Lesson Eighteen ~ Fate and the Justice System
In this lesson we will look at the unusual law codes of ancient Ireland, which are very similar to those of pre-Norman Wales (and so probably of the rest of Britain, once upon a time.) In future lessons we will look in more detail, for now we will focus on how the laws illustrate the underlying principles, as to what the old tribes considered justice to be. Having thought about human justice, we will have a brief reflection on the nature of divine justice and how the spiritual world works in this respect.
Most modern justice systems around the world tend to be based mainly upon the idea of retribution ~ legislators believe (probably correctly) that the public wish to see miscreants punished. Some countries favour imprisonment, others opt for flogging, chopping off hands, or other physical torments. The main emphasis in the Fenechus law system was upon restitution ~ the wish to see the victim compensated by the offender. This may be one of the reasons why the early insular tribes do not appear to have had prisons, and why the Fenechus laws made little use of execution, whipping or other such punishments. The rehabilitation of the criminal, or the deterrence of future crime, took secondary places to the healing of the wounds suffered by the victim and their family or protectors.
Not all societies think of crime in the same sort of way. The Laws of the Fenechus spoke of five primary categories of crime, defined in the ‘Book of Aicill’ as:
“Five-fold are crimes:
the crime of the hand, by wounding or stealing;
the crime of the foot, by kicking or moving to do evil deeds;
the crime of the tongue, by satire, slander or false witness;
the crime of the mouth, by eating stolen things;
the crime of the eye, by watching while an evil deed is taking place.”
Whilst modern Britain has the idea of slander and libel (crimes of the tongue), these are considered civil offences and are very difficult to deal with unless the person slandered is wealthy enough to afford fancy lawyers. The tribes took the idea of a damaged reputation far more seriously. Crimes of the eye is an unusual concept for us, in that it made forcsiu a criminal act ~ overlooking, or standing idly by and failing to report or intervene in an offence. We do have the idea of abetting after the offence (concealing someone else’s crime), but forcsiu is rather more far-ranging. This emphasises an important aspect of the Celtic approach to justice ~ law was held in the hands of all, not just a ruling elite.
Even whilst Ireland was becoming increasingly Christian, its laws retained the ideal of localised justice. This means that it was considered the responsibility of all citizens of the tribe to ensure justice was done, rather than simply to expect some external power (like the government) to come along and do it for them. Two good examples of this are the digal and the troscad, which were enshrined in law.
The digal was a form of legalised feud. If someone had been attacked in some way, and the criminal either escaped the courts or refused to pay whatever compensation was ordered by them, then the wounded party could call a digal. This meant that any family, ceilidh (clients), bondsmen etc associated with the wounded party were obliged to hunt the criminal down and bring them to justice. Failure to take part in a legally sanctioned digal was itself a crime.
The troscad was a form of protest, commonly used in prisons around the world these days under the name of a hunger strike. Again, it could be used by a wounded person in protests against a criminal who refused to pay their court fines. The Brehon laws specified certain class boundaries as to who could use the troscad to protest against whom. The essential feature was that the aggrieved person should sit near the home of the person who had offended them, and starve themselves. Every passer-by would be informed as to why the troscad was taking place, thus damaging the reputation ~ and so the honour-price ~ of the crook. Eventually most people would pay up rather than have their good names totally ruined by seeing the protestor die of starvation. It was not unknown for tradesmen with unpaid bills to use the same method to get justice (and payment.) Should the person actually die, the target of the protest would have to pay damages to the family for murder.
The emphasis in these two examples is that justice is the responsibility of all people, not just something in the hands of kings and politicians. Translating this to an everyday level, if you are victimised by someone who appears to be eluding the courts, you have a responsibility to bring them to some form of justice. Likewise, one should support kith and kin when they have been ill-used by some third party.
The ancient British and Irish appear to have had no form of police force to enforce laws, though they had people such as the dalaigh (barristers) to investigate crimes and present evidence of guilt or innocence to the judges and chieftains. If someone utterly refused to pay their fines or submit to whatever punishment was meted out to them, then there appears to have been little that the law system could have done to make them obey (unlike many countries where a militia could have been sent in to drag people to prison, or execute them.) An interesting quote comes from Vincent Salafia:
“The only executive authority in ancient Ireland, which lay behind the decision of the judge, was the traditional obedience and the good sense of the people. The public appears to have seen to it that the decision of the Brehon was carried out. This seems to have been indeed the very essence of democratic government with no executive authority behind it but the will of the people, and it appears to have trained a law-abiding and intelligent public.”
It may be worth pausing a while to consider how this contrasts to modern attitudes to the law ~ have we grown too large as a society to enforce the law without it descending into violent mob rule? Can such a system only exist in a sparsely populated land? Does it require everyone to have the same cultural values, or could it operate in a multicultural country?
The many laws of Ireland (and maybe the same was true with the British tribes before the coming of Rome) were revised every three years during Samhain at the Feis Tamhair ~ the Great Feast of Tara. This was a gathering of the brehons, chieftains and other bigwigs. The brehons would recite the laws that existed, and then the company would debate adding new laws, dropping out-dated laws, amending inadequate laws etc. Doubtless all this pomp and ceremony would have been attended with religious rituals, feasting and celebration. In running a modern Druid group it might be worth thinking about imitating this ~ perhaps having a ritual once every three years where the “laws” and precepts of the group are recited and revised.
Truth was an important concept to the old tribes. We have the myth of the Cup of Wonder presented to King Cormac by Manannan, after some grand adventures. If a lie were ever spoken by a person holding the Cup, it would crack into three pieces (presumably spilling mead all over them in the process.) To mend the Cup, three truths had to spoken over it. A not dissimilar legend was told of a famous brehon who wore a neck torque that would tighten every time he gave a false judgement in court, then loosen when he gave a true judgement. One of the Gaelic words for deception or falsehood is eitged, which is mentioned extensively in the ‘Book of Aicill’. Poetically, it talks about white eitged (smarmy flattery) and black eitged (satirical cursing), and allots different levels of fine for different types of eitged.
Many religions have the idea of Divine Justice, that some force brings about both punishment of the wicked and reward of the worthy, even if human agencies often fail to do either. Hindus, for example, talk about karma ~ the idea that every action has a consequence, and that one must learn to live with (and learn from) the natural results of ones own deeds.
In Gaelic we have the word dan, which has many meanings. One of these meanings is fate, another gift or talent. Whilst, from an etymological viewpoint, these two meanings come from separate sources, they gel nicely. They convey the idea of fate, destiny, call it what you will, giving people gifts ~ almost like the Fairy Godmothers in Sleeping Beauty dishing out blessings. These gifts may be socially desirable skills, they might be strange things that society fears of disapproves of, they may be experiences that come in life for good or ill ~ but they are gifts, opportunities that are there to be seized and made the most of. As with many other cultures, a gift begets a gift ~ if fate gives you an opportunity which you take, there is an obligation to give something back. The talented poet might use their skill to praise the Gods, or lift peoples hearts with beautiful words. The gifted doctor uses their skills to help heal people, perhaps especially those who cannot always afford medicines.
Fate, or dan, may be seen as visiting opportunities and gifts on people. Even if they don’t always feel like gifts at the time! Look to what life offers as a potential opportunity to develop something useful to both yourself and the tribe. People who have lead appallingly dishonest lives may be given the opportunity to put right what they have done wrong, though wether they see this as a “gift”or not, is another question.
The early Celts appear to have had no notion of Hell, or any other place of punishment for the naughty. It may be that the wicked were considered to be given second chances to put right their mistakes, rather than being tormented for doing them. In a culture of recompense, the victims of wrongdoings may have been given back (in the Otherworld, or in some future incarnation in this world) the things that were taken from them.
Some questions for you to think about:
In the modern world what is more important when dealing with wrong-doing (be it serious crime, badly behaved children, or whatever)… making the wrong-doer suffer, recompensing the victim, rehabilitating the miscreant, scaring other people off from committing the same crime, or something else again?
The troscad is an example of ancient people taking responsibility for making justice happen within their own communities. What methods are available to you for bringing some miscreant (wether they have broken the law, or just offended your moral sensibilities) to justice?
Hinduism has the idea of karma, and Christianity the idea of Heaven and Hell. Do you feel that the Gods take any part in the administration of justice (punishing the wicked, rewarding the good etc)? If human justice fails, and the innocent are wrongly punished or the dishonourable get away with things, is there any other force that can put right what has gone wrong?
Practical exercise:
Take part in a campaign for justice. This could be something like working for Amnesty as a letter-writer, or it could be going on a protest march for some cause you believe in, or trying to put right some injustice which you have either suffered or caused. The amount of time you devote tot his is entirely up to you.
If you have the opportunity, sit in the public gallery during a trial (doesn’t matter what for) as a means of seeing how the justice system in your country works. In the same vein, consider becoming a prison visitor in order to learn about that aspect of justice.