Paganism in Ireland

swallace3454

I am doing a project on Religious traditions in Ireland in school and I know that Paganism is a part of Ireland's history and I am a bit confused about how did Paganism start in Ireland? and what were the similarities and differences between Paganism and Christianity.

Thanks
S

Michael OBrien

swallace3454 wrote: »

I am doing a project on Religious traditions in Ireland in school and I know that Paganism is a part of Ireland's history and I am a bit confused about how did Paganism start in Ireland? and what were the similarities and differences between Paganism and Christianity.

Thanks
S

You need to research the invasions of Ireland before Christianity. Ireland has a long history of pre-christian beliefs, for thousands of years. They have built buildings and carved stones that date back as old as the pyramids in Egypt.
Paganism is not one type of religion, but a host of them. There is a difference between modern paganism and early paganism too, as many of the rituals now are invented recently (last 100 years) as early pagans did not record much about their rituals.

As far as how old, well religious beliefs date back at least 10,000+ years, Ireland was populated for who knows how long. There is unlikely a 'start' date due to the nature of that type of religious belief, which is open ended and extremely mutable, absorbing new beliefs into older practices.

You can look up St. Patrick in regard to the introduction of Christianity to Ireland. Christianity has adopted a lot of religious beliefs and symbols into its art and feast days. Celtic crosses show clear indications of this.