Life in Iron Age Ireland

The Iron Age first began in Britain around the year 800 BC when someone in England worked out how to get a smelter hot enough to melt iron. Before this, bronze was the strongest metal that people had, but this was far from being strong enough to pull a plow through the earth without breaking. The technology of how to smelt iron didn’t reach Ireland until around the year 500 BC, probably because of the poor quality of boats they had available, but this new metal changed everything and brought in a new age of living for the Irish.

(Newgrange burial monument located in the Boyne Valley in eastern Ireland)

Who lived in Ireland during its iron age?

This is an interesting question because the Irish developed independently from the rest of the British Isles due to the Irish Sea, so how people first came to Ireland is a mystery. People likely migrated across the land bridge between France and England when the sea levels were lower, but there is a deep trench in the sea between Wales and Ireland that would still have been underwater during the ice age. One thing we do know about the Iron Age Irish is that they were heavily Celtic, and shared many customs and a similar way of life to the mainland Celtic tribes.

The term Celtic was a blanket term given by the Romans to describe the primitive tribes of western Europe and the British Isles, as they had many similarities between them. This would be the equivalent of calling everyone who lives in the Sahara desert as simply “desert tribes” though they would have different religions and traditions. It was the same for the Celtic people of the British Isles, with the Irish having their own distinct version of being Celtic. When the Iron Age began in Ireland, the country was populated by Celts that had next to no integration with any other genes from the mainland, or anywhere else, making them one of the most genetically unaltered people to live within the British Isles.

What changed in Ireland during its Iron Age?

The population increase was the most notable factor, as crops like grain could be mass-produced much easier which allowed for a huge increase in the population. Life during this time would have been very similar to the bronze age but with the new job of operating a plough. This new metal also made stronger weapons and building materials, allowing for new creations like cooking equipment that could withstand higher temperatures and stronger weapons for war and hunting.

(A model of an iron age plough, an invention that changed the entire country)

Irish Iron Age homes

There were two main types of homes built during the Iron Age which are the same as those found across the whole British Isles. The classic Celtic roundhouse was a popular choice because building materials for them were abundant and they provided the most amount of space for the effort. The other type of homes were made from stacked stone walls with a thatched roof. The stones were cut as best they could be, or not at all, and placed in layers with daub in between, which is a mixture of clay, soil, manure, and some kind of binder like straw or hay to hold it all together.

(The classic roundhouse was seen throughout the entire British isles and most of northern Europe)

This method allowed them to build walls 2 to 3 meters high, as long as they were thick enough to stay together. These types of homes came in many shapes and sizes but rarely had walls over 2 meters high, with the roof being constructed in the same fashion as a roundhouse. There are findings from Ireland that are almost identical to those found across the whole of the British Isles, but this is most likely due to everyone having the same building materials and lack of ability to properly cut stone or make mortar.

Iron Age food in Ireland

One crop that people heavily associate with the Irish is the potato, due to the devastating famine caused by potato blight during the mid-1800s, but this vegetable didn’t arrive until over 1000 years after the Iron Age ended. The main staples included barley, wheat, and cabbage, with a small selection of other vegetables like peas and beans. Cows and pigs were also kept but in much smaller numbers than in England and Wales due to the difficulty of providing food for them.

(Cooking would have been done over an open fire, as there were very few hearths found within iron age Irish homes)

The majority of their diets would have been made up of bread and grain products, like cereals and grain-based stews. Meat would only be served on rare occasions because animals were often much more productive for things like eggs and milk than they were for meat. Keeping large amounts of fresh meat was also a problem because acquiring large amounts of salt to preserve meat was a problem for most people, and the climate was too wet to effectively air dry foods. Shellfish were commonly eaten by people living on the coast, but the stormy weather and cool temperatures the country faced made sea fishing difficult.

When did the Iron Age end in Ireland?

It ran from around 500 BC until 400 AD when the Christian era began in the country. For England and Wales, the Iron Age ended in 43 AD when a Roman army quickly conquered the entire country, bringing with them the technology to make steel, but they didn’t reach Ireland because of their poor boat technology. The method of how to make steel was brought over from Mainland Britain by missionaries looking to spread Christianity, and because this new religion spread across the country so quickly, the knowledge of how to make steel spread with it, putting an end to the Irish iron age.

Clothing, life, and traditions

Numerous digs across the country have found the main source of clothing to be made from leather and wool. Flax was difficult to grow and the climate wasn’t the best for producing it, so wool and leather were the only options. Only fragments of clothing have been found as most pieces have long since rotted away, so we only have an idea of what a full outfit would look like, but all research suggests it would be very similar to the Celts of mainland Britain.

(Fort Dún Aonghasa located on the Aran islands in the west of the country)

Numerous gold artifacts including all types of jewelry and even small solid gold model boats have been unearthed, suggesting a deep social culture within their communities. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a written language until after the iron age ended and so there are no written records about their religions or what happened in the country at the time.