A Celtic and Christian country? Not really

MAURICE DOCKRELL is right to point out (Irish Examiner letters, January 27) that the Irish are not Celts in any simple sense.

For perhaps 1000 years before St Patrick arrived in Ireland, the country spoke dialects of q-Celtic and followed largely Celtic, non-Christian customs. After that time there was ecclesiastical Latin and Angle, Norse and later Franco-Norman, Welsh, English and Scots’ influence.

The truth is Ireland is now only marginally Celtic in the cultural sense and is increasingly non-Christian. We need to end the divisive hypocrisy of a pure Gaelic race and learn from people like the Canadians who have admirably integrated immigrants in their tapestry of cultures.