Where did the Celts come from. The Irish Gaelic Celts.

Sceala Philosopher Location: Cardiff

There is going to be a new study in Wales to try and find out where the Celts really came from.
As the contributors on these great Irish forums have highlighted before -

most of the general history theories commonly held by the public (even in Ireland itself) has been written from and by a Westminster Anglo centric simplistic base. What is widely considered as history is often nothing but myths, mostly guessed at or invented by those under the influence of Westminster.

Westminster has invented a Anglo Saxon dominant culture for England and the whole of Britain, when there never was a credibly proven one even for England in general. Contrary to simplicity, there is no proof what so ever that even England had a genuine Anglo Saxon dominance. Only small pockets of England, mostly in the South East could be credibly shown with historical reference to have such.

Most of Britain was Celtic, and the Irish influence, the settlements of what are now Scotland and Wales and North West England, have been written out of history by myths of Anglo Saxon rule.

The Island of Britain is more Celtic than anything else, this is especially because of Irish settlers of sorts through the ages.

These simplistic myths written about on here before.
Welsh historians agree

The origins of the Celts to be studied in three-year Aberystwyth project
Questions over the “enigmatic” origins of the Celtic race and how, where and when the Welsh language first emerged could be answered thanks to a three-year project taking place in Aberystwyth.

Researchers at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) have been awarded £690,000 from The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to conduct the work.

The research grant will support a three-year research project taking place at CAWCS, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, King’s College London, Bangor University, and the National Library of Wales, on the archaeological background of the emergence of the Celtic languages in Western Europe.

Many still believe the Celts spread from Iron Age central Europe between 750 and 100 BC.

But new evidence suggests there was more than one Celtic language in what is now modern day Spain, and it remains a mystery as to how and when the Celts arrived there.
The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth will host and maintain the project website

Professor Dafydd Johnston, Director of CAWCS in Aberystwyth said: “The funding will enable us to make a substantial contribution to the understanding of the cultural heritage of Wales and the other Celtic countries.

“There is fierce competition for Research Council funding, and the Centre’s success in gaining a grant of this magnitude demonstrates its strong international reputation and outstanding track-record in running collaborative research projects.”
Celtic Cross, Gelligaer Common.

A spokesman for CAWCS explained that many still believe that Celts spread from Iron Age central Europe bringing Hallstatt and LaTène material culture and Celtic speech with them; meaning that earlier eras further west are non-Celtic by definition.

The spokesman said: “A previous project at CAWCS, Culture and Celtic speech, showed the inadequacy of this theory for explaining the evidence in the westernmost areas.

“For the Iberian Peninsula in particular, the traditional model of Celtic origins simply does not work.

“It is known that there was more than one Celtic language in pre-Roman Iberia, but it remains an enigma as to how and when they got there.”

Previous work on maritime networks and Atlantic Europe’s first written language, Tartessian, led to a shared conclusion that Celtic probably evolved from Indo-European in Atlantic Europe during the Bronze Age.

The spokesman added: “For experts in various fields and the public in various countries to draw an informed conclusion about this new theory, archaeological and linguistic evidence must be drawn together and made accessible.”

Entitled Atlantic Europe in the Metal Ages (AEMA): questions of shared language, the project will produce major new resources available in print and on line for the earliest language evidence in Western Europe and its background in later prehistory.

Led by project leader Professor John T. Koch at CAWCS, the project will bring together, and make available and comparable, rapidly expanding archaeological and linguistic evidence from Wales, the UK, and the other countries of Europe’s Atlantic façade.

As well as an interactive website displaying the archaeological and linguistic information on scalable maps, the project will produce new overviews of the Copper and Bronze Age in Iberia and Ireland and a series of multi-authored multidisciplinary books.

A Welsh overview, Hen Fyd Iwerydd, will be launched at the National Eisteddfod later this year.

Professor John Koch said: “Prehistorians and historical linguists have a responsibility to Wales and the other Celtic countries, especially to people who speak and learn Welsh and the other Celtic languages.

“They want to know how, where, and when these languages emerged – what the experts know and don’t know.

“What are the viable models and the evidence favouring them? Otherwise, we are supporting cultural heritage with an yesterday’s theory.”

Sir Barry Cunliffe, emeritus professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, said: “The grant will help us to make real progress in understanding our Celtic heritage with linguists and archaeologists working closely together in a way never before possible – it’s a wonderful opportunity to make significant advances in knowledge.”

The National Library of Wales will meanwhile host and maintain the project website, continuing at least three years beyond the completion of research under the AHRC grant in 2016.
walesonline.co.uk/news/need-to-read/2013/03/26/the-origins-of-the-celts-to-be-studied-in-three-year-aberystwyth-project-91466-33056809/

One symbol for Welsh antiquity is (ironically) the very Irish Celtic Cross. Ironically so because past British historians under Westminster influence had written the Irish out of ancient Welsh history. Through referenced historical study, we now know that settlers from Ireland had significant effect on the history of Wales, especially parts of North Wales, Gower and Anglesey for examples. Ironically parts today considered most Welsh, the parts that clung most fiercely to their Celtic identity.

The Welsh name of Holyhead, Cerrig y Gwyddell, the 'Rocks of the Goidels or Gaels'; and the Welsh language still contains many Irish words, or words evidently derived from Irish.

After careful examination of all the evidence, Dr. Jones, a Welshman, bishop of St. David's, in a book written by him on this subject, comes to the conclusion that the Gaels from Ireland once occupied the whole of Anglesey, Carnarvon, Merioneth, and Cardiganshire, and parts of Denbighshire, Montgomery, and Radnor. But besides all this, ancient Welsh literature—history, annals, tales, legends—like that of Ireland, abounds with references to invasions of Wales and other parts of Britain by Irishmen. In those early days too, as might be expected, a continual intimate relationship by intermarriage was kept up between the Irish kings and chiefs on the one side, and the ruling families of western and northern Britain on the other, which is fully set forth in our ancient books of genealogy.

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Where did the Celts come from. The Irish Gaelic Celts.