Honeybee Rights in Ancient Ireland
By: Jennifer Tarnacki
Tags: Bees, Ireland, Beekeeping, Outdoors, Environment

Ireland. The island of saints and scholars…and honey.

The ancient Celts considered beekeeping so important to the livelihood of the people and the fertility of the land that a list of laws and extensive legal rights were devoted solely to bees and their keepers. Called the “Bech Breatha” in Irish- the Bee Judgements, they were found in the indigenous legal system of the Celts known as Brehon Law. Out of all of the laws in the Brehon tract relating to land or agriculture, it was the role and significance of the honeybee that received the most detail. Eighteen pages of the ancient Brehon Law were devoted exclusively to bees.

Ancient writers noted the abundance of beehives in Ireland as compared to other places. Until the spread of cane and beet sugar to the country, honey was the only sweetener, and was also used as a preservative and medicine. The practice of beekeeping was widely understood; every home kept hives in their garden for honey and beeswax, and the detail of the Bech Breatha reflected the importance of bees.

The Bee Laws considered the importance of domestic hives and honey as well as naturally occurring wild swarms. The laws go into extraordinary detail. There were at least 6 different traditional terms in the Irish language for the varieties of wild bee swarms. For example, if you found a swarm around a neighbor’s house, and captured it to bring home to your hive, you had to give three quarters of the honey produced by the swarm to your neighbor. But if you found it in a tree, you could keep half of it. The four nearest farms to a domestic hive were entitled to a share of the honey each year, and a swarm of bees every fourth year. There were also specific considerations for wild hives and swarms found on cultivated land and on land not under cultivation. If you found a swarm on common land, you were required to give one ninth of the honey to your local chieftain (1).

They were seen as more than just an economic commodity; the Bech Breatha also regarded the bees themselves as having legal status. The custom was that bees should be treated as a member of the family. In Irish folklore there is the notion of “telling the bees”. They were considered easily offended, and must be told the news of any events in the family. Tradition states that in the event of a death of their owner, the funeral sweets must be shared with them, and the hive adorned with a black ribbon. This custom of ‘telling the bees’ all news was considered very important, as bees and the hive were powerful symbols of community and a connection to the otherworld, and were thought to be messengers of the gods to many cultures in ancient Europe.

The Bee friend by Hans Thoma

Destruction of bees was a very serious offense and a devastating misfortune. There were laws against stealing hives, and even compensation for those stung by another’s bees.

The “Bee Judgments” showed a progressive sensitivity to not only the honeybee, but also to the environment. Brehon Law derived from indigenous Celtic ancestral customs which had been passed on orally from one generation to the next. Brehon Law survived until the 17th century when it was superseded by English common law. It is unknown how long it had been in practice orally before it was written down in the 4th century in a document known as Senchus Mor.

The ideology behind the Brehon laws were unique and sophisticated. It was a complex and humane system of law, advanced for its time. The Brehon law system is the second oldest recorded law system only after Sanskrit. The body of law as a whole is often called “Brehon Law” but is originally called Fenechus, which means “that which relates to the Feine” the free classes that formed ancient Irish society (2).

They are believed to be the oldest and most egalitarian of legal systems in old Europe. The laws were administered by Brehons (Brithem in Irish), who came after the Celtic druids. They were wandering lawyers, whose role was to preserve and interpret law, and who remembered and recited the laws via poetry, much like in the Bardic and Druidic oral tradition. The position of a Brithem evolved from the job previously performed by the Celtic Druids; they were required to remember all of the laws, which took years of training and was a highly respected position in society.

Notably, the system was enforced by the people themselves, without needing a police force. This seems to suggest that the governance came from within the people’s intimate connection to the earth, governed by principles evidenced in nature which were universally acknowledged and agreed upon.

It’s no coincidence that a system of law deriving from Druidic wisdom would fiercely protect bees: Druids have always had a relationship to bees. This bond between bees and Druids is preserved in the ancient Scottish adage: “Ask a wild bee what the druids knew.”

Bees are considered sacred in the Druid tradition. The Druids of Northern Europe revered the bees for their ability to pollinate flowers and crops and produce the elixir of honey, which was regarded as sacred, as a precious gift from the goddess of the land herself.

Bees symbolize the work of the Druid. Like the bee that is guided by the sun, the Druid navigates by the light of her own higher self. She forages among the blossoms to bring nectar back to the tribe. She perfects her wisdom and then shares it for the benefit of all (3).

“Druids, bees and trees form a golden triad, each sharing in a relationship of vital mutualism, cooperation and symbiosis. Bees pollinate trees, and trees feed and house bees. Druids interpret, protect and nurture both trees and bees as sources of health, wealth, wisdom, and access to the faery world”(4).

In Celtic society, bees were believed to have secret knowledge, and transmit communications between ours and the otherworld (4). Bees were traditionally the messengers from the divine world. In the earliest known written literature of Ireland, the Song of Amergin, bees are referenced twice. The Druid poet Amergin spoke of all of the natural wonders of the Irish land once; the salmon, the boar, the ocean, the stag, the wind, the hawk, the thorn. It was only bees that were prominent enough to be referenced twice in his famous invocation. One line: “I am a tear the Sun lets fall”, is a metaphor for honey also seen in ancient Egypt, and in another, “ I am the queen of every hive”. This suggests the importance of the bee to the ancient Druid interpretation of the natural world.

This interpretation was more than just a mystical approach. It stemmed from a knowing that human survival is intricately entangled with the bees. There is an old Welsh saying, “The day the bees stop humming the world will end.”

This was a core value present in Celtic culture. Celtic spirituality understood that the relationship between the people and the land was essential for the health of both, and sought to emphasize the connection between ecology and holiness. Celts made no distinction between the spiritual and secular worlds, and believed in the importance of living in harmony with the natural world. This love of nature had its genesis deep in ancestral beliefs based in the sacredness of the Earth (5).

The Celtic peoples viewed human destiny as being intertwined with the destiny of the Earth. They sought fulfillment and holiness in intimacy with the larger Earth community, because they saw the Earth community as part of the larger dimension of their own being. They perceived themselves and their lives to be inextricably linked with the natural world.

As it was then, so it is now. Bees make life possible for the rest of us. We can’t live without them. We know know with scientific proof that bees play a vital role in our food web. About 75 percent of our key crops rely on insects for pollination. The ancient Celts were right: we are inextricably intertwined in a relationship that cannot be disentangled.

But fast forward to modern times; right now the honeybees and pollinating insects are in scary, rapid decline due to the pesticide use and commercial agriculture practices of the past hundred years. A 2013 paper in Nature found that if even 30 percent of a species is lost, the effects can be so devastating other species in that system can go extinct.

“If insects were to vanish,” Harvard entomologist E.O. Wilson said, “the environment would collapse into chaos.”

Ancient Celtic spirituality, stemming from even more ancient ancestral wisdom, contains within it seeds of sacred knowledge about caring for the land. Due to their intimate relationship with the environment, learning about the ways in which the ancient Celts interpreted the natural world could provide wisdom needed to respond to the current environmental crisis.

Relationship was the heart of ancient Celtic spiritual culture. Justice was based on and derived its authority from an understanding of right relationship. For the Celts, who saw no real distinction between secular and spiritual matters, true authority came from the spirit of sovereignty held within the land; to the life-giving power and the fertility of the land itself. To live well required one to live in right relationship with oneself, with other people, with the land, and with the divine (5).

Bee Goddess from Rhodes, 7th Century BCE

When right relationship to another was evaded or ignored, a breach of justice occurred. Resolving the issue involved an acknowledgement of the breach, and taking action that led to right relationship.

With no precedent in the current collective consciousness for bees having legal status, and cultural norms that tend to ignore insects entirely, it can be difficult to find effective solutions to the problem of declining honeybee populations. Looking back into indigenous mentalities about bees could provide insight and wisdom. Instead of trying to find a solution within the current paradigm, a new thought paradigm could be created to bring the needed changes to fruition.

Taking a page from the Bech Breatha, bees would be respected for the ecosystem services they provide, and a new restorative economy could be conceived. The transition from an extractive economy into a restoration economy would necessarily be underpinned by an emerging collective awareness that all is interconnected.

As Marriane Williamson described it, “You must master a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.”

Indigenous cultures around the world have left us with a legacy of wisdom to pull from. A treasure map to rekindle a reverence for the holiness of ecology. What would it look like to revive ancient Earth centered laws such as the “Bech Breatha” and bring them into practice in modern society today?

Giving honeybees rights and legal status would mean it would be illegal for any agricultural practice to harm them or jeopardize their habitat. It would once again be a grave offense to harm honeybees, along with all of the attendant social shame that such an offense would bring. A restoration economy would become the economy that provided social capital, knowing that living in right relationship with honeybees and other pollinators was living in right relationship with oneself. Much in the same way the Brehon Laws did not need a police force, because the people lived in a culture which fostered right relationship.

A pesticide company making profit from harming bees and fertility would once again be seen as an egregious and unlawful offense; an affront to the very spiritual laws of the Earth, and restitution to bring the act back into harmony and right relationship would be demanded. Following the precedent from indigenous law of the Celts, chemical companies would be made to pay restitution for damages done to honeybees and to the people’s chance at abundance, which is intimately tied to the fertility of the land.

That money could then be funneled back to beekeepers, who could then work to replenish the health of their colonies and increase fertility on their land. Research could be funded on creating and designing hives that foster their well being. Educational programs on the necessity and interconnectedness of our elders the bees could be designed to be taught in schools. All of which would increase the fertility of the land, and the future prosperity of its citizenry.

“Your mind is the garden, your thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds.”

If we plant the seeds of Earth-based justice and economy now, perhaps the next generation will be the ones to water them into being, journeying through the past to create a golden future, the way the honeybee follows the sunlight to make her magical honey. The ancient past provides a rich prologue; a winding path back to the sacred, instinctual knowledge of those who came, and thrived, before us.

Want to Help Protect the Honeybee?

If you’re interested in learning about beekeeping hands-on, check out the many WWOOF farms in the US that offer educational opportunities by visiting WWOOFUSA.org

If you’re interesting in getting involved politically, check out Bee City USA, an intiative of the Xerxes Society, whose aim is “Making the World Safer for Pollinators, One City at a Time.”