The Cruthin () or Cruithne () were a people of early medieval Ireland. Their heartland was in Ulster and included parts of the present-day counties of Antrim, Down and Londonderry. Although the evidence is that they were Gaels, their name is believed to be the Irish equivalent of *Pritanī, the reconstructed native name of the Celtic Britons, and Cruthin was sometimes used to refer to the Picts, but their relationship to these peoples is unclear. The 17th century Leabhar na nGenealach claims that the Conaille, the Loígis and the Sogain are also of Cruthin descent.

By 773 AD, the annals had stopped using the term Cruthin in favour of the term Dál nAraidi,). The singular form is (modern Irish: (modern Irish: ), which is also used as a noun. Ancient Greek geographer Pytheas called the Celtic Britons the Pretanoí, which became Britanni in Latin.

The name survives in the placenames Duncrun (, "fort of the Cruthin") and Drumcroon (, "ridge of the Cruthin") in County Londonderry, and Ballycrune (, "pass of the Cruthin") and Crown Mound (, "ford of the Cruthin") in County Down. These placenames are believed to mark the edges of Cruthin territory.

In the Irish annals

At the start of the historical period in Ireland in the 6th century, the kingdom of Ulaid largely lay to the east of the River Bann in north-eastern Ireland.

In 563, according to the Annals of Ulster, an apparent internal struggle amongst the Cruthin resulted in a Cruthin chief Báetán mac Cinn making a deal with the rival Northern Uí Néill, promising them the territories of Ard Eólairg (Magilligan peninsula) and Fir Lí (Coleraine barony). in 629, although Congal survived. The same year, the Cruthin king Mael Caích defeated Connad Cerr of the Dál Riata at the Battle of Fid Eoin.

Possible relationship to other groups

Early Irish writers used the name to refer to both the north-eastern Irish group and to the Picts of Scotland. The Pictish Chronicle names the first king of the Picts as the eponymous "Cruidne filius Cinge". It has thus been suggested that the Cruthin and Picts were the same people or were in some way linked. Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinín says the "notion that the Cruthin were 'Irish Picts' and were closely connected with the Picts of Scotland is quite mistaken", while Professor Kenneth H. Jackson wrote that the Cruthin "were not Picts, had no connection with the Picts, linguistic or otherwise, and are never called by Irish writers". There is no archaeological evidence of a Pictish link and in archaeology the Cruthin are indistinguishable from their neighbours in Ireland. The records show that the Cruthin bore Irish Gaelic names, spoke Irish and followed the Irish system of inheritance.

Modern politics and culture

In the 1970s, Unionist politician Ian Adamson proposed that the Cruthin were a British people who spoke a non-Celtic language and were the original inhabitants of Ulster and Scotland. He argues that they fought against the Irish Gaels for centuries, who invaded Ulster from the south, and sees the story of the Táin Bó Cúailnge as representing this. Adamson believes that most of the Cruthin were driven to Scotland after their defeat in the Battle of Moira (637), only for their descendants to return 1,000 years later in the Plantation of Ulster. Adamson thus suggests that the Gaelic Irish are not really native to Ulster and that the Ulster Scots have merely returned to their ancient lands. His theory has been adopted by some Ulster loyalists and Ulster Scots activists to counter Irish nationalism and Irish Gaelic culture. They saw this new 'origin myth' as a way to justify their territorial claim to Ulster and the partition of Ireland. Prof. Stephen Howe of the University of Bristol argues it was designed to provide ancient underpinnings for a militantly separate Ulster identity. Historian Peter Berresford Ellis likens it to Zionism. Archaeologists such as J. P. Mallory and T. E. McNeil note that the Cruthin are "archaeologically invisible" and "there is not a single object or site that an archaeologist can declare to be distinctly Cruthin".

Much of Adamson's theories are based on the historical model put forward by Irish linguist T. F. O'Rahilly in 1946. O'Rahilly argued that "the Cruthin or Priteni are the earliest inhabitants of these islands to whom a name can be assigned", and that the Gaels did not arrive until much later. Where Adamson differs is his claim that the Cruthin were not Celtic, but pre-Celtic. However, this model has also since been rejected by archaeologists and other experts. There is no evidence of large migrations to Ireland after the Bronze Age, either archaeologically or genetically. The intrusive (non-native) artifacts in Iron Age Ireland are La Tènian and Romano-British, and came from regions which were not Gaelic. Adamson's and O'Rahilly's theories are refuted by the 2017 publication of the "Irish DNA Atlas", which sets out in great detail the genealogical history and modern day makeup of the British Isles.

The asteroid 3753 Cruithne was named after the group.

Robert E. Howard's pulp hero Bran Mak Morn was characterised as "chief of the Cruithni Picts".

References

Sources

  • Byrne, Francis J. Irish Kings and High Kings. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001 (2nd edition). First published in 1973.
  • Chadwick, Hector Munro. Early Scotland: the Picts, the Scots & the Welsh of southern Scotland. CUP Archive, 1949. Page 66–80.
  • Gallagher, Carolyn. After the Peace: Loyalist Paramilitaries in Post-Accord Northern Ireland. Cornell University, 2007
  • Jackson, Kenneth H. "The Pictish language." In The problem of the Picts, ed. F.T Wainwright. Edinburgh, 1956. pp. 122–166.
  • Maier, Bernhard. Dictionary of Celtic religion and culture. Boydell & Brewer, 1997. Page 230.
  • Nic Craith, Máiréad. Plural Identities, Singular Narratives: The Case of Northern Ireland, Berghahn Books, 2002
  • Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. Early Medieval Ireland 400-1200, Longman, 1995
  • Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. "Ireland, 400-800". In A New History of Ireland, ed. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín. Vol 1. 2005. pp. 182–234.
  • O'Rahilly, T.F. Early Irish History and Mythology. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946.
  • Skene, William F. Chronicles of the Picts and Scots Edinburgh, 1867.
  • Smyth, Alfred P. Warlords and Holy Men. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989.
  • Warner, Richard. "The Lisburn Area in the Early Christian Period Part 2: Some People and Places." Lisburn Historical Society Journals Vol 8. 1991
  • Ulster by Dennis Walsh
  • The Cruithne at Electric Scotland

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