Due to its location, Ireland’s population and history of settlement was impacted

drastically by the Ice Age. In Guns, Germs and Steel it is clear that settlements in The Fertile

Crescent thrived due to the way the Ice Age affected the climate in that region. As the world

became warmer and flora and fauna thrived it was easy for hunter/gatherer type of societies to

prosper. However, hunter/gatherer societies didn’t reach Ireland until 7000 BC. Why did Ireland

have such a late start? Ireland is located north of The Fertile Crescent, so it experienced different

climatic changes which affected the plant and animal types available. A warmer period was

marked by the growth of juniper and birch but that changed when a “climatic deterioration

around 12,000 BP . . . juniper and birch were largely replaced by grasslands” (Waddell, 1998).

Many native species, such as the giant Irish deer, brown bear, and wolf, did not survive the

return of artic conditions. Rising sea-levels and the severance of Ireland and Britain also explains

why Ireland has a limited variety of flora and fauna compared to Britain (Waddell,1998). As the

climate finally warmed up in Ireland there was access to birch, hazel, wild pig, fox, hare, shrew,

pine, and a variety of birds and fish.

The first settlers likely came from Britain, as there was likely a land bridge between the

two before rising sea-levels disconnected them, and settled in the North-East coast as it was most

favorable to the needs of hunter/gatherers. However, the population of Ireland today tends to

avoid this area as it has little in terms of material needs (Case, n.d.). So why did hunter/gatherer

societies stay in this area? This area had an abundance of flint that hunters could use to create

weapons. There was also access to many rivers and lakes which provided fish, a food source that

was seemingly endless, nutritious, and easy to hunt without traveling far distances.

Archaeological evidence suggests that fish were the majority of these people’s diets, with wild

pig being an important secondary resource. “Of the identifiable remains 15% were from
mammals, 4% from birds and 81% from fish. However, pig bones represented 98% of the

mammal remains” (Waddell, 1998). Another important resource that these hunter/gatherers had

was hazel which is easily stored and a valuable source of fat and protein. Hunter and gatherers in

Ireland at this time may not have had access to the same plant and animal types as Britain or

other societies at this time, but they thrived off the little they did have access to.

It was shortly after 4000 BC that Ireland experienced a shift from the hunter/gatherer

lifestyle to the farming lifestyle. “Since the wild ancestors of cereals like wheat and barley and

animals such as cattle and sheep did not exist in postglacial Ireland, they had to be introduced. It

is commonly believed that these changes were initiated by the arrival of pioneering farming

communities who brought with them not just the new domesticated plant and animal species…”

(Waddell). The introduction of farming could possibly have come from The Fertile Crescent. As

the Middle East’s climate was too dry to support continuous farming, communities had to uproot

their lives and move. Jared Diamond speaks on how these people were geographically lucky

because they were located on a large land mass, Eurasia, and they could spread their farming

skills by moving east or west (Diamond, 2005). The introduction of cattle and sheep, as well as

other domesticated animals like pig and goat, had a significant impact on Ireland and its farming

community. The number of large mammals in Ireland practically doubled giving Ireland a better

chance of succeeding at farming (Waddell,1998).

Agriculture in Ireland began to thrive when new plant and animal types that could sustain

them better were introduced to them. They were able to store food and partake in domestic

activities such as cooking and food preparation. By partaking in a farming lifestyle and by being

lucky enough to have received the gift of new large mammals and new plant seeds, the settlers in

Ireland were able to progress, have bigger communities, create new technologies and create
culture. Tombs were being built, pottery was being made, fertility rituals and other rituals were

being performed as well as new burial customs arising. New technologies included a “large

number of copper and bronze axes and gold objects” (Waddell, 1998). People also started

progressively moving their communities to other parts of Ireland. “Throughout the course of the

2nd millennium there was progressively more settlement on the uplands” (Halpin & Newman,

2009). With the abundance of copper, bronze, and gold as well as the furthering development of

agriculture, Ireland was starting to rise to become a country of innovation and power.

While Ireland may not have been provided all of the resources for success, they were still

geographically lucky by being located near the Fertile Crescent. The Ice Age affected the

animals and plants that were native to Ireland and it gave Ireland a bit of a late start.

Hunter/gatherers survived well off of the lakes and rivers that provided bountiful and nutritious

fish, and hunters even created some technology to benefit their hunting skills, but if they had the

right resources they would be able to thrive. When pioneering farming communities migrated to

Ireland, bringing new plant and animal types such as wheat, cows, and sheep, Ireland began to

thrive. However, because pioneering farming communities migrated to Ireland, Ireland was able

to succeed.
 Resources

Case, H. (n.d.). Settlement-Patterns in the North Irish Neolithic. Ulster Journal of Archaeology.

Retrieved January 23, 2019, from

https://www.jstor.org/publisher/uas?refreqid=excelsior:58ea0439cd97bc60ec5ba2555971

310c.

Diamond, Jared M. (2005). Guns, germs, and steel : the fates of human societies. New York

:Norton

Halpin, A., & Newman, C. (2009). Ireland: An Oxford archaeological guide to sites from

earliest times to AD 1600. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Waddell, J. (1998). The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Bray, Co. Wicklow: Wordwell.