Human Sacrifices in Celtic Ireland
Bertrand
endeavours to dissociate the Druids from these practices, of which he
says strangely there is “no trace” in Ireland, although there, as
elsewhere in Celtica, Druidism was all-powerful. There is little
doubt, however, that in Ireland also human sacrifices at one time
prevailed. In a very ancient tract, the “Dinnsenchus,” preserved
in the “Book of Leinster,” it is stated that on Moyslaught, “the
Plain of Adoration,” there stood a great gold idol, Crom Cruach
(the Bloody Crescent). To it the Gaels used to sacrifice children
when praying for fair weather and fertility—“it was milk and corn
they asked from it in exchange for their children—how great was
their horror and their moaning!
