twitch of twitch.cymru

just deleted tiktok. the 2 weeks i spent on there was a very bad experience

artfight time tomorrow yippeeee ^_^

saying that there are only 6 celtic nations isn't "gatekeeping" or whatever. modern celtic identity is defined by the presence of a modern celtic language in the region. not "celtic culture"¹ or the historical presence of a celtic language.² we're not trying to "exclude" galicia or asturias (or england ??) or wherever else. there is definitely solidarity and similarities and joy to be found between marginalised language communities, but it doesn't make you a celtic nation unless your marginalised language is a celtic one.

1. not a particularly useful term imo since there is nothing unique that all the modern celtic nations share, that isn't also shared by other non-celtic nations, except for a celtic language.

2. a large area from ireland to parts of western asia have been celtic-speaking historically. it doesn't make any of those places celtic today, unless they have a modern descendant of proto-celtic there.

Sometimes cultures have catastrophic memory failures. Memory erasures. Disruptions. Ireland in the sixth century provides us with a good example of this. Something happened. Something huge. We can see it laid bare in the archaeology: a revolution. Fundamental shifts in the way that people lived, farmed, ate, organized themselves. People started to build ringforts and crannogs (settlements in the middle of lakes). Palisaded enclosures. But we don't really know what happened or why.

[...] Our sparse records from that period refer vaguely to 'the first mortality' in 545, 'a great mortality' in 549, a 'pestilence' in 554, and another 'great mortality' in 556. They list battles, the deaths of kings, the foundations of churches. Beneath their laconic testimony the changes on the ground - visible in the archaeology but invisible in the textual record - show the radical transformation of communities.

[...] The social changes of the sixth century are one of the many reasons why it is highly unlikely that many - or any - practices or beliefs from pre-Christian Ireland survived intact into the Christian era.

Elizabeth Boyle, 'Fierce Appetites'