Rundale

Emer Purcell and Stephen Hewer

With the continued use of Shannon Airport by US-Israeli aircraft and Ireland being the second largest importerof Israeli goods in the world, how can Ireland reconcile this with its vocal support for the Palestinian people? And what can early medieval law teach us today?

Since the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people factorially increased in October 2023, after 75 years of ethnic cleansing, these questions about Ireland’s stance have rightly come up. What role is the State of Ireland playing? What responsibilities do the State and the people have in this critical time? What does early medieval law have to do with this? Other scholars and activists have covered the State’s role in facilitating the US-Israeli genocide. Here we will explore what insights medieval Irish law might provide on understanding and addressing Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. We make this case on the basis that medieval history is not a foxhole to hide from today’s problems but provides a set of perspectives and tools that can help orient ourselves in the present.

The Gaza Genocide and Cáin Adomnáin

Many people, such as James Houlihan, have referred to Cáin Adomnáin, a famous piece of medieval Irish legislation from 697 – also called Lex Innocentium in Latin – as ‘the first Geneva Convention’. The law, first promulgated at Birr [now in Co Offaly], called for the protection of women, children, and clerics (as non-combatants) at all times, and in the context of the current genocide of civilians, framed as a ‘war’, it is especially relevant.

Over the course of the last 22 months, we have witnessed the slaughter of well over 61,000 Palestinians, according to conservative reports from the UN and the Palestinian Health Ministry more than 7,200 women and 16,000 children and 3,500 elderly people and roughly 90 per cent of the victims are non-combatants. Other reports indicate hundreds of thousands have been killed. That is not to mention those that have been injured and/or maimed. In addition, of those we class as non-combatants, 1,580 medical professionals, 479 aid-workers, 232 journalists and media professionals have been killed. It is very hard to even keep up with the daily mass killing and these figures will be out of date now. But as Palestinians say they ‘are not numbers’.

In light of the almost two years of mass genocide, the appeal to early medieval legislation might seem a stretch. So first, what does Cáin Adomnáin say? 

Cáin Adomnáin §34

This is the enactment of the Law of Adomnán in Ireland and in Britain: the immunity of the church of god with her familia and her insignia and her sanctuaries and all the property, animate and inanimate, and her law-abiding laymen with their legitimate spouses who will abide by the will of Adomnán and a proper, wise and holy confessor. The enactment of this Law of Adomnán enjoins a perpetual law for clerics, and females, and innocent youths until they are capable of killing a person, and of taking their place in the túath, and until their drove be known. (Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha, ‘The Law of Adomnán: A Translation’ in Thomas O’Loughlin (ed.), Adomnán at Birr, ad 697 (Dublin, 2001), pp 53-68 at 62)

Iss ead in so forus cána Adomnán for Hérinn ⁊ Albain: sóire ecalsi Dé cona muintir ⁊ a fethlaib ⁊ a termnaib ⁊ a n-ule folud béudu ⁊ marbdu ⁊ al-láichib dligthechaib cona cétmunteraib téchtaidib bíte fo réir Adomnáin ⁊ anamcharat téchtaide ecnaid cráibthig. Fortá forus inna cána se Adomnáin bithcáin for clérchu ⁊ banscala ⁊ maccu encu co mbat ingnima fri guin duine ⁊ co mbat inbuithi fri tuaith ⁊ confestar a n-immérgi. (Meyer, Kuno, Cáin Adamnáin: an Old-Irish treatise on the law of Adamnan, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905, p. 24)

A cáin was medieval Irish legislation promulgated by the church or a churchman, usually with the consent of an overking (ardrí). As we noted already, this prohibition applied at all times and not simply during a ‘war’.

Responsibility to Prevent War Crimes

Máirín Ní Dhonnacadha, in her study of Cáin Adomnáin, noted (page 27) that early medieval law in Ireland already outlawed violence against clerics, children and women before the promulgation of this cáin. Also relevant to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians is that under medieval law, ‘bystanders who do not take action to prevent a crime are unequivocally penalised as severely as the criminal’. This cin súlo (‘crime of the eye’) or aircsiu (‘looking on’) was illegal because ‘everyone who looks on at an offence consents to it’ (aititnech gach aircsinach). While lawyers might reflexively balk at this, this principal is also enshrined in modern international law: States that have agreed to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide are required to prevent it, as the title suggests. Indeed, in January 2024 the International Court of Justice – the so-called ‘world court’ – ruled that all states had a duty to stop and prevent genocide in Gaza on the grounds that there was a plausible case that Israel’s actions there amounted to genocide.

Early medieval law in Ireland went further. For it was a more severe crime to watch someone be murdered than to watch a cow eat a neighbour’s grass. The person who looked on at the spilling of blood that did not hinder this act was to be killed (cro fir frisaige leca fola nad urgair) and not be allowed the usual punishment of paying a fine (éraic). Whereas Cáin Adomnáin was more interested in collecting a double fine: one for the family and one for the Church (§35); it did also mandate that anyone who sees a murder happening and does not prevent it to the best of their abilities was guilty of murder.

After a crime has been committed, no one may give refuge to the perpetrators. As most people will know, in May 2024 the International Criminal Court issued warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity ‘allegedly’ committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023. So when genocidaires come to a signatory country, such as when Netanyahu went to Hungary, a founding ICC member, the state is required to arrest them under international law. Further, under early Irish law, the host – in this case Viktor Orbán – is equally guilty of the crime of genocide for providing the perpetrator succour. Cáin Adomnáin declares that the host can be equally punished up to and including execution.

Sanctuary for Refugees

Besides publicly condemning the genocides and demanding that the State stop assisting it, early Irish law also dictates that we accompany the victims from the place of danger to a safe place (Sellach slan ni tairdelb ni dene ni dinaib gnimaib seo ⁊ gaibes oca cach nirt ⁊ cach folud acht docaemtet a heslinn co innill co netarscarad friu i ninill). We must ask where are the places for all victims of genocide in Ireland? Just as there were places for Ukrainians, places for refugees should not be limited in quantity or quality.  The sellach [witness] decrees in early Irish law do not require the victim to be of a certain status or background. 

Call Jim O’Callaghan (01 6028235), minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, and demand that he create specific pathways for all of the refugees fleeing genocide, particularly those from Palestine, Congo and Sudan.

Is Ireland ‘Neutral’ and What Does that Mean?

When the State of Ireland allows and supports the US military use of Shannon Airport, under early Irish law and decisions of the ICC, the State of Ireland has contributed to the US-Israeli genocide of Palestinians by not preventing the genocide within its means. And as such, those who are concerned about Ireland remaining ‘neutral’ in global geopolitics must now admit that is clearly under threat if it has not already passed. The State absolutely has the means (and the duty) to deny the planes from landing at Shannon or better arrest the crew when they land, send them to the ICC and seize all of their tools of genocide. As emphasised by medieval Irish law, those who have the ability have the responsibility to act!

From Frantz Fanon to Rafeef Ziadah, many scholars have unquestionably shown that ‘neutrality’ is a colonial tool of oppression to convince well-meaning liberals that rendering aid or even just speaking out against the worst crimes and injustices is an extreme and improper bias. We must be mindful of this colonial propaganda and remember that not participating in a genocide requires more than not firing a gun at or dropping a bomb on the victims. It is time that we let the early Irish laws of aititnech gach aircsinach and sellach to inspire us to stand up, all of us witnesses to the worst crimes of genocide of the Palestinian, Congolese, Sudanese and other peoples, say ‘no, I do not consent to this!’, ‘the State must stop assisting it!’ and ‘Jim O’Callaghan must let any refugees into Ireland’.