SOS Tours

05/05/2025

The Celts.

The first Celts arrived in Ireland around 500 BCE, during the Iron Age, bringing with them a new language, technologies, and cultural practices that would profoundly shape Irish identity for centuries to come.

Who Were the Celts?

The Celts were a collection of tribal societies that originated in Central Europe, particularly around the area of modern-day Austria, Switzerland, and southern Germany. Over time, they spread across Europe, reaching the British Isles and Ireland.

Arrival in Ireland
• The first Celtic groups likely came to Ireland in waves, not all at once.
• They arrived by sea, possibly from Britain or directly from continental Europe.
• Their arrival didn’t necessarily involve conquest. Instead, they gradually integrated with existing populations, influencing and blending with the earlier Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples.

What Did They Bring?
• Ironworking: The Celts introduced iron tools and weapons, a major advancement over the bronze previously used.
• Language: They spoke an early form of Gaelic (Goidelic Celtic), the ancestor of modern Irish (Gaeilge).
• Religion and Mythology: The Celts practiced a polytheistic religion with a rich oral tradition of gods, heroes, and nature spirits, much of which was later written down in medieval Irish texts.
• Society and Culture:
• Organized into tribes or clans, led by chieftains or kings.
• Druids played key roles as priests, judges, and scholars.
• Art and decoration featured intricate spirals, knots, and animal motifs, still visible in ancient Irish artifacts.

The Celtic legacy remains deeply embedded in Irish culture today — in language, mythology, festivals (like Samhain, the origin of Halloween), and the traditional music and art that continue to thrive.

24/04/2025

The Celts ⛵️

The Celtic Seafarers: Navigators Before the Vikings

When people think of ancient seafarers, the Vikings usually steal the show. But the Celts? They were hitting the waves long before the Norse showed up on the scene. These folks weren’t just land warriors or hill-farmers—they were sailors, traders, and explorers, with a relationship to the sea that’s way deeper than most people realize.

Sailing the Wild Atlantic
The Celtic world once stretched from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, across Brittany in France, to the coasts of Spain and Portugal. The Atlantic wasn’t a barrier—it was basically their highway.

Irish and Scottish Celts crossed regularly between islands and mainland. Just look at the stories of St. Brendan the Navigator, who—legend says—sailed west across the ocean centuries before the Vikings hit Newfoundland.

The Veneti of Brittany built powerful ships and gave Julius Caesar’s navy a real headache during the Gallic Wars.

Celtic Spain and Portugal (the Gallaeci, Lusitanians, etc.) traded up and down the coast, making connections with the Phoenicians, Greeks, and other ancient sailors.

What Did They Do at Sea?
They weren’t all about raiding. The Celts went to sea for all sorts of reasons:

Trade: They traded tin, copper, and goods across Europe—sometimes as far as the Mediterranean.

Migration & Settlement: Celts moved, settled, and mingled, leaving traces from the British Isles to Galicia and beyond.

Exploration & Legend: Celtic myths are filled with magical islands, lost lands, and sea journeys, reflecting a real tradition of exploration.

Not Just Warriors—Navigators
We hear a lot about Celtic warriors, but the truth is, a good chunk of Celtic identity was shaped by their connection to the ocean. Their boats were sturdy, their navigation skills legendary, and their curiosity carried them everywhere the wind and currents allowed.

The Legacy
The ancient Celts weren’t just tribal people clinging to the edge of Europe—they were part of a much bigger story. They were seafarers, navigators, storytellers, and bridge-builders between cultures. Long before “going Viking” was a thing, the Celts were already out there, exploring the unknown.

12/04/2025

St Brendan the Navigatior ☘️

Around the year 1000 CE, Norse explorers from Greenland, led by Leif Erikson, are believed to have sailed west and landed in a region they called Vinland, widely thought to be part of modern-day Newfoundland in Canada. These accounts come from medieval Icelandic texts known as the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red. The sagas describe several expeditions, encounters with indigenous peoples called the Skrælings, and attempts at settlement. Archaeological discoveries at L’Anse aux Meadows support these claims, revealing Norse-style buildings and artifacts, marking the earliest known European presence in North America. The sagas suggest the Norse were not the first outsiders to meet the natives, as some of them allegedly spoke a language similar to Irish and mentioned earlier contact with white men.

This has led to theories that Irish monks known as the Papar may have reached parts of the North Atlantic or even North America before the Vikings. Saint Brendan the Navigator, an Irish monk from the 6th century, is said to have undertaken a legendary voyage across the Atlantic, reaching a mysterious lush land, possibly in the New World. While mainstream historians remain cautious due to the lack of hard evidence, the sagas, combined with oral traditions and early maps, continue to fuel debate over pre-Columbian transatlantic contact. Whether myth or memory, these stories suggest that the history of European exploration in the Americas may be more complex than previously thought.

11/04/2025

The Amazing Vikings.

05/04/2025

The amazing Vikings.

01/04/2025

The Black Irish 🇮🇪

20/02/2025

The Blasket Islands ☘️

01/02/2025

Erik the Red, originally named Erik Thorvaldsson, was a Norse explorer born around 950 AD in Norway. He is best known for founding the first Norse settlements in Greenland. The moniker "the Red" is believed to have been derived from either his red hair, his fiery temper, or both. Erik's father, Thorvald Asvaldsson, was banished from Norway due to "some killings," leading the family to move to Iceland, where Erik spent most of his early life.
In the early 980s, Erik was banished from Iceland for three years due to a set of disputes that resulted in the deaths of several men. During this exile, he sailed west to a land he had heard of from a Norwegian sailor. Erik spent his banishment exploring this new land, which he named "Greenland" in an effort to entice future settlers. He returned to Iceland after his exile to bring settlers to these new lands. His colonization efforts were successful, and Norse settlements in Greenland lasted for almost 500 years. Erik the Red's legacy also includes his son, Leif Erikson, who is believed to have been the first European to reach North America, specifically areas of Canada, before Columbus.

01/02/2025

The Celts👊

The Celts were a collection of tribes with origins in central Europe that shared a similar language, religious beliefs, traditions, and culture. It's believed that the Celtic culture started to evolve as early as 1200 B.C. The Celts spread throughout western Europe—including Britain, Ireland, France, and Spain—via migration. Their legacy remains most prominent in Ireland and Great Britain, where traces of their language and culture are still prominent today. The existence of the Celts was first documented in the seventh or eighth century B.C. The Roman Empire, which ruled much of southern Europe at that time, referred to the Celts as “Galli,” meaning barbarians. However, the Celts were anything but barbarians, and many aspects of their culture and language have survived through the centuries.
By the third century B.C., the Celts controlled much of the European continent north of the Alps mountain range, including present-day Ireland and Great Britain. It is these islands off Europe’s western coast in which Celtic culture was allowed to survive and thrive, as the Roman Empire expanded on the European continent. Beginning with the reign of Julius Caesar in the first century B.C., the Romans launched a military campaign against the Celts. Caesar’s Roman armies attempted an invasion of Britain at this time, but were unsuccessful, and thus the Celtic people established a homeland there. As a result, many of their cultural traditions remain evident in present-day Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, even now..