I am of Irish and Norwegian ancestry. I love the Irish culture... but Ireland isn't what it once was. It has only been recently that I have realized that my ancestors were raped and pillaged and their land and "religion" was taken from them too! There was a pre-historic name for my ancestors: Gaelic Ireland.
My ancestors were brutalized! Their holy days were trivialized and then swapped for Christianized "holidays" by the Church. The connection to their heritage may have been banned but love for their homeland 'Erin, lives in the hearts of those who have Irish blood. The true love for the homeland runs through the veins of those conscious of this or not!
Ireland was take over by the Christianization in the 5th century. Christianity subsumed or replaced the earlier polytheism and other forms of Celtic paganism by the end of the 7th century. Their culture, beliefs and connection to one another and the Earth was taken over by Lords, Kings and the Church.
To this day the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland continues to exercise jurisdiction over the Peerage of Ireland. The countrymen experienced a military and political defeat of Gaelic Ireland.
By the end of the seventeenth century, recusants (adherents to the older religion were now termed), representing some 85% of Ireland's population, were then banned from the Irish Parliament.
What is known of pre-Christian Ireland comes from references in Roman writings, Irish poetry and myth, and archaeology. Earliest human settlement of Ireland to 10,500 BC. and because of more recent archeological findings Ireland could have been inhabited as far back as 12,500 BC. Gradual blending of Celtic and indigenous cultures would result in the emergence of Gaelic culture by the fifth century.
Within these kingdoms a rich culture flourished.
Tradition maintains that in A.D. 432, St. Patrick arrived on the island and, in the years that followed, worked to convert the Irish to Christianity. Patrick is traditionally credited with preserving and codifying Irish laws and changing only those that conflicted with Christian practices.
My ancestors were "taken over" too. My ancestors were decimated in wars where kings felt that the Irish people were peasants. Many of the stories and fables of the Irish people's connection to leprechauns, Faeries and the natural world are seen as fables or child's play. Much of the history of Ireland is about war and being taken over and raped of their culture.
I too feel this in my bones. I too have this in my DNA. I too share the sadness and the cellular memory of the horrific stories of my ancestors.
Lost in the many layers of disruption, Gaelic Ireland remains hidden through a doorway only a few brave souls may step through. I believe that if you intend to heal yourself of past wounds, you must find a way to access generational healing through a prayer to the nature spirits and Earth realms that are no longer seen with naked eye. We must enter through the gateway of the heart, crossing cultural divide and trauma laden ancestry into a space where forgiveness and harmony is sought with fervency!