The topic of cannibalism in the Irish context is a sensitive and obscure one. Unlike certain tribes in Papua New Guinea (where leaf-wrapped bodies cooked on hot stones were considered quite a delicacy until recently) and teams of Uruguayan rugby players (the rather ironically named "Young Christians") marooned on the Andes, cannibalism among the Irish is a comparatively unknown quantity.
Most famously, Jonathan Swift used it as the basis for his Modest Proposal, published in 1728. Swift's proposal advocated reducing the population and the crimes associated with poverty by raising children for not more than 12 months and then selling them on to landlords to be used as food for the landowning classes.
"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance that a young healthy child, well nurs'd, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout," wrote Swift.
Swift admitted that the price of children for the consumer might be "somewhat dear". He estimated a cost of ten shillings per child - a considerable price to pay - but pointed out that for fifty pence, the purchaser could expect four dishes of "excellent nutritive meat".
Celtic cannibalism
Swift's proposal is one of the most famous short pieces of satire in Irish literature, based on Swift's view that the landlords had already "devoured" the parents so eating the children could not be far behind. Yet Swift's satire had an edge beyond the underlying breaking of one of the great taboos. Reports of cannibalism among the Celts were not unknown, from ancient times up to Swift's own day. In the first century BC, the Greek geographer Strabo wrote in his Geography that the Irish consumed their dead, particularly the bodies of their parents. This was not unknown among primitive tribes, mainly as a means of absorbing the dead person's wisdom and experience. Such activities were unlikely to promote good table manners: after all, a man who would eat his own father was probably unconcerned with the finer points of dinner-table etiquette. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Geraldus Cambrensis should write, in his Conquest of Ireland, of Dermot, Prince of Leinster's response when presented with the head of one of his enemies. Dermot, according to Cambrensis, "tore the nostrils and lips with his teeth in a most savage and inhuman manner".
Dermot's actions just about qualify as cannibalism, given that it's hard to tear at a chap's nose and mouth without drawing some blood, as anyone who has been kissed by an over-ardent suitor can testify. Yet, given the fact that Ireland was riven by famine on more occasions than the famous potato famine of the 1840s, it is to be expected that reports of actual cannibalism among the starving should survive. The 19th-century study of world famines compiled by Cornelius Walford records instances of cannibalism in Ireland in both the famines of 1588-89 and 1601-03. Sawney the Scot
The Irish were not alone among the Celts in attracting bad publicity in the dietary department. The Scots, for example, were regarded as among the worst of the bunch by the Romans and, later, the English. The Romans had to deal with the Attacotti, a tribe of cannibals from Argyllshire who later realised the error of their ways and signed up with the Romans, a case of "if you can't eat them, join them".
Of all the Scottish cannibals, the best known is the 15th-century Sawney Beane. Sawney married an Edinburgh girl and went off to live in a cave in Galloway, in the south-west corner of Scotland. Galloway was a fairly inhospitable place - if new arrivals are reduced to cave-dwelling, then the availability of cheap rented accommodation, or even trees to build that accommodation, must be sparse in the area in question.
Faced with the obvious limitations of cave-dwelling and reluctant to engage in lawful commerce, Sawney was forced to fall back on his instincts. He and his growing family resorted to picking off unfortunate travellers and feeding on them. In fact, Sawney and his brood must have eaten a significant portion of the visitors to Galloway, given that at one point his family numbered Sawney and his unlovely wife, 14 children and 32 grandchildren, quite a number of whom had quite happily added incest to the list of their offences against decency. All in all, it is estimated that the Beanes accounted for more than 1,000 people.
Unsurprisingly, travellers began to avoid taking the coast road at Galloway, on the understandable grounds that they were quite keen on completing their journey without being eaten. The Beanes' unique approach to their dietary requirements came to an end when a group of horsemen found them dismembering a woman and tracked the fleeing clan with bloodhounds. When their cave was eventually discovered, it was found that prime cuts had being hung from the roof by hooks and body parts had been preserved in brine in expectation of a rainy day, travellers being reluctant to walk long distances on wet days. In 1435, the entire Beane brood, men, women and children, was executed.
Plenty of mention
It would, perhaps, be easy to dismiss reports of cannibalism among the Irish and, to a lesser degree, the Scots as simply bad publicity spread around by those - such as the English and the Romans - who considered the Celtic races capable of just about anything. This response may even have some basis in truth, but it does not change the fact that in Reay Tannahill's history of cannibalism, Flesh & Blood, the Irish rate more mentions than the Scots, the natives of Papua/New Guinea, the Andes survivors and Vlad the Impaler combined. Under the circumstances, Bord Failte's abandoned logo depicting two figures embracing should probably include bared teeth somewhere...