40 



2nd March ^ i8gy. 



Professor J. D. Everett, f.r.s., d.c.l., in the Chair. 



Mr. Seaton F. Milligan, m.r.i.a., read a Paper on 



IRELAND: ITS ANCIENT CIVILISATION AND 

 SOCIAL CUSTOMS." 



Mr. Milligan said — The subject on which I will address 

 you is of great interest, from the fact that Ireland was the 

 only country in Western Europe whose civilisation was un- 

 influenced by the great Roman Empire. It retained the 

 ancient laws and customs of the Celtic race unimpaired, 

 when Britain, Gaul, and Central Europe had accepted Roman 

 laws and customs. In Ireland only were the ancient laws 

 and customs of the Celt preserved pure without foreign 

 mixture. The Brehon laws, as they are called, remained in 

 force, and were the only laws which Irishmen recognised in a 

 great portion of this country up to the beginning of the 17th 

 century. It is by studying the Irish language and Brehon laws 

 we can form a correct view of the social condition, modes of 

 thought, and civilisation of the inhabitants of Western Europe 

 before the rise of the Roman power. A Scot of Ireland in 

 Pagan and early Christian times could make himself understood 

 in his own language through Britain and Gaul. This country 

 was known to the ancient Greeks in the earliest period as the 

 country of the hyperboreans (the Romans called it Hibernia), 

 but the natives Scota, and the people were called Scots. It was 

 also called Eire, Erin, Innisfail, and Banba, and now for many 

 centuries past Ireland. It has beautiful and diversified scenery, 



