In general the 1500 period is a bit hard to grasp, because the high point of monastic Ireland is winding down, with the growth of dioceses ultimately leading to Henry VIII’s act of Taliban-esque cultural destruction. But even then, monastic life continued in places in Ireland when it didn’t in England.
The infamous *Statutes of Kilkenny* during the 16th century, showed the ‘english’, in Ireland at least, were still writing their laws in ‘law french’ 400 years after the Norman invasion.
But the very need to create those statues shows how concerned they were with the resurgence of Brehon law.
So at that point, Ireland has about 1000 years of both hiberno-latin and Gaelic writing tradition. Using Gaelic legal texts that were at least 700 years old then (because we have some of them today, Senchas Már, 1400 years old and very beautiful they are too). I’m skeptical the numbers would be so low as to round down to zero. With the requirements of legal and religion alone. Not even mentioning the purely secular example above.
…
But then having got to this point thinking what literacy and life in general was like in 16th century Ireland, it occurred to me…
…that OP is probably just another british cunt who found something negative to say about the Irish. And like all british cunts (since the 16th century in fact) this little nugget of anti Irish info will probably warm his sick twisted bigoted soul. No matter if it’s true or not.
So I’ll not correct him any further… and leave him with this little ray of sunshine to fill his shitty shitty life.
That’s impossible. There would have been some literate people in Ireland in the 1500s as Ireland was not an entirely pre-literate culture at the time.
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I like how they’ve a datapoint for 1750 and one for 2003 and have drawn a straight line between the two.
what data could they have from 1500? very skeptical of this site’s estimates
Literally impossible.
Be interested in the source they use.
Literacy of the catholic church alone would surely add a percent or two.
Here is a sample of actual secular Irish writing of the period… [The Annals of Ulster](https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/catalog?f%5Bcreator_sim%5D%5B%5D=%C3%93+Luin%C3%ADn%2C++Ruaidhr%C3%AD%2C+active+15th+century%2C+Scribe&locale=en). Essentially a 15th century gaelic historian writing the history of gaelic ulster up to that point.
In general the 1500 period is a bit hard to grasp, because the high point of monastic Ireland is winding down, with the growth of dioceses ultimately leading to Henry VIII’s act of Taliban-esque cultural destruction. But even then, monastic life continued in places in Ireland when it didn’t in England.
The infamous *Statutes of Kilkenny* during the 16th century, showed the ‘english’, in Ireland at least, were still writing their laws in ‘law french’ 400 years after the Norman invasion.
But the very need to create those statues shows how concerned they were with the resurgence of Brehon law.
So at that point, Ireland has about 1000 years of both hiberno-latin and Gaelic writing tradition. Using Gaelic legal texts that were at least 700 years old then (because we have some of them today, Senchas Már, 1400 years old and very beautiful they are too). I’m skeptical the numbers would be so low as to round down to zero. With the requirements of legal and religion alone. Not even mentioning the purely secular example above.
…
But then having got to this point thinking what literacy and life in general was like in 16th century Ireland, it occurred to me…
…that OP is probably just another british cunt who found something negative to say about the Irish. And like all british cunts (since the 16th century in fact) this little nugget of anti Irish info will probably warm his sick twisted bigoted soul. No matter if it’s true or not.
So I’ll not correct him any further… and leave him with this little ray of sunshine to fill his shitty shitty life.
That’s impossible. There would have been some literate people in Ireland in the 1500s as Ireland was not an entirely pre-literate culture at the time.