A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Britain, Ireland, and other European territories such as Galicia. Today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their former territories, while Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival.
Since the Enlightenment, the term Celtic has been applied to a wide variety of peoples and cultural traits present and past. Today, Celtic is often used to describe people of the Celtic nations (the Bretons, the Cornish, the Irish, the Manx, the Scots and the Welsh) and their respective cultures and languages.
The six regions widely considered Celtic countries in modern times are Brittany (Breizh), Cornwall (Kernow), Ireland (Éire), the Isle of Man (Mannin, or Ellan Vannin), Scotland (Alba), and Wales (Cymru).
It's believed that the Celtic culture started to evolve as early as 1200 B.C. The Celts spread throughout western Europe—including Britain, Ireland, France and Spain—via migration. Their legacy remains most prominent in Ireland and Great Britain, where traces of their language and culture are still prominent today.
The Celts once spanned much of western, Eastern and central Europe, but many were either assimilated or wiped out by the expanding Roman Empire. The places we think of today as traditionally Celtic, namely Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
New research shows that the Irish definitely have their fair share of Viking heritage–in fact, the Irish are more genetically diverse than most people may assume. The Irish have Viking and Norman ancestry in similar proportions to the English.
The Celtic peoples have historically lived across mainland Europe stretching from Swizerland and Turkey in the east to Britain and Ireland In the west. They can be defined by multiple physical characteristics such as red hair, blue and green eyes, tartan clothing, and prominent statures.
The term Celtic is used to refer to persons who trace their ancestry back to one of the present Celtic territories located in the westernmost parts of Europe. Through the ages, each of these places has managed to preserve a significant portion of its original culture as well as its particular language.
There are likely more than 120 million people of Celtic descent in North and South America, Australasia, Africa and Europe. The largest single group is from Ireland, followed by Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.
Where did the Celts come from? Early sources place Celts in western Europe and also occupying land near the headwaters of the Danube River. Their home territories have often been traced to central and eastern France, extending across southern Germany and into the Czech Republic.
The “truest” Celtic bloodlines existing today belong to those from the Scottish Highlands, Perthshire, Northwest Scotland and the descendants of the ancient ruling families in Ireland and Wales.
There was no single 'Celtic' genetic group. In fact the Celtic parts of the UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Cornwall) are among the most different from each other genetically. For example, the Cornish are much more similar genetically to other English groups than they are to the Welsh or the Scots.
Most of the inhabitants today of the Galicia region of Spain are fair skinned with light blue or green eyes. This is due to the intermarriage of Celts with the Iberian people. One only has to walk around Santiago de Compostella, the capital of the region, to see the difference in skin complexion.
Celtic Hair Color
The Celts were described as tall and blond, and sources note their children had hair that was gray when they were young that darkened with age.
While Highland Scots are of Celtic (Gaelic) descent, Lowland Scots are descended from people of Germanic stock. During the seventh century C.E., settlers of Germanic tribes of Angles moved from Northumbria in present-day northern England and southeastern Scotland to the area around Edinburgh.
What is Celtic's Irish connection? An Irish identity has been strongly imbued in the fabric of Celtic ever since the club's foundation in 1887. The club was established by an Irishman, Brother Walfrid, whose goal was to help improve the conditions in which the Irish immigrant population in Glasgow lived.
Although it was once thought that the Britons descended from the Celts, it is now believed that they were the indigenous population and that they remained in contact with their European neighbours through trade and other social exchanges.
Irish is a Celtic language (as English is a Germanic language, French a Romance language, and so on). This means that it is a member of the Celtic family of languages. Its “sister” languages are Scottish, Gaelic, and Manx (Isle of Man); its more distant “cousins” are Welsh, Breton, and Cornish.
Historians teach that they are mostly descended from different peoples: the Irish from the Celts, and the English from the Anglo-Saxons who invaded from northern Europe and drove the Celts to the country's western and northern fringes.
The modern English are genetically closest to the Celtic peoples of the British Isles, but the modern English are not simply Celts who speak a German language. A large number of Germans migrated to Britain in the 6th century, and there are parts of England where nearly half the ancestry is Germanic.
Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe.
The Celts and Vikings were two distinct people in terms of culture, language, religion, and lifestyle. They both had a long-standing history that deeply impacted Europe's culture and language development.
They are the Sidhe (pronounced “shee”) – mystical fairy-like people who supposedly inhabited Ireland prior to the arrival of the Celts (the Milesians). The Tuatha de Dannan are credited with naming Ireland.
They found the Stone Age Briton had dark hair - with a small probability that it was curlier than average - blue eyes and skin that was probably dark brown or black in tone. This combination might appear striking to us today, but it was a common appearance in western Europe during this period.
Experts believe that a majority of Irish people have Celtic roots; however, a study published on Thursday found they may also have a great deal of influence from the Vikings, Anglo-Normans, and British.