The Celtic Connection

By Volodymyr Kish

I had the pleasure of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year at a Corned Beef & Cabbage Supper held at St. John the Theologian Ukrainian Catholic Church in St. Catharines, Ont., the parish that my sister belongs to. Though you may well ask why a Ukrainian parish might be honouring an Irish saint, it becomes a little clearer when I tell you that the priest of this church is half Ukrainian and half Irish. Not only that, but Father Anton is blessed with superb culinary as well as spiritual talents, and makes corned beef and cabbage that would make a leprechaun proud!

I think quite a few Ukrainians are aware of the many historical parallels between Ireland and Ukraine, the roots of which lie in the fact that both countries have been victimized and oppressed by a powerful neighbouring imperialistic power – Ireland by England, and Ukraine by Russia. This has led to the characterization that Ukraine is the Ireland of Eastern Europe, while Ireland is the Ukraine of Western Europe.

Those of you knowledgeable in ancient European history would know that there is more than just this analogous connection between Ukrainians and the Celtic people, of whom the Irish are an important component. At their peak between 800 BC and 200 BC, the Celts straddled a vast territory that encompassed most of northern Europe from the British Isles to the Black Sea. Though experts disagree on where they originally came from, there is sufficient archaeological, linguistic and historical evidence indicating that they indeed once lived in the area that now forms south western Ukraine. Near the city of Mukachevo, in the Zakarpattya region of Ukraine, for instance, the remains of a Celtic Stone Age fort and large metal works have been found dating to the 2^nd Century BC.

There are traces of the Celtic language still to be found in many place names we encounter in Ukraine. For example, the Celtic word for “salt” is hall, from which some historians claim the historic Western Ukrainian town of Halych got its name. It was once a major regional centre of the salt trade. A prominent Ukrainian linguist, Kostiantyn Tyshchenko, claims that many Ukrainian town and village names are derived from Celtic root words. For instance, the root KHY in Celtic denoted house, and gave rise to place names ending in –khiv, such as Brakhiv, Volokhiv, Horokhiv, etc. Similarly, the Celtic root TREF (village) gave rise to Trebukhiv and Terebovlia. Tyshchenko also cites many common Ukrainian words such as salo, vlada, likar, knyha and boroshno that he claims are derived from similar Celtic words. Further, some Celtic cultural symbols such as the distinctive Celtic Cross can also be found in Ukrainian historical artefacts.

Even after the Celts had faded as a dominant force in Europe, we find historical ties between their descendants in Ireland and their distant Ukrainian cousins. There are historical records indicating that somewhere around 1070 AD, Grand Prince of Kyiv Iziaslav Yaroslavych welcomed two Irish monks to his court, and helped them organize a monastery.

In modern times, we see another kind of migration from Ukraine to Ireland. Many unemployed young Ukrainians have left their home country to seek employment in the rest of Europe, be it legal or otherwise. Many have found their way to Ireland. Although official statistics are understandably hard to come by, it is likely that there are thousands of Ukrainians currently living and working in Ireland. During the past Ukrainian parliamentary elections, at least two hundred Ukrainians were officially registered to vote at the Ukrainian Embassy in Dublin. There is a Ukrainian church in Dublin (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Congregation of HieroMartyr Nicholas the Wonderworker). There is also a Ukrainian organization in Ireland (Association of Ukrainians in the Republic of Ireland - AURI) that has its own web page (http://ukrainians.ie/en/) as well as a presence on Facebook.

I could draw many other connections and parallels between Ukrainians and the Irish such as their mutual love of song and dance, their strong religious devotions, etc. Suffice it to say that in many ways, Ukrainians and the Irish are kindred spirits.