Other Society Classes

Above: Bacon, common food at the time for noble

• The Aos Ceard or artisan class were in great part saer-cheiles, though they do not occupy so important a place in the constitution as the landed class. They gave portion of the produce of their trades as beas tighe. If one of them failed to keep his fences in repair and do the other duties of a farmer, he was deprived of his land, unless his tribe made full restitution. Their leader was called an aitheach ar aitreabh or resident aitheach. He was wealthier than the 6g-aire, his stock being ten-fold—ten cows, ten pigs, ten sheep ; an ox, a sock, a yoke, a halter, as essentials for ploughing ; a house of twenty feet, with a back house of fourteen.

• The Daer-cheile was often the descendant of a stranger, or some other unfree person on the way to full civic rights. He had to go to war, too, and do other work from time to time for the flaith. The rent he paid the flaith was called biathadh or cios bidh, i.e. food rent. It consisted of pigs, bacon, butter, corn, honey and the like, and had to be contributed twice a year. Thus the flatha were able to regulate their supplies the whole year round by getting their unfree tenants to present their biathadh as occasion required. They had, like the free tenants, to pay for the cattle they had on hire one-third their value annually for seven years ; but so far from having bought them out by the end of that time, they were obliged to give them back to the flatha. If the flaith died at that juncture, the daercheile might keep the cattle on condition that he paid a cumhal De which was put to the credit of the tribe.

• Gabhail Chine, or gavelkind, was the redistribution, on the death of the ceile, of the land of the tribe.    Ceilsine had to given the flaith within a month after the death of the ceile. It Was not to his children solely this land was left: e larici of the tribe was re-divided, and every adult member his due portion. This re-distribution, called "gavelkind," s made at short intervals, so that no deserving person should be in need of land.

Indeed, the glory of the Constitution was that the whole territory was at the disposal of the tribe, and the general conditions of society such that the people assisted each other almost automatically.The tribe also had the power to divide and re-divide the land when necessary. In the time of Aodh Slainghe, for instance, there was available for each person but thrice nine ridges, namely nine ridges of moorland, nine of grass and nine of wood. Then it was, according to " Leabhar na hUidhre," that boundary fences were first introduced in Ireland. Thenceforward nobody was permitted to let arrears of rent accumulate on his orba or on his tribe. This compelled all to be industrious. Without the consent of the whole tribe no one had the right to bestow land, save some he may have purchased. Moreover, he had to leave his own portion at the tribe’s disposal. Thus all were obliged to have regard to the stability of the tribe and contribute to’ its permanence.
If one sold portion of his land without necessity he was required to leave more than an equal amount at the disposal of the tribe.1 This made it clear that nothing was to ■ gained by avarice.    The person who purchased land without! selling any was free to bestow portion of his property, provided he left the tribe-land intact, or bestowed corresponding! land on the tribe.    The bo-aire was free to bestow the value of seven cumhals of his land on condition that he left at the disposal of the tribe two-thirds of the means accumulated as the result of his industry.    If he had amassed means as the result of a trade, he was free to bestow two-thirds of it on the church, which got its own share of the fruits of the territory, and of which more anon.