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Endemic warfare appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than an organized territorial conquest, the historical record is more of different groups using warfare to exert political control and harass rivals, for economic advantage, and in some instances to conquer territory.
These were well-trained and equipped professional soldiers made up of infantry and cavalry. [5] Aside from Hobelars, who were highly mobile, lightly armoured, cavalry skirmishers and archers, used primarily for scouting and ambushes, the main Gaelic cavalry was usually made up of a king or chieftain and his clan.
Native Irish displaced by the Anglo-Norman invasion, operated as bandits in the forests of Ireland where they were known as "wood kerns" or cethern coille. [8] They were such a threat to the new settlers that a law was passed in 1297 requiring lords of the woods to keep the roads clear of fallen and growing trees, to make it harder for wood kerns to launch their attacks.
After the death of Alexander the Great, Celtic armies began to bear down on the southern regions, threatening the Greek kingdom of Macedonia and the rest of Greece. In 310 BC, the Celtic general Molistomos attacked deep into Illyrian territory, trying to subdue Dardanians, Paeonians and Triballi. However Molistomos was defeated by the Dardanians.
Caesar, however, had denied their earlier request to settle in Gaul, and the issue turned to war. The Celtic tribes sent out a cavalry force of 800 against a Roman auxiliary force of 5,000 made up of Gauls, and won a surprising victory. Caesar retaliated by attacking the defenseless Celtic camp, and slaughtering the men, women, and children.
Trimarcisia (Ancient Greek: τριμαρκισία, trimarkisia), i. e., "feat of three horsemen", [1] was an ancient Celtic military cavalry tactic or organisation; [2] it is attested in Pausanias' Description of Greece, in which he described the use of trimarcisia by the Gauls during their invasion of Greece in the third century BCE.
The native Irish horse, the Irish hobby, represented today by the Connemara pony, [citation needed] was a horse measuring twelve to fourteen hands high. Their name derives from the word 'hobin', a French word thought to be derived from the Gaelic term 'obann', meaning 'swift.'
The Gaelic revival was the late-nineteenth-century national revival of interest in the Irish language (also known as Gaeilge) and Gaelic culture [75] (including folklore, sports, music, arts, etc.) and was an associated part of a greater Celtic cultural revivals in Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall, Continental Europe and among the Celtic Diaspora ...