are even known to be members of Opus Dei, the fundamental fascist cult of the biggest church in Ireland. For many senior people in Ireland today telling lies now seems to be standard procedure, spin doctoring and other forms of re-presentation and the half lie and the outright dodge backed up governance have become standard policy. What is going on and how can it be stopped?
A part of the Slí an Druí (or Path of the Druid) is not being involved in politics because it is a discipline where we do not have the relevant skills and it has very little to do with spiritual awareness. Under special circumstances however, permission may be granted by the World Druid Order for a Druid member to become involved in politics but normally no member would consider this extreme action. I, as an Ard Druí (Arch Druid) and full member of the World Druid Order feel the need to share my own opinion as to why so many Irish politicians tell so many lies so often because I believe that this constant dishonesty is destroying the very fabric of our society from the top down. I will not enter politics but in the interests of encouraging truth and honesty I offer the following opinion on why they lie so easily and so often.
Is telling a half lie wrong? I reckon it is, especially if the person actually knows the full truth but chooses to lie. Politicians lie because they know that they can get away with it because it is only a small ‘sin’ or spin of words. They believe themselves to be above the law of the land because they can make the laws or change / modify the laws or cause some judges to deliver an interpretation of the law to suit their agendas. Why do they think that this is ok? How did thinking like this become so common? Where did such notions evolve from? And most of all – how can such attitudes be changed to deliver real truth instead of carefully packaged falsehoods?
Little boys and little girls tell little lies/sins and it seems that as they get bigger so do their lies/sins. In a society based on truth this would not happen because the habit would be nipped in the bud. But here in Ireland we have a system that actually encourages lies and dishonesty. I am going to suggest that in part this has happened because as a society we no longer respect the truth, instead we fear poverty and thereby glorify wealth above all else. This situation can be seen as the effects of not having the core concept of Brehon Law in our hearts and minds anymore.
Classic image of Irish Brehons
(or why do Irish politicians lie so much?)
Irish politics has changed a lot in the last few years. A growing number of our politicians have been caught doing wrong things and various tribunals have repeatedly exposed numerous and huge corruption scandals, with brown envelopes full of money being given to top politicians for planning and other favors. Very few politicians and no judges seem to get convicted as they deny, lie and twist events to effectively say “you can’t catch me”. There seems to be no end to the size of this problem. We even had an attempt by politicians under tribunal investigation to limit the financial cost of tribunals so (we are informed seriously) as to not cripple the exchequer that has to pay the excessive legal fees for both sides in some cases.
But the reality is that any such limit would be a great mechanism to exhaust the process of proper investigation into the corruption and leave the tribunal judges with insufficient information on which to base their judgments. This type of trickery is in fact an attempt by the corrupt to bully the judges. Most judges are political appointees as seen with each new government appointing their favorites. But we are lucky in Ireland in that many of our judges are not controlled by the corrupt politicians and their financiers. Some Irish judges are very obviously influenced or guided by their money masters; some judges have openly declared as and are even known to be members of Opus Dei, the fundamental fascist cult of the biggest church in Ireland. For many senior people in Ireland today telling lies now seems to be standard procedure, spin doctoring and other forms of re-presentation and the half lie and the outright dodge backed up governance have become standard policy. What is going on and how can it be stopped?
A part of the Slí an Druí (or Path of the Druid) is not being involved in politics because it is a discipline where we do not have the relevant skills and it has very little to do with spiritual awareness. Under special circumstances however, permission may be granted by the World Druid Order for a Druid member to become involved in politics but normally no member would consider this extreme action. I, as an Ard Druí (Arch Druid) and full member of the World Druid Order feel the need to share my own opinion as to why so many Irish politicians tell so many lies so often because I believe that this constant dishonesty is destroying the very fabric of our society from the top down. I will not enter politics but in the interests of encouraging truth and honesty I offer the following opinion on why they lie so easily and so often.
Is telling a half lie wrong? I reckon it is, especially if the person actually knows the full truth but chooses to lie. Politicians lie because they know that they can get away with it because it is only a small ‘sin’ or spin of words. They believe themselves to be above the law of the land because they can make the laws or change / modify the laws or cause some judges to deliver an interpretation of the law to suit their agendas. Why do they think that this is ok? How did thinking like this become so common? Where did such notions evolve from? And most of all – how can such attitudes be changed to deliver real truth instead of carefully packaged falsehoods?
Little boys and little girls tell little lies/sins and it seems that as they get bigger so do their lies/sins. In a society based on truth this would not happen because the habit would be nipped in the bud. But here in Ireland we have a system that actually encourages lies and dishonesty. I am going to suggest that in part this has happened because as a society we no longer respect the truth, instead we fear poverty and thereby glorify wealth above all else. This situation can be seen as the effects of not having the core concept of Brehon Law in our hearts and minds anymore.
Classic image of Irish Brehons
In the Brehon system it is the spirit or intention of the law that must be honored, but in the English law system (that we have inherited) in Ireland it is the word of the law that is interpreted. It can be understood that the more money you have the more interpretation of the law you can get or put another way – you can buy the best legal mind to present the most favorable version of the word of the law for your money or another way - the best legal minds will search intensively for a loophole for you (even if you are guilty) if you can pay them enough money.
But working with the Word of English Law and not the Spirit of Brehon Law is only a part of the problem because there is a secondary back up system for telling lies and getting away with it. It is called ‘Confession’ – this neat trick allows those who lie to ‘get it off their conscience’ and to feel good again. This technique is used by the main church is an important funding mechanism and in fact is a religious tax on dishonesty that I see as a “Guilt Tax on Sin”. An example follows -
The judge who has just made a corrupt decision in court enters the confessional box in church and says “Bless me father for I have sinned”. The Priest smiles because he knows the voice and the prosperity levels of its owner and when the sin (deliberate wrong doing) has been told the priest replies “Four Hail Marys, two Our Fathers and 5000 euro into the box – cheques accepted”. “The judge replies “Thank you father” and the Priest replies “See you again next week” while rubbing his hand together in financial pleasure.
Effectively, the judge has got rid of his guilt, the priest has been given money to take away this guilt and the judge can do the same sin over and over again and the priest will happily take the money over and over again. This money given to the church must be seen as a ‘Guilt Tax’. These priests have escaped any or all obligation to report these crimes (such as a judges corrupt decision) to the authorities because of a special law they made to keep it all quiet. The politician will visit the same priest of course but will probably pay his or her ‘Guilt Tax’ in an unmarked brown envelope filled with used, unmarked notes...
The first system of twisting the word of the law avoiding the spirit of the law is based on high intelligence, skillful presentation and of course big money. The second system means that the judge and the politician can both repeatedly do wrong things and get away with it because they pay a ‘Guilt Tax’ to the church. The church is in fact financially dependent on the wealthy repeatedly doing wrong things because it is an important and major income stream for a global organization that does not produce any goods. When looked at from a higher humorous perspective “the church depends on sin for its very survival”.
But it is not the fault of the church that politicians lie so much, they merely extract money from the wrong doing. The fault lies directly in the choices that the politicians make, in who they serve but ultimately it lies in the lies they tell themselves as they knowingly make those wrong choices.
In a system based on the Spirit of the Law you would not be allowed to ‘get away with it’ on a regular basis because a ‘Guilt Tax on Sin’ would not exist. There was no sin in Ireland before the church created the concept. In pre-church times - a single mistake or deliberate act would have education or reparations or restitution as a consequence. But doing the same wrong thing over and over would be seen as a lack of or a sign of poor mental health and cause the person to lose their place in society. Judges, lawyers and politicians would have to completely change their way of business to express honesty, integrity and the highest understanding of truth or lose their salary / standing in society.
No sin means no guilt tax which in turn means not living by clever twists of the word of the law which means that politicians and judges could no longer ‘get away with it’ anymore. It would also mean that we Irish would abandon English Law and return to the Spirit of the Law or the Brehon system of truth. This in turn, might help speed up the final dissolving of the church of fear and its system of sin, fear and separation from the God and Goddess.
It might seem a bit far fetched but just for a few moments imagine a world without sin and all that goes with it – and imagine instead a world filled with love, honesty and truth. It exists already in our hearts - we just need to make the correct choices to express it as best as we can. The Spirit of Brehon Law is in its’ intention to honour truth so when we connect with truth and become really clear on what we want to say and do because of our understanding of the truth; we are aligned with the highest good and express the native traditional laws of this land.
Ard Druí Con Connor, Imbolg 2013
But working with the Word of English Law and not the Spirit of Brehon Law is only a part of the problem because there is a secondary back up system for telling lies and getting away with it. It is called ‘Confession’ – this neat trick allows those who lie to ‘get it off their conscience’ and to feel good again. This technique is used by the main church is an important funding mechanism and in fact is a religious tax on dishonesty that I see as a “Guilt Tax on Sin”. An example follows -
The judge who has just made a corrupt decision in court enters the confessional box in church and says “Bless me father for I have sinned”. The Priest smiles because he knows the voice and the prosperity levels of its owner and when the sin (deliberate wrong doing) has been told the priest replies “Four Hail Marys, two Our Fathers and 5000 euro into the box – cheques accepted”. “The judge replies “Thank you father” and the Priest replies “See you again next week” while rubbing his hand together in financial pleasure.
Effectively, the judge has got rid of his guilt, the priest has been given money to take away this guilt and the judge can do the same sin over and over again and the priest will happily take the money over and over again. This money given to the church must be seen as a ‘Guilt Tax’. These priests have escaped any or all obligation to report these crimes (such as a judges corrupt decision) to the authorities because of a special law they made to keep it all quiet. The politician will visit the same priest of course but will probably pay his or her ‘Guilt Tax’ in an unmarked brown envelope filled with used, unmarked notes...
The first system of twisting the word of the law avoiding the spirit of the law is based on high intelligence, skillful presentation and of course big money. The second system means that the judge and the politician can both repeatedly do wrong things and get away with it because they pay a ‘Guilt Tax’ to the church. The church is in fact financially dependent on the wealthy repeatedly doing wrong things because it is an important and major income stream for a global organization that does not produce any goods. When looked at from a higher humorous perspective “the church depends on sin for its very survival”.
But it is not the fault of the church that politicians lie so much, they merely extract money from the wrong doing. The fault lies directly in the choices that the politicians make, in who they serve but ultimately it lies in the lies they tell themselves as they knowingly make those wrong choices.
In a system based on the Spirit of the Law you would not be allowed to ‘get away with it’ on a regular basis because a ‘Guilt Tax on Sin’ would not exist. There was no sin in Ireland before the church created the concept. In pre-church times - a single mistake or deliberate act would have education or reparations or restitution as a consequence. But doing the same wrong thing over and over would be seen as a lack of or a sign of poor mental health and cause the person to lose their place in society. Judges, lawyers and politicians would have to completely change their way of business to express honesty, integrity and the highest understanding of truth or lose their salary / standing in society.
No sin means no guilt tax which in turn means not living by clever twists of the word of the law which means that politicians and judges could no longer ‘get away with it’ anymore. It would also mean that we Irish would abandon English Law and return to the Spirit of the Law or the Brehon system of truth. This in turn, might help speed up the final dissolving of the church of fear and its system of sin, fear and separation from the God and Goddess.
It might seem a bit far fetched but just for a few moments imagine a world without sin and all that goes with it – and imagine instead a world filled with love, honesty and truth. It exists already in our hearts - we just need to make the correct choices to express it as best as we can. The Spirit of Brehon Law is in its’ intention to honour truth so when we connect with truth and become really clear on what we want to say and do because of our understanding of the truth; we are aligned with the highest good and express the native traditional laws of this land.
Ard Druí Con Connor, Imbolg 2013