Cruthin

Home > Philosophy and Religion > Other Religious Beliefs and General Terms > Miscellaneous Religion

Cruthin (Cruithin, Cruithni), an apparently ethnic descriptor used of a number of Early Medieval kingdoms, especially in the restricted area of post‐4th‐century Ulaid, where the tuatha so described (for instance Dál nAraidi of mid‐Antrim and Uí Echach Coba of Down) are contrasted with the Érainn‐descended tuatha such as Dál Fiatach and Dál Riata (see ulaid). The Ulster Cruthin were originally located on both sides of the lower River Bann but were pushed east of that river by the Airgialla after the battle of Móin Daire Lothair in ad 563. They shared the overkingship of Ulaid with the Dál Fiatach until the 10th century and it is probably significant that the inauguration place of the Ulaid overking, at Cráeb Tulcha near Glenavy in Co. Antrim, lay in the hinterland between the two ethno‐political groups. The name Cruthin—cognate with Welsh Prydyn and probably with Roman (British?) Britanni—seems simply to be an early borrowing of Priteni, probably a general (non‐ethnic?) name for the indigenous peoples of the two islands, first attested in Greek texts of about the 5th century bc. This, rather than any cultural connection, would have been the reason why ancient Irish writers referred to the Picts of Scotland as Cruthin. The early Irish pseudo‐historians regarded the Cruthin as amongst the earliest of the Irish peoples, on a par with the Érainn and earlier than the Goídel (see gael). Recently unionist writers in Northern Ireland, elaborating on this theme, have invented a new form of the ancient ‘returning exile’ myth by which the Ulster‐Scots settlers of the 17th century (see ulster plantation) are seen as the lineal descendants of Cruthin who left for Scotland over a thousand years before. Thus the unionists can claim a sort of primacy over the ‘newcomer’ Gaels. Useful as this new myth might be as a boost to unionist self‐esteem it is totally without historical basis.

Richard Warner

Cruthin. Variant of Cruithne, an Irish name for the Picts.