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{{DES | des = No. Medieval Ireland was inherently hierarchical, familial and tribal, amongst other things... Unfree labour was a staple of the medieval Irish economy. Slavery was widespread until the early Christian period... So the claim that Ireland was a libertarian utopia is just completely untrue. It is just pure ideologically driven historical revisionism with little regard for historical fact and should be taken as seriously as the "lost cause" ideology also peddled by libertarians. | show=}}
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Pre-17th C Ireland: was it libertarian?
submitted 2 years ago * by matts2
Libertarians keep pointing to Ireland before the British conquered it as some wonderful libertarians society. (See Rothbard.) Does he accurately describe the society? He says there is no "state", but I just see a trial system of mini-states. So are there any experts here would who can give an accurate overview or reference list?
Thanks.
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[–]depanneurModerator | Pre-Norman Ireland | European Fascism until 1945 39 points 2 years ago* 
No. Medieval Ireland was inherently hierarchical, familial and tribal, amongst other things. Note that "familial" means that the family, and not the individual, was the primary basis of social interaction which to my understanding is the foundation of libertarian ideology. Kingship was limited by law, and I've heard libertarian claims that the tuath system of tribal organization was libertarian, but this ignores the fact that royal authority grew at the expense of the tuatha as early as the 8th century; Ireland had basically abandoned archaic systems of tribal identity and sacred tribal kings in favour of a political order which increasingly resembled feudalism. Donnachadh O Corrain explains this well:
Ireland had become [by the 8th century] (if in reality it was ever otherwise, I doubt) a land of dynastic overlordship in which kings of paramount dynasties extended their authority and their kindred in every direction which their resources allowed.
Unfree labour was a staple of the medieval Irish economy. Slavery was widespread until the early Christian period, but exploded with the expansion of Viking settlements in Ireland from the mid 9th to 11th centuries.
As well, clientship basically defined social relations, and the basest form of clientship approximated serfdom seen elsewhere in Europe. Irish kings had real social and political power that was realized through this clientship. Essentially Irish society was a big chain of clients, and at the top were the kings; although state coercion did not exist, coercion through custom and law did exist and kings had the right to call upon his clients for labour, warfare and tribute. Social mobility upwards and downwards was common (there is a proverb from the medieval era that goes "it is only one generation from the crown to the spade"), but this ignores the fact that Irish society was ultimately a hierarchical one dominated by aristocratic extended family-groups; nobles had higher honour-prices and could not be subject to base clientship (sort of like serfdom). Members of the specific social classes would never marry into classes beneath them. Ireland was so hierarchical that even the clothing worn by different classes was regulated by law; IIRC commoners could only wear brown or saffron coloured cloth, while the colour purple was restricted to the noblitiy. In early Ireland liberties were restricted by the same independent customs the author uses (somewhat spuriously) to make his point, not by a modern centralized state.
So the claim that Ireland was a libertarian utopia is just completely untrue. It is just pure ideologically driven historical revisionism with little regard for historical fact and should be taken as seriously as the "lost cause" ideology also peddled by libertarians. The author basically cherry picked a few facts concerning the Brehon laws and the tuath (which are incredibly misrepresented) while ignoring all the things that made medieval Ireland an oppressive, unequal place where the importance of the group (the derbfine or extended family group) took precedence over the individual. Also note that the article you presented does not cite any authorities on early Irish law and society like O Corrain or Binchy (or any historians of medieval Ireland for that matter), and instead cites articles from The Libertarian Forum and the Journal of Libertarian Studies. No primary sources are actually consulted, only what I can assume are their interpretations by Libertarian ideologues.
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