The author of Ireland's Holy Wars journeys through the Celtic world to discover the Celtic past and what remains of the authentic culture today, discovering that Celtic revival is largely misplaced and that the threats to the world's Celtic communities and culture are relentless.

'Informed, impeccably researched and written' Neil Oliver The Celts are one of the world's most mysterious ancient people. In this compelling account, Alice Roberts takes us on a journey across Europe, uncovering the truth about this engimatic tribe: their origins, their treasure and their enduring legacy today. What emerges is not a wild people, but a highly sophisticated tribal culture that influenced the ancient world - and even Rome. It is the story of a multicultural civilization, linked by a common language. It is the story of how ideas travelled in prehistory, how technology and art spread across the continent. It is the story of a five-hundred year fight between two civilizations that came to define the world we live in today. It is the story of a culture that changed Europe forever. 'Roberts's lightness of touch is joyous, and celebratory' Observer 'Clear-spoken and enthusiastic' Telegraph

“Finely researched and lucidly written . . . details the rise, ebb, and flow of the idea of a common Celtic identity linking Ireland and Wales.” —The New York Review of Books Who are the Celts, and what does it mean to be Celtic? In this book, Caoimhín De Barra focuses on nationalists in Ireland and Wales between 1860 and 1925, a time period when people in these countries came to identify themselves as Celts. De Barra chooses to examine Ireland and Wales because, of the six so-called Celtic nations, these two were the furthest apart in terms of their linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic differences. The Coming of the Celts, AD 1860 is divided into three parts. The first concentrates on the emergence of a sense of Celtic identity and the ways in which political and cultural nationalists in both countries borrowed ideas from one another in promoting this sense of identity. The second part follows the efforts to create a more formal relationship between the Celtic countries through the Pan-Celtic movement; the subsequent successes and failures of this movement in Ireland and Wales are compared and contrasted. Finally, the book discusses the public juxtaposition of Welsh and Irish nationalisms during the Irish Revolution. De Barra’s is the first book to critique what “Celtic” has meant historically, and it sheds light on the modern political and cultural connections between Ireland and Wales, as well as modern Irish and Welsh history. It will also be of interest to professional historians working in the field of “Four Nations” history, which places an emphasis on understanding the relationships and connections between the four nations of Britain and Ireland.

The story of North European cultural ancestors.

The Celtic peoples of the British Isles hold a fundamental place in our national consciousness. In this book Simon James surveys ancient and modern ideas of the Celts and challenges them in the light of revolutionary new thinking on the Iron Age peoples of Britain. Examining how ethnic and national identities are constructed, he presents an alternative history of the British Isles, proposing that the idea of insular Celtic identity is really a product of the rise of nationalism in the eighteenth century. He considers whether the 'Celticness' of the British Isles is a romantic fantasy, even a politically dangerous falsification of history which has implications in the current debate on devolution and self-government for the Celtic regions.

Scant records remain of the ancient Celtic religion beyond some eleventh- and twelfth-century written material from the Irish Celts and the great Welsh document Mabinogion. This classic study by a distinguished scholar, builds not only upon the surviving texts but also upon folk customs derived from the rituals of the old cults. A masterly and extremely readable survey, it offers a reconstruction of the essentials of Celtic paganism: fascinating glimpses into primitive forms of worship involving rites centered on rivers and wells, trees and plants, and animals; and examinations of evidence from Celtic burial mounds to explore beliefs and customs related to the culture of the dead, including rites of rebirth and transmigration.

Historian Markale takes us deep into a mythical world where both man and woman become whole by realizing the feminine principle in its entirety. The author explores the rich heritage of Celtic women in history, myth, and ritual, showing how these traditions compare to modern attitudes toward women.