The Maritime Gael project

What would you be if you weren’t you?

It is the season of summaries, of the past year and (now) of the past decade.  We generally avoid reading them, as we generally avoid making New Year’s Resolutions.  We’ve found that histories and futures rarely fit nicely into annual chunks, and prefer to do our reviewing and planning when it seems appropriate.  But somehow this year-end activity has gotten us thinking: what would we have done if we hadn’t become the scientists that we are?

We do have a reasonable range of backgrounds and skills among our small number of consultants, but each of us has the ability and interest to have done other things.  One of us in particular could have been an historian.  And he has even decided on the main theme of his research: a maritime-centered history of Gaelic Britain.

There are histories of Britain, of course, and maritime histories of Britain.  By number they are overwhelmingly centered on one or more of the four modern nations (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England).  British maritime history tends to be dominated by the great days of sail, with an occasional work including Vikings or the Anglo-Saxon invasions.  In all these, the islands and sea between Ireland and Scotland are peripheral.  Historians do recognize that there was a great deal of influence going both ways, indeed that there was a common culture over the whole area; but still almost everything we’ve seen has been either Scottish history acknowledging the Irish Gaels and Norwegians, or Irish history acknowledging the Scots and Norwegians, or Viking history dealing with one area of conquest and settlement.  There is a great deal on a smaller scale, such as the medieval Kingdom of the Isles, and more local studies.  We are thinking of something different.

Take, say, the patch of sea surrounded by Islay, Kintyre and Rathlin Island as the center.  Expand the area of coverage to include anywhere within perhaps a month’s sail by the galleys of MacDonald (you wouldn’t get a neat circle).

First set the stage for history, after the manner of Fernand Braudel, by considering in detail the geography and climate of the area (and changes in climate over the centuries).  Then work out the economic possibilities: what can be grown or harvested or caught, including where and how.  What was the carrying capacity of this place, in people (and other animals)?  How did this change with changes in technology?

As a second step, work out (as far as can be done) what the economy actually looked like, and how many people there actually were.  Could Maritime Gaeldom absorb many incomers, or was it largely on the edge of famine?

Finally, add the history.  Consider it the history of the place, not of the Picts, Norwegians, Gaels or any of the other waves of settlers or disturbers.  We would start with archaeology and the exciting results of DNA analysis, adding in written sources at the end.  We think it’s possible that doing history the reverse of the standard way might come up with different answers, or at least different questions.

Of course it wouldn’t work out the way we’ve outlined.  But, as with the Synthesis Project, we think that finding out the way it wouldn’t work would be interesting.