Galatia

 Anatolia Ancient Regions 

 Dying Gaul

Volcae_Tectosages

Why would I be talking about  Galatia on an Irish History blog. Well, because the Celts settled Galatia prior to or around the time they settled Ireland. There were different Celtic tribes as seen by the Briton, the Scots, the Welsh, and the Irish. However, Galatia intrigues me since there is a book of the Bible with the name Galatians.

Ancient Galatia ( /ɡəˈleɪʃə/; Greek: Γαλατία) was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East, Roman writers calling its inhabitants Galli (Gaul or Celt). The Galateans themselves were not literate, and their name for themselves remains unknown.

Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, on the south by Cilicia and Lycaonia, and on the west by Phrygia. Its capital was Ancyra (i.e. Ankara, today the capital of modern Turkey ).

Seeing something of a Hellenized savage in the Galatians, Francis Bacon and other Renaissance writers called them "Gallo-Graeci", "Gauls settled among the Greeks" and the country "Gallo-Graecia", as had the 3rd century AD Latin historian Justin. The more usual term in Antiquity is Ἑλληνογαλάται (Hellēnogalátai) of Diodorus Siculus' Biblioteca historica v.32.5, in a passage that is translated "...and were called Gallo-Graeci because of their connection with the Greeks", identifying Galatia in the Greek East as opposed to Gallia in the West.




The Galatians were in their origin a part of the great Celtic migration which invaded Macedon, led by Brennus. The original Celts who settled in Galatia came through Thrace under the leadership of Leotarios and Leonnorios circa 270 BC. These Celts consisted of three tribes, the Tectosages, the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii.

Brennus invaded Greece in 281 BC with a huge war band and was turned back in the nick of time from plundering the temple of Apollo at Delphi. At the same time, another Gaulish group of men, women, and children were migrating through Thrace. They had split off from Brennus' people in 279 BC, and had migrated into Thrace under their leaders Leonnorius and Lutarius. These invaders appeared in Asia Minor in 278–277 BC; others invaded Macedonia, killed the Ptolemaic ruler Ptolemy Ceraunus but were eventually ousted by Antigonus Gonatas, the grandson of the defeated Diadoch Antigonus the One-Eyed.

The invaders came at the invitation of Nicomedes I of Bithynia, who required help in a dynastic struggle against his brother. Three tribes crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the same number of women and children, divided into three tribes, Trocmi, Tolistobogii and Tectosages. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Celts. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated.

Instead, the migration led to the establishment of a long-lived Celtic territory in central Anatolia, which included the eastern part of ancient Phrygia, a territory that became known as Galatia. There they ultimately settled, and being strengthened by fresh accessions of the same clan from Europe, they overran Bithynia and supported themselves by plundering neighbouring countries.

The Gauls invaded the eastern part of Phrygia on at least one occasion.

The constitution of the Galatian state is described by Strabo: conformably to custom, each tribe was divided into cantons, each governed by a chief ('tetrarch') of its own with a judge under him, whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the twelve cantons and meeting at a holy place, twenty miles southwest of Ancyra, written in Greek as Drynemeton (Gallic *daru-nemeton holy place of oak). It is likely it was a sacred oak grove, since the name means "sanctuary of the oaks" (from drys, meaning "oak" and nemeton, meaning "sacred ground"). The local population of Cappadocians were left in control of the towns and most of the land, paying tithes to their new overlords, who formed a military aristocracy and kept aloof in fortified farmsteads, surrounded by their bands.

These Celts were warriors, respected by Greeks and Romans (illustration, below). They were often hired as mercenary soldiers, sometimes fighting on both sides in the great battles of the times. For years the chieftains and their war bands ravaged the western half of Asia Minor, as allies of one or other of the warring princes, without any serious check, until they sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor. Hierax tried to defeat king Attalus I of Pergamum (241–197 BC), but instead, the Hellenized cities united under Attalus's banner, and his armies inflicted several severe defeats upon them, about 232 forcing them to settle permanently and to confine themselves to the region to which they had already given their name. The theme of the Dying Gaul (a famous statue displayed in Pergamon) remained a favorite in Hellenistic art for a generation.

Their right to the district was formally recognized. The three Celtic Galatian tribes remained as described above:

1. the Tectosages in the centre, round with their capital Ancyra,
2. the Tolistobogii on the west, round Pessinus as their chief town, sacred to Cybele, and
3. the Trocmi on the east, round their chief town Tavium. Each tribal territory was divided into four cantons or tetrarchies. Each of the twelve tetrarchs had under him a judge and a general. A council of the nation consisting of the tetrarchs and three hundred senators was periodically held at Drynemeton.

The king of Attalid Pergamene employed their services in the increasingly devastating wars of Asia Minor; another band deserted from their Egyptian overlord Ptolemy IV after a solar eclipse had broken their spirits.

In the early 2nd century BC, they proved terrible allies of Antiochus the Great, the last Seleucid king trying to regain suzerainty over Asia Minor. In 189 BC, Rome sent Gnaeus Manlius Vulso on an expedition against the Galatians, the Galatian War. He defeated them. Galatia was henceforth dominated by Rome through regional rulers from 189 BC onward. Galatia declined and fell at times under Pontic ascendancy. They were finally freed by the Mithridatic Wars, during which they supported Rome.

In the settlement of 64 BC, Galatia became a client-state of the Roman empire, the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled "tetrarchs") were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, Deiotarus, the contemporary of Cicero and Julius Caesar, who made himself master of the other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as 'king' of Galatia.

Upon the death of Deiotarus, the Kingdom of Galatia was given to Amyntas, an auxiliary commander in the Roman army of Brutus and Cassius who gained the favor of Mark Antony. However, on his death in 25 BC, Galatia was incorporated by Octavian Augustus into the Roman Empire, becoming a Roman province. Near his capital Ancyra (modern Ankara), Pylamenes, the king's heir, rebuilt a temple of the Phrygian god Men to venerate Augustus (the Monumentum Ancyranum), as a sign of fidelity. It was on the walls of this temple in Galatia that the major source for the Res Gestae of Augustus were preserved for modernity. Few of the provinces proved more enthusiastically loyal to Rome. The Galatians also practised a form of Romano-Celtic polytheism, common in Celtic lands.
During his second missionary journey, St. Paul of Tarsus, accompanied by Silas and Timothy (Acts 16:6), visited the "region of Galatia," where he was detained by sickness (Galatians 4:13).

Josephus related the Biblical figure Gomer to Galatia (or perhaps to Gaul in general): "For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, [Galls,] but were then called Gomerites." Others have related Gomer to Cimmerians.

The Galatians were still speaking the Galatian language (Gaulish) in the time of St. Jerome (347–420 AD), who wrote that the Galatians of Ancyra and the Treveri of Trier (in what is now the German Rhineland) spoke the same language (Comentarii in Epistolam ad Galatos, 2.3, composed c. 387).
In an administrative reorganisation about 386–95 two new provinces succeeded it, Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris, which included part of Phrygia. The fate of the Galatian people is a subject of some uncertainty, but they seem ultimately to have been absorbed into the Greek-speaking populations of west-central Anatolia.

There was a short-lived eleventh century attempt to re-establish an independent Galatia by Roussel de Bailleul.

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - John Beirne, Sr.

John Beirne, Sr (1 April 1893, date of death unknown) was an Irish Clann na Talmhan politician. A shopkeeper and farmer, Beirne was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election as a Clann na Talmhan Teachta Dála (TD) for the Roscommon constituency and he was re-elected at the 1944 general election.

His son John Beirne, Jnr also served as a Clann na Talmhan TD for Roscommon from 1948–61.

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - Michael Hilliard

Michael Hilliard (11 March 1903 – 1 January 1982) was an Irish Fianna Fáil Party politician.
He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election, as a TD for Meath–Westmeath. During his career he served in the governments of Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch. During his tenure as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs Hilliard oversaw the introduction of a television service in Ireland, Radio Telefís Éireann.

He retained his Dáil seat at eight further general elections, switching to the new Meath constituency after constituencies were revised for the 1948 general election. However, at the 1973 general election, he lost his seat to his party colleague Brendan Crinion. He did not contest any further Dáil elections.
While a TD in 1973, Hilliard was appointed a Member of the European Parliament as part of Ireland's short-lived first delegation.

His son Colm Hilliard was Fianna Fáil TD for Meath from 1982–1997.

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - Dominick Cafferky

Dominick Cafferky (died 15 March 1971) was an Irish Clann na Talmhan politician. A farmer, from Kilkelly County Mayo, he was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election as a Clann na Talmhan Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency. He was re-elected at the 1944 general election but lost his seat at the 1948 general election. He re-gained his seat at the 1951 general election but again lost his seat at the 1954 general election. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1957 and 1961 general elections.

In the early 1940s, Cafferky was imprisoned with Bernard Commons for one month in Sligo Jail for his part in the Mayo land agitation, after which he won a Dáil seat.

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - Joseph Blowick

Joseph Blowick (13 March 1903 – 12 August 1970) was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1943 as a Clann na Talmhan Teachta Dála (TD) for Mayo South. He succeeded Michael Donnellan as leader of the party in 1944. Blowick was appointed to the Cabinet in the two Inter-Party governments, serving under John A. Costello as Minister for Lands on both occasions. The cigar-smoking Blowick was elected to Dáil Éireann at every election until 1965 when he retired from politics.

Black Irish

As an American of Irish descent, I was told the term "Black Irish" to the Irish on the southeast coast of Ireland that intermingled with the Spanish during the time the Spanish Armada was fighting the British fleet. The Spanish supposedly used the southeast coast of Ireland as a base of operations. I never questioned the logic of that and still don't. However, I have learned that may not be true. The following is from an article in Irish Central:

Illustration of the "Shanty Irish" / "Black Irish" by F. Opper

The term 'Black Irish' has commonly been in circulation among Irish emigrants and their descendants for centuries. As a subject of historical discussion the subject is almost never referred to in Ireland. There are a number of different claims as to the origin of the term, none of which are possible to prove or disprove.

'Black Irish' is often a description of people of Irish origin who had dark features, black hair, dark complexion and eyes.

A quick review of Irish history reveals that the island was subject to a number of influxes of foreign people. The Celts arrived on the island about the year 500 B.C.

Whether or not this was an actual invasion or rather a more gradual migration and assimilation of their culture by the natives is open to conjecture, but there is sufficient evidence to suggest that this later explanation is more likely.

The next great influx came from Northern Europe with Viking raids occurring as early as 795 A.D. The defeat of the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in the year 1014 by Brian Boru marked the end of the struggle with the invaders and saw the subsequent integration of the Vikings into Irish society. The migrants became 'Gaelicized' and formed septs (a kind of clan) along Gaelic lines.

The Norman invasions of 1170 and 1172 led by Strongbow saw yet another wave of immigrants settle in the country, many of whom fiercely resisted English dominance of the island in the centuries that followed. The Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century saw the arrival of English and Scottish colonists in Ulster after the 'Flight of the Earls'.

Each of these immigrant groups had their own physical characteristics and all, with the exception of the Ulster Planters, assimilated to some degree into Irish society, many claiming to be 'more Irish than the Irish themselves!'

The Vikings were often referred to as the 'dark invaders' or 'black foreigners'. The Gaelic word for foreigner is 'gall' and for black (or dark) is 'dubh'.

Many of the invaders families took Gaelic names that utilized these two descriptive words. The name Doyle is in Irish 'O'Dubhghaill' which literally means 'dark foreigner' which reveals their heritage as an invading force with dark intentions.

The name Gallagher is 'O Gallchobhair' which translates as 'foreign help'. The traditional image of Vikings is of pale-skinned blond-haired invaders but their description as 'dark foreigners' may lead us to conclude that their memory in folklore does not just depend on their physical description.

The Normans were invited into Ireland by Dermot McMurrough and were led by the famous Strongbow. Normans are ultimately of French origin where black haired people are not uncommon. As with the Vikings these were viewed as a people of 'dark intentions' who ultimately colonized much of the Eastern part of the country and several larger towns.

Many families however integrated into Gaelic society and changed their Norman name to Gaelic and then Anglo equivalents: the Powers, the Fitzpatricks, Fitzgeralds, Devereuxs, Redmonds.

According to Wikipedia:

Black Irish is an ambiguous term used mainly outside of Ireland. Over the course of history, and in different parts of the Irish diaspora throughout the world, it has been subject to several different although somewhat overlapping meanings, encompassing physical appearance, religious affiliation, ethnicity, subculture and poverty. Modern traditionalists, however, maintain the term to be synonymous with a dark-haired phenotype exhibited by certain individuals originally descended from Ireland. Opinions vary in regard to what is perceived as the usual physical characteristics of the so-called Black Irish: e.g., dark hair, brown eyes and medium skin tone; or dark hair, blue or green eyes and fair skin tone. Unbeknown to some who have used this term at one time or another, dark hair in people of Irish descent is extremely common, although darker skin complexions appear less frequently.

Early 21st century genetic studies have provided new insights into the origins of Irish people as well as their neighbours in the British Isles. Correspondingly, researchers in the field have suggested that migrations from Prehistoric Iberia (Spain, Portugal and also the Basque region) can be viewed as the primary source for their genetic material, having demonstrated marked similarities with modern representatives of the aforementioned time period in that of the Basque people. However, the majority of Irish males fall under the R1b sub-clade L-21, which is quite rare for Basques.

The first clear evidence of human habitation in Ireland has been carbon dated to about 7000 BC. Legends, such as those described in the Book of Invasions, refer to a number of pre-historical ethnic groups, including the Fomorians, Nemedians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha Dé Danann and Milesians. Despite the lack of empirical data linking them to the Irish, one or more of these races have been acknowledged in previous and current ancestral studies, such as Dennis O'Mullally's History of O'Mullally and Lally Clan, or The history of an Irish family through the ages intertwined with that of the Irish nation, wherein the author points to the Fir Bolg as "the aboriginal people of Ireland, smaller in stature than the Gaels, with jet-black hair and dark eyes, contrasting with unusually white skin."

The physical traits of the black Irish are sometimes thought to have been the result of an Iberian admixture originating with survivors of the Spanish Armada. Most Armada survivors were killed on the beaches, and many of the remnants eventually escaped from Ireland, but a group of Spanish soldiers ended up serving as armed retainers to the Irish chiefs Brian O'Rourke, Sorley Boy MacDonnell and Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone.

The genetic evidence is that the survivors of the Spanish Armada probably left no legacy, as the Irish have only minute amounts of Neolithic Italic Y chromosome genetic markers, such as G and J, which are present in trace levels throughout Spain. These results may be spurious as the Atlantic Modal Haplotype R1b is present in most Western European males including most Spanish and Irish males.

The Spanish Armada myth is thought to have been a corruption of a story based on the Milesians, the purported descendants of Míl Espáine (Latin Miles Hispaniae, "Soldier of Hispania", later pseudo-Latinised as "Milesius"), speculated to represent Celtic-speaking peoples from the western Iberian peninsula who began to migrate to Ireland and Britain in the fifth century B.C. Genetic research shows a strong similarity between the Y chromosome haplotypes of males from north-western Spain and northern Portugal and Irish men with Gaelic surnames. There is a significant difference between peoples of the west and the east of Ireland. Genetic marker R1b reaches frequencies as high as 98% in north-western Ireland and 95% in south-western Ireland, but drops to 73% in north-eastern Ireland and 85% in south-eastern Ireland. Additionally, R1b averages between 90% and 95% in Y chromosomes of the Basques of northern Spain (and south-western France), considerably greater than levels of the same haplogroup found amongst the remaining Spanish genepool, where it varies from region to region in a range from 42% to 75%, but mostly with percentages in the 50s and 60s.

In recently published books (Blood of the Isles by Bryan Sykes and The Origins of the British - A Genetic Detective Story by Stephen Oppenheimer), both authors propose that ancient inhabitants of Ireland can be traced back to the Iberian Peninsula, as a result of a series of migrations that took place during the Mesolithic and to a lesser extent the Neolithic Age. The Ice Age caused the depopulation of the British Isles. After glaciers retreated, the islands were populated by migrations from the Iberian Peninsula. These migrations laid the foundations for present-day populations in the British Isles, contributing three-quarters of the ancestral population, according to Oppenheimer. Later migrations of Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans appear to be much less significant in terms of genetic additions than previously thought. Oppenheimer maintains there is a great lineal commonality between the Irish and British people. He also advances the controversial claim that a language closely related to Basque was long ago spoken by their shared ancestors.

A similar theory was examined in the early 1980s by Bob Quinn with his trilogy of documentary films entitled Atlantean. He argued for the existence of a west Atlantic continuum of people, and linked the region of Connemara, in Ireland's West, with Iberian and Berber types who supposedly travelled from across the sea over a period spanning several thousand years.

C. Wesley Dupertuis conducted a survey of Irish people in the 1940s under the guidance of the Department of Anthropology of Harvard University, and gathered the following data.

The hair colour of the Irish is predominantly brown The most common Hair colour is dark brown. Less than 15% have black or ashen hair; 50% have dark brown hair. Medium brown hues make up another 15%. Persons with blond and light brown hair account for close to 5%, while approximately 10% have auburn or red hair. Both golden and dark brown shades can be seen in the south-western counties of Ireland, but fairest hair in general is most common in the Central Plain. Ulster has been evidenced to have the highest frequencies of red and blonde hair, with the lowest found in Wexford and Waterford.

Studies have indicated the Irish are "almost uniquely pale skinned when unexposed, untanned parts of the body, are observed" and "40% of the entire group are freckled to some extent." Moreover, "in the proportion of pure light eyes", data shows that "Ireland competes successfully with the blondest regions of Scandinavia", as approximately 42% of the Irish population have pure blue eyes. Another 30% have been found to possess light-mixed eyes and "less than 1 half of 1% have pure brown".

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - James Kilroy

James Kilroy (1890 – 5 January 1954) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. A farmer, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo North constituency at the 1943 general election, and was re-elected at the 1944 and 1948 general elections. He lost his Dáil seat at the 1951 general election but at the subsequent 1951 Seanad election, he was elected on the Agricultural Panel.