Theory that \'Celts\' are a myth

[Sean Manning]

True enough.

So the Gauls (in modern France) referred to themselves as Celts, and the Celts? in Belgae did not. And the Celtic-speakers of Britain and Ireland did not call themselves Celts. The one group of people in what is now Spain were Celtic, but the Iberians and Lusitanians were not Celtic? Clearly to me, at least, it's unfair to say the Britons and Irish did not consider their Celtic roots. Irish Gaelic and Scots Gaelic are still Gaelic (Gallic/Gaulish and those people did call themselves Celts, if we can believe Caesar who knew them first hand).

It seems like we're grasping for straws while swimming underwater...but if it makes folks happy, go for it.

The point is that there is no evidence that people in Britain and Ireland felt they had "Celtic roots" with all these other places before the 18th century when antiquarians discovered that their langugages were related. Judging by anthropological parallels, its unlikely that all British or all Irish felt a sense of commonality with each other! Pre-Roman elites in some parts of Britain and Ireland imitated Gaulish goods and Gaulish customs, but that doesn't tell us much about ethnicity (if a Welshman today drinks coke and listens to rap and lives in a home designed by an American architect, that doesn't mean he would call himself American!)