The peregrinations of the Celts in their disparate cultures lie far and wide, not just from Dunkirk to Belgrade as the poet Davis speaks of its soldiers and chiefs, but from Erin’s Green Isle to Asia Minor’s Dervish Anatolia.  “Very few countries in Europe do not share a Celtic past” – say Haywood and Conliffe. ¹
“Les Celtes qui se répandirent dans presque toute l’Europe et qui  établirent des colonies jusqu’au coeur de l’Asie Mineure, en Galatie, parlaient une langue, le celtique, dont le breton de Bretagne et le gallois du Pays de Galles sont, entre autres, issus.” 2

“They fought as they reveled, fast, fiery and true
And they, who survived, fought and drank as of yore
But the lands of their heart’s hope they never saw more" 3

Jerome, homme de Dieu, accomplished philologist and vulgate scriptor grants his ready ability to trace the Sanskrit indo-european parent in the Celtic tongues of Gaul and Galatia and even the sparse remnants in Iberia though Romanization had been at its most thorough there, despite the sacrifice of Viriatius.  Boii and Galatoi Celts, with blood curling screams, emitted from naked bodies blue, portering wailing pipes and clanging swords, wrecked fatal havoc on the old Etruscan civilization as they withdrew from cringing Rome (toting a bribe of some three hundred kilos of gold in the collective sparán), to loci in Cisalpine Gaul above the Po circa 388 BCE.  Delphi threatening Galatoi (Keltoi), invited by the Supremo of Pontus to ‘settle’ in Phrygia circa 250 BCE became the Galations of Anatolia a mere three centuries before being epistled by Paul of Tarsus.  There must be a parallel, between this act of the Pontus Monarch and that of Lord Protector Cromwell, (juxtapositioned of course) for both generously donated that which was not theirs to give.  They will testify that hell and Connaught are very varied as to weather and durability.  

The two Greats, Alexander and Charles received Celtic emissaries at their respective courts 325 BCE and 850 CE.  The latter Magna, seated across a groaning board from Johannes Scottus Eriugena elicited ‘what divides a Scot from a sot.’  The nimble Irishman responded – “the board my lord”.  N.B. Celtic nomenclature is quite interchangeable especially in Latinate forms (Scotti = Irish).  Though the Celtici of Iberia fell to the legions of Rome circa 210 BCE their posterity remain immensely proud of their Celtic – Galician roots.  Holy ground for them is ancient Numantia, twixt Douro and Guadalquivir.  The river still dances.

‘Omnes Gallia in tres partes divisa est’ pens bloody Caesar as he celebrated his decimation of the Gauls in 52 BCE by putting the great Celtic Chief Vercingetorix (yes! he of the picture – books of our youth) to death, and some fifty thousand of his Loire people to boot after the resolute Siege of Alesia.  The Roman Emperor really had no idea of the dimensions of the diaspora he sought to subjugate. 

“Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl I mi,
Gwlad  beirdd a chantorion, enwogion of fri,          (P)
Ei gwrol ryfelwyr,gwlatgrwyr tra mad,
Dtros ryddid collasant eu gwaed.” 4

“Anocht a théam sa bhearna bhaoil,
Le gean ar Ghaeil chun báis nó saoil,                      (Q)
Le gunna-scréach faoi lámhach na bpiléar
Seo libh canaig’ Amhrán na bhFiann.” 5

The celebrated cultures of Hallstadt circa 600 BCE and La Tene circa 400 BCE have left a much treasured trove of votive artifax central to the celtic identity of Brythonic (P), Goidelic (Q) peoples remaining vibrant on the fringe of Europe in Alba (Scotland), Eriu (Ireland), Cymru (Wales) and Breizh (Armorican Brittany) and throughout a vast diaspora in near and far reaches of all four cardinal points.  In P and Q Celtic  (exp Welsh and Irish) mediums of myth and legend: man, god and goddesses are demi-monde as in Latin and Greek classics.  Likewise with Hittite, Sumarian, Aryan, Egyptian, Norse and Gothic sagas, ‘in-body’ experience is capricious for the notion of ‘shape shifting’ from god, to man to animal and vice versa was normative. 

The Kelt (Celt) reared on a fare of ‘poetic narrative’ as that of Manaman Mac Lír, The Swans Of Coole, Fionn and Sadhb, The Carnal Knowledge of Epona, Rhydderch and Mabinogion’s Rhiannon, Arianrod and Blodeuwedd, Cúchulainn and Ferdia, Oisín and Niamh in Tír na Nóg, has an infused and imbued respect for “all things bright and beautiful, all things both great and small”.  Evidence of the Kelt’s ground of being, a zoomorphic - metamorphic world, is all permeating.  In that glorious art produce of monasteries, assiduous monks, copying the words of Holy Scripture were yet bent on retaining the old oral ‘dites’ pagan ancestral tradition.  Stone and metal throughout that impressive area influenced by Celts, sport testimony to their ‘wild’ imagination and ‘immense’ inventiveness. 6

In the Ulster Cycle (Craobh Rua) which is common to Dál Riaga (Alba) as well, for the two lands of the Red Hand were one Kingdom, the Ulaidh hero Cúchulainn is of the demi – monde, a man / god son of Lugh the solar deity at whose feast, Lughnasa, we are invited to dance.  Setanta becomes the hound of Culann upon lodging a sliotar in the ferocious guarding beast’s throat with a puck from his comán.  Joined with the Fenian cycle where the hounds Bran and Sceolang vie with Fionn Mac Cumhaill their master, for multiple stanzas of poetic hunt lore, the role of the dog in Celtic Mythology is assured.  
“Do glaoidh ar Sceolang is ar Bhran
Is do leigh fead orthu Araon. 
Gan fhios do cách san sliabh
Lean go dian an eilit mhaoil.” 7

It is no surprise to find canine parallels in other Proto Celtic lands.  The Anatolian Shepherd has evolved to look somewhat like the sheep he guards so skillfully east of the Bosporus, as has curiously, the all white, Ackbash.  Celtici of areas straddling the Pyrenees and their sangfroid Roman vanquishers and integrators lay claim to those coated elegant canines (so fondly shown off by stylish ladies), the Barbet – the Molossian Pyr – the St. Hubert Basset, the ingratiating Epagnol of Astoria Gallaecl and Briard as evidenced in art depicting Charlemagne himself in the Louvre, Paris (home deja of the Celtic Parisii).  The Legion would also fain lay claim to the Vlams Bouvier, the Scots Collie and the Bernese of Helvetia.  Dare they at peril appropriate the Deerhound of Alba, the Shepherd of Picardy, the Wolf Hound of Eriu, the Diaspora Kelpie of Aussi Land, and the Beagle Beag of the Greci whose “aililu, aililu would awaken the dead, at the sound of the horn in the morning”. 8   Note that the Romans Gratius and Pliny laud the Celtic dogs for their bravura not for ‘giving mouth’.
“I have heard a red Beagle’s cry
On the slope beside the stream
It has raised the waves of my head
The sweet voiced Beagle’s bay.” 9

While each Celtic region of antiquity can certainly claim to its proper dog or dogs, the Island of Ireland, Eriu of yore, has no fewer than nine native breeds.  The deploratory colonial statutes of the frequently absent planted landlord class insisted on ‘lawing’ of dogs so that the flora of their aristocrats’ estates not be subject to poaching by mere Irish.  (Lawing = curtailing a dog’s movement with a wooden hobble.)  The dogs, to which these woebegone Celts had access legally, were solely for vermin control.  The Glen of Imaal terrier and the Irish Terrier earned a reputation as excellent ratters.  In Kerry a Beagle and a Water Spaniel, the latter reputed to have Armada connections evolved.  The former the Kerry Beagle is protected in Éire and the Republic of Ireland grants few export permits.  Only four legged Black and Tans are close to the Celtic heart.  Of the four Terrier breeds, developed by the native Irish to challenge English appropriation, the Wheaten is supposedly the less sophisticated in aspect (his amants would definitely disagree.)  None would question his working ability nor his ability to charm his way on to the lap. 

The Cú (Wolfhound) that tall, elegant, gentle giant dog, subject of ancient and medieval saga and rime and modern lyric and ballad, would not have survived were it not for the heroic efforts of that benevolent Scots soldier, Captain Graham, who recognized the danger after the wolf in the isles ceased to be.  This gentle giant, the Fenian metamorphing spirit of oldest Celtic experience now graces many homes and meets, no longer the preserve of the ‘titled’. 

“Bran and beautiful Sceolang
His own hounds in the king’s hand:           Kuno Meyer
Dearly loved Fionn these hounds
Good their courage and achievement.” 10

“Yellow legs had Bran,
Both sides black and her belly white,          Mac Cana 
Above loins a speckled back,
And two crimson ears very red.” 11

And now to the most lauded of all breeds - the SETTER.  Long before the advent of guns to the hunting scene a Red and White dog ‘set’ to freeze its feathery prey, thus giving its master netting opportunity.  This first of Setters may have some Iberian blood as Dr. Caius intimates circa 1555 CE.  The Red Irish, the Gordon and the English in turn owe much to the Red and White Irish Setter genetics.  Sometimes the Irish R&W throws almost all red issue and about 1860 a taste for the all red developed which had a deleterious effect, as show folk turned their backs on the party-coloured animal.  Were it not for Rev. Noble Huston, circa 1919, who claimed more endurance, enhanced visibility, tractability and better hunting ability for the Red and White, posterity would be the poorer.  With Rossmore, Elliot / Killen relatives at Eldron Monaghan in Ulster and fellow Ministers of his Presbyterian persuasion, he sought out the few remaining viable specimens for breeding.  Their renaissance was not to be denied but by 1943 survival of the breed was again in jeopardy.  Maureen and William Cuddy at Knockalla encouraged by friends Kerr, Nash, Gaynor and Mooney took up the cause and aided by the esteemed Father Patrick Doherty, (The Canon) Ms. Daly of Killarney (Sheebhín), Rev Dan Griffin of Brosna, the Gormleys of Meudon and sassanach friends (yes it is possible) etc., a surer footing was established which was crowned at Crufts in 1980 when Harlequin of Knockalla stole the show. 

Recognized by the CKC in 2000 and the AKC in 2009 The Irish Red and White Setter in this wee bit of the Celtic Diaspora goes from strength to strength.  Go maire siad is sibh I gcónaí. Long may you and they prosper.  SVP Celtic scribes and scribblers from our vast ‘empire’ make us your auditors.  Tell the tales of the canine tails proper to your areas.  We can all be rightly proud of their co existence with us for some three millennia.

 1 The Celts, Conliffe/Haywood, p. 17.
 2 One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry, Thomás Davis, p. 477.
 3 Le Breton Fanch Mortannou Assimil, p. 3.
 4 National Anthem of Wales.
 5 National Anthem of Ireland.
 6 An Ulster Hymnal, Armagh, IRL. 5.
 7 An Duanaire, Seán Ua Tuama, Dolmen p.
 8 John Peel, Rossmore, Westenra (Hunting Songs).
 9 Duanaire Fionn, Louvain, Trans Eóin Mac Néill.
10 Fiannaíocht, Laoi na Seilge, Trans. Kuno Meyer, Dias
11 Fiannaíocht, Laoi na Seilge, Trans. Mac Cana, Dias.

©  Dr. Albrecht Ua Sighail - 2011