Túath (plural túatha) is an Old Irish word that describes the main political and area of control in Gaelic Ireland. A túath can mean both the land where people lived and the people who lived there. The smallest túath controlled by a king was about the size of a later Irish barony (about 177 square miles). Kings with more power controlled two or more túatha, according to A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland.

Social structure

In ancient Ireland, a household was considered to have about 30 people living in one home. A trícha cét, which means "thirty hundreds," was an area that included 100 homes or about 3,000 people. A túath was made up of several trícha céta and included at least 6,000 people. Some experts believe a túath likely had at least 9,000 people.

Each túath was an independent group with its own leaders, meetings, courts, and military force. Túatha were sometimes joined together for protection. Their status depended on their location and connection to powerful families in the region. Rules about how túatha were organized are described in the Brehon laws, which were ancient Irish laws written in the 7th century and also called the Fénechas.

The old Irish political system changed after the Elizabethan conquest, when the English took control of Ireland. Over time, the system of túatha was replaced by a new system of baronies and counties. Because some knowledge was lost, there is confusion about the old units of measurement, such as the trícha cét and túath. In some cases, these units overlapped, while in others, they were completely different. The trícha cét were mainly used to count how many soldiers a group could provide. Some scholars compare the túath to the modern parish, while others compare it to the barony. This depends on how the area was added to the county system. In areas where land was given back to Irish leaders, the túath and barony often matched. However, in places like Ulster, where land was taken from Irish people and given to English settlers, the old divisions are harder to understand.

Some experts think that baronies today often follow the old boundaries of túatha. This is because ancient remains, such as bog bodies and offerings like bog butter, are often found along the borders of today’s baronies. This suggests that the way Ireland was divided into small kingdoms has remained similar since at least the Iron Age.

Etymology

In Old Irish, the word "Túath" can mean "the people," "country," or "a small kingdom and area where laws are applied in ancient Ireland." The word might have come from the Proto-Celtic word toutā, which meant "tribe" or "tribal homeland." This is similar to the name of a Gaulish god, Toutatis. The Proto-Celtic word may have come from the Proto-Indo-European word tewtéh₂, meaning "member of a tribe." In Modern Irish, the word is spelled "tuath" without the fada accent. It is often used to describe "rural areas" or "the country," which is the opposite of "the city." However, the older meaning of the word is still known and used today.