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Life in seventh century Ireland was not so bad if you were a wealthy nobleman or woman, although a man of the warrior class had a fairly high likelihood of being maimed or even killed in the unending cattle raiding and warfare, and a young noblewoman had to marry whomever her father chose for her based on dynastic or political reasons. Life was tougher for a person in the middle ranks, a farmer for whom one poor growing season due to bad weather could mean the difference between prosperity and ruin. For a slave at the bottom of the societal pyramid -- typically a Briton or Saxon torn by force from his or her homeland -- life was very miserable indeed.As for the Christian Church, it was nearing the pinnacle of its early medieval glory. Its monasteries with their rich libraries were the envy of Dark Ages Europe and its monks had just embarked on their mission of evangelizing Great Britain and the Continent.Economy and TopographySeventh century Ireland was heavily forested and the forests were home to game, including wild boars and deer, that could be hunted. Based on surviving writings, however, it appears that there was a prejudice against game in favor of the meat of domestic animals -- although this was a luxury that few could afford.Irish society was primarily pastoral though of course there was also some tillage. Many people's lives were semi-nomadic, because herders took their flocks up into the hills to avail of fresh grass in spring and returned to the lowlands only at the end of summer. Cattle were at the centre of economic and social life -- a man's wealth was measured in cows -- but cattle were mainly kept for milk rather than meat (being simply too valuable to slaughter for food).Sheep were also valued, being the source of the wool from which most clothing was made. (Linen, woven from flax was also used, but much less so than wool.) Other domestic animals, such as pigs and chickens, were raised as food. Staple foods included grains such as barley and oats, cheese, bainne clabar (a type of yogurt), cheese, eggs, honey, and root vegetables.Horses, of course, have been associated with the Irish since the beginning of history, and a good horse was highly prized. Horses were used by cavalry in battle, by ordinary men and women for transport, and by everyone as pack animals. Horses were almost never used as draft animals, however: the task of pulling heavy loads or a plough fell to oxen. There being no roads, wheeled vehicles were almost unknown.Although many people lived at a subsistence level, there was also some trade both internally and with the outside world. Traders sailed to the coastal towns of Great Britain, France and northern Spain. All trade involved barter -- the seventh century Irish did not use coinage.ClothingThe basic item of clothing for both men and women was the léine, a long garment that was pulled over the head and worn full-length by women but pulled up and tucked into a leather belt when worn by men. Also universally worn as an overgarment was the brat or cloak. I don't know whether ionar and triubas had been introduced by the seventh century; these were a short tunic and tight-fitting trousers worn by men and usually associated with manual labour, though they later came into use by fighting men of all ranks simply because of their practicality.Most people's clothes were made simply of undyed wool, but wealthier people's clothes were often dyed in vivid colours. Nobles' clothes were even more splendid: their cloaks were richly embroidered, their léinte were vividly coloured and were adorned with borders in stunning, abstract designs. Nobles also wore belts of beautifully worked leather with silver buckles, and fastened their cloaks with gold brooches, some embedded with precious stones.Society and PoliticsPeople lived in settlements in forest clearings and on the coast. A homestead or baile would be enclosed by a stout earthen rampart with an opening for a heavy wooden gate, though these were probably more effective at keeping out wild animals -- including wolves -- than human raiders. A homestead would include both the family dwelling (usually circular in shape) as well as housing for livestock and slaves, barns, dairies, and so forth. Homesteads of close relatives would sometimes be clustered together; but such settlements could never grow too large because the land would not sustain them. There were no towns; nor were there any roads -- people traveled on foot or horseback on cow paths or passes cut through the forests.The basic political unit was the túath, a group of people who belonged to a discrete political community (usually defined by kinship) and who lived in a defined territory (about the size of a present-day townland). On average, there were about 170 túatha at any given time, each ruled over by a petty king or rí túaithe. There were also higher ranks of kings. A ruirí, in addition to ruling his own túath, was overlord of several neighboring túatha, thereby controlling an area perhaps the size of a modern county. In turn, a rí ruirech ruled over a cúige or "fifth," one of the traditional five kingdoms of Ireland.Royal succession did not follow rules of primogeniture: within each túath there was a central family, all of whose healthy male members out to second cousin were eligible to succeed when a king died or otherwise left office. The new king would be elected from within this group of males, but sometimes the process would involve feuding among rival factions of the family.Irish society was very hierarchical. At the top of the pyramid were the nobles (the professional warrior class), followed by various ranks of freemen, a class of unfree Irishmen somewhat akin to the serfs of continental Europe and England, and of course the slaves. Men could take multiple wives and concubines, but the principal wife had a much superior status in law to lesser wives. There was not a concept of illegitimacy similar to the rest of Europe: the son of a king's concubine could, in theory, be eligible to succeed to the kingship and there seem to have been occasions when this happened.There were also very important hereditary castes, principally by this time the filid (poets) and brehons (judges). Interestingly, the kings had no role in making the laws. There was a system of common law, handed down from ancient times, memorialized in legal treatises, and interpreted and administered by the brehons. The brehon laws governed every aspect of social interaction, including inheritance, contractual relations, marriage, divorce, torts, and so on. There was no penal law as such -- a man found liable for a wrongdoing had to pay compensation to the victims, even in cases of murder where appropriate compensation was paid to the slain person's family.The more important ranks of freemen also included the bóaire (strong farmer) and ócaire (small farmer). A man was allocated land by his kindred, and an individual's allocation was based on such factors as his status within the tuath and his track record as a farmer. A productive and successful ócaire could have his land allocation increased; an unproductive bóaire could have his allocation cut, and with it lose status as well as income. Farmers typically leased both cattle and farm equipment from their overlords, and were obliged to pay a fee or rent in return -- generally a share of the farmer's output. Surviving records suggest that these fees could be quite onerous at times and thus it seems the life of a middling farmer was often precarious.The life of a slave was miserable -- they were fed slops, barely clothed, and had to work and even sleep without any protection from the elements.A singular feature of Irish family life was the almost universal practice of fosterage, whereby children would be sent to another family (and sometimes a monastery or nunnery) to be raised, to return home only when the child had reached adolescence. This served the useful purpose of binding families of political allies closer together -- many children grew up to retain deep and lifelong affection for their former foster families. But it also had the unfortunate effect of making children virtual strangers to their own siblings, which could exacerbate the bloody feuding among brothers over questions of succession.Raiding and WarfareCattle raiding was endemic. Every spring, the men of a tuath or petty kingdom would set out to raid an enemy's territory and seize whatever cattle they could drive away with them. Regional kings would also muster the men of several petty kingdoms that owed them submission and conduct raids on their rivals, often on the other side of Ireland. It seems that Irish armies were surprisingly mobile, despite the constraints of the terrain.There were strict laws on the conduct of warfare -- no man could seize more cattle than he could actually drive away with him, and enough cattle had to be left behind so that the victims of a raid would not starve and would have breeding stock to rebuild.The most common weapons were spears, both short thrusting spears and longer throwing spears. Short darts were also used. Swords were expensive to make and tended to be used only by the wealthiest nobles. For protection, Irish warriors relied on round shields, and padded jackets and caps. Armour was unknown to them. Although some use was made of cavalry, especially for raiding, most fighting was conducted on foot.Slaves would also be taken from a conquered enemy. Perhaps more important, however, was the raiding of Great Britain for slaves, a practice that had been going on for centuries (St. Patrick was brought to Ireland as a slave from Britain in the early fifth century), and would not be stamped out until after the English invasion of Ireland in the late twelfth century.The Christian ChurchYou asked specifically about Christianity. The traditional date for the introduction of Christianity to Ireland is 432 AD, but historians now believe that there were Christians in Ireland before that. In the fifth century, Christian missionaries had to compete with the older established religion(s) and the powerful druidic class which pushed back against the upstart new faith. But by the seventh century Christianity had prevailed. It differed in many particulars, however, from the Christianity in the rest of Europe at that time. Elsewhere, the Church had grafted itself onto the civil administrative structure of the Roman Empire and thus was organized in a network of dioceses presided over by bishops who ultimately answered to the pope in Rome. In Ireland, where there was no centralized administrative system, the Church was largely monastic in structure, with most monasteries being associated with the túath in whose territory they were located; most often, the abbott was a member of the ruling family of the túath. Similarly, the greatest of the monasteries were closely tied to a ruling family of a cúige, such as the Eóganacht in Munster or the Uí Néill in the North.Irish Christianity also differed in other ways from its mainland European counterpart. Many frankly pagan customs had been adopted wholesale, with for example local gods associated with sacred wells or trees being transformed into saints. Even St. Brigid, the most important saint in the Irish pantheon after St. Patrick, may be the pre-Christian goddess of the same name in a different dress. Older Irish sexual practices had also survived the encounter with Christianity and it was common for clerics to have wives and concubines. Indeed, many church offices had become hereditary, being passed on from father to son over many generations.A major feature of early medieval Irish Christianity was the preservation and transmission of learning and literature. From the beginnings of the Irish Church in the fifth century, Irish monks had sought out and gathered in from all over Europe the writings of the early Church fathers as well as the classics of pagan Greece and Rome. Even as Europe was succumbing to barbarian invasions and falling into the darkness that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, Irish monks were to be seen scurrying about collecting manuscripts to be borne home to Ireland.Back in Ireland, the monks set about copying the manuscripts in their scriptoria in order that each book would have many copies, to be shared among the brethren, and read and savored. The monks were not content simply to copy text such as the Gospels, however: they illuminated their work with the fantastic shapes and colors that gave us such masterpieces as the Book of Durrow and the Book of Kells. See for yourself, courtesy of Wikipedia:Book of KellsMoreover, the monks did not limit themselves to simply copying the Gospels or, say, the works of Augustine or Plato. They also wrote about what they read, leaving us biblical exegeses and original works of philosophy. Some of them branched out into poetry, producing work (in Latin) of considerable sophistication. They corresponded confidently with scholars on the continent (for the Dark Ages were never quite as dark as they've been painted), turning Ireland into the intellectual powerhouse of Europe.In the seventh century, the monks turned their energies outward. St. Colm Cille or Columba, an abbot and scholar from the powerful Uí Néill dynasty in the north of Ireland, founded the great monastery of Iona, whence began the Christianization of Scotland. Columba's follower, St. Aedan, established Lindisfarne,which introduced Christianity and literacy to Northumbia. And perhaps most remarkable of all was St. Columbanus, who set out with a shipload of followers for the European mainland. Once ashore, they fanned out to establish literally scores of monasteries in what are now France, western Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy, thereby reigniting European learning and literacy on a large scale.The monks also created one of the earliest written vernaculars in Europe. They began to compose in Irish the "annals," matter-of-fact accounts of daily events of local and national significance that are the source of most of what historians know about early medieval Ireland. Equally important are the jottings in Irish by monastic scribes in the margins of the books that they were working on, which ranged from complaints about the uncomfortable working conditions in the scriptorium, to comments on the monastery diet, and to gems like Pangúr Bán, a little poem about the author's cat that has delighted generations of Irish schoolchildren."Vikings"?One final note. Another answer to this question suggests that by the seventh century, Ireland (and the monasteries) were already prey to the Vikings. That is not true. The first attack by Norsemen to appear in the annals occurred in 795, when sea raiders sacked an island monastic community off the coast of what is now Co. Antrim. It was several more years before such raiders appeared again, and Norse raiding did not become a widespread problem until well into the ninth century.

There's a ton of modern discrimination against men.1st - is in most states if there's a domestic violence call, the man is accused of the crime and is taken into custody. I personally know a disabled military veteran who's wife verbally and physically abuses him at great lengths (I've seen a pan she bent hitting him over the head) and uses the threats of calling the cops to get her way.He's spent several nights in jail due to her calling the police or the neighbors as she screams and throws his belongings against their condo wall. Now he's got charges she uses that leverage to get her will, she's broken almost every nice piece of electronics they've owned, pushes things down the stairs to cause a racket, and threatens to call the cops almost weekly.He's had to run out of the house and leave before the police arrive without wearing any shoes, shirt, etc. Why he doesn't keep a go-bag with a hundred dollars or more, a change of clothes, and some other necessities in his trunk is beyond me.She's even kicked him in the back where he's got issues, accusing him of hurting her when she "broke" her toe when she kicked him barefoot. He sticks around hoping for change and has been verbally and physically abused so much he seems to accept it…I'd have run off long ago and would seek separation or divorce as there's no kids involved. Really she should be charged for wasting tax dollars and police resources for relationship manipulation purposes.I know another wife that screams and throws her purse or other objects against the wall, or even saw her do it to the neighbors door. What they must think is going on would lead them to call for a welfare check. She does this clearly to escalate the situation and get her way. He's had charges put on him too.Fortunately the local police have had to have flagged their addresses, but with all fair in love and war they never know if this is the time they'll confront a gun risking their chances of going home safely so they have to treat each call seriously.Some states haul both parties into custody, a much much fair approach but this is the exception not the rule.2nd - Equal job opportunities, I'll likely get some comments, but when it comes to certain companies they hire females only, and males have had to concede the positions they had. Women have successfully sued employers with men in similar situations losing the legal battle. Over the last 100 years the opening of jobs to women has disrupted the job opportunities, basically cutting the available jobs to men by about 50% (women do outnumber men) and has created a social construct that work is tied to a mans identity, "What's he do?" is a very common question that defines his social status.3rd - Child custody is an issue. I've known women who were a mess psychologically and chemically that got custody, healthcare, food, and money from both the state and from the father(s) of their children (alimony and/or child support) yet men aren't given the same rights, and have lengthy and expensive legal battles for custody. In some situations the male basically has to give up even partial visitation because the woman moves away, with visits of only a few weeks over the summer, or has had to drive hours to the place where the woman lives and visit while staying (and paying ) for a hotel. The man was not allowed to move equal distances without surrendering custody or fighting a lengthy legal battle proving the case of abuse or inadequate parenting, living conditions, etc. Social views of a "stay at home dad" is typically derogatory. There is definitely a stereotype that men should be contributing to the finances of the household, yet a man that makes enough to allow the woman to choose to work or not is viewed as a "provider" and praised, even more so if he can afford a nanny and housecleaning, etc.4th- Similarly, the Law/Police/Imprison men on average more often and receive 63 percent longer prison sentences than women who commit comparable crimes. Reinforcing data accumulated from numerous other surveys on the subject, also found that women are twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted of a crime – which may explain why 90% of the prison population is male. Police will single out a men in an incidents that involve criminal matters when both sexes are present and arrest the man. A man who steps up and takes the fall and gets jail or prison time for a woman can be depicted as chivalrous and noble; inversely, a man who expected a woman to do the same thing, meanwhile, would seem dishonorable and cowardly.- The Sentencing Gap: Why are Men More Likely to Go to Prison? -5th - Dress Codes, with men often having restrictions on what they can wear to work with limited choices. Same holds true to get into restaurants, bars, county clubs, etc. Men are often required to wear a suit, tie, and dress shoes to get into establishments, yet women can wear bright colors, open toe shoes, can pick the length of their hair with men being stuck with few options. Just look at conventional busines attire or formal occasions, men are restricted in what they wear with women having much more freedom and many more choices.6th - More women graduate college today than men. We are at a point in history where men don't hold the upper hand in many aspects of life. It's expected the man will provide, and in executive and board positions often do, but this is changing. A stay at home dad is not viewed the same as a woman who stays home to raise kids.7th - The "Me Too Movement" where men are accused of some past unwanted sexual contact. It's gotten so bad that men's careers and lives can be ruined by a female saying something happened years ago with no proof. How this would effect a woman is totally different, she'd be innocent until proven guilty and not the other way around. The accusing man would be castigated by the public and laughed at while its true that when the roles are reversed there's no pairity.