The Celtic nations or Celtic countries^[1] are a cultural area and collection of geographical regions in Northwestern Europe where the Celtic languages and cultural traits have survived.^[2] The term nation is used in its original sense to mean a people who share a common identity and culture and are identified with a traditional territory.^{[according to whom?]}

The six regions widely considered Celtic countries in modern times are Brittany (Breizh), Cornwall (Kernow), Ireland (Éire), the Isle of Man (Mannin, or Ellan Vannin), Scotland (Alba), and Wales (Cymru).^[1][3] In each of these six regions a Celtic language is spoken to some extent: Brittonic or Brythonic languages are spoken in Brittany (Breton), Cornwall (Cornish), and Wales (Welsh), whilst Goidelic or Gaelic languages are spoken in Scotland (Scottish Gaelic), Ireland (Irish), and the Isle of Man (Manx).^[4]

Before the expansions of Ancient Rome and the Germanic and Slavic-speaking tribes, a significant part of Europe was dominated by Celtic-speaking cultures, leaving behind a legacy of Celtic cultural traits.^[5] Territories in north-western Iberia—particularly northern Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, León, and Cantabria (together historically referred to as Gallaecia and Astures), covering north-central Portugal and northern Spain— are not considered Celtic nations despite having had a Celtic presence in their territories.^[6] Unlike the others, no Celtic language is attested there, unlike Celtiberia, and has been spoken in modern times.^[6][7][8] Similar evidence of Celtic influence exists across Europe in various regions of countries such as Italy, Austria, or the Czech Republic.

The concept of the Celtic nations is widely promoted by pan-Celtic movements, including political and cultural organizations like the Celtic League or International Celtic Congress.

Each of the six nations has its own Celtic language. In Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales these have been spoken continuously through time, while Cornwall and the Isle of Man have languages that were spoken into modern times but later died as spoken community languages.^[9][10] In the latter two regions, however, language revitalisation movements have led to the adoption of these languages by adults and produced a number of native speakers.^[11]

Ireland, Wales, Brittany and Scotland contain areas where a Celtic language is used on a daily basis; in Ireland these areas are called the Gaeltacht; in Wales Y Fro Gymraeg, Breizh-Izel (Lower Brittany) in western Brittany and Breizh-Uhel (Upper Brittany) in eastern Brittany.^[12] Generally these communities are in the west of their countries and in more isolated upland or island areas. Welsh, however, is much more widespread, with much of the north and west speaking it as a first language, or equally alongside English. Public signage is in dual languages throughout Wales and it is now a requirement to possess at least basic Welsh in order to be employed by the Welsh Government. The term Gàidhealtachd historically distinguished the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland (the Highlands and islands) from the Lowland Scots (i.e. Anglo-Saxon-speaking) areas. More recently, this term has also been adopted as the Gaelic name of the Highland council area, which includes non-Gaelic speaking areas. Hence, more specific terms such as sgìre Ghàidhlig ("Gaelic-speaking area") are now used.^{[citation needed]}

In Wales, the Welsh language is a core curriculum (compulsory) subject, which all pupils study.^[13] Additionally, 20% of schoolchildren in Wales attend Welsh medium schools, where they are taught entirely in the Welsh language.^[14] In the Republic of Ireland, all school children study Irish as one of the three core subjects until the end of secondary school, and 7.4% of primary school education is through Irish medium education, which is part of the Gaelscoil movement.^[14] In the Isle of Man, there is one Manx-medium primary school, and all schoolchildren have the opportunity to learn Manx.^{[citation needed]}

Other regions

Parts of the northern Iberian Peninsula, namely Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias in Spain, and the North Region, Portugal, also lay claim to a Celtic heritage. These regions are not traditionally included among the six primary "Celtic nations" due to the absence of a living Celtic language; however, archaeological and historical evidence points to a significant Celtic influence, particularly in the ancient region of Gallaecia, which encompassed modern Galicia and northern Portugal.^[6]

Historical and Archaeological Influence

Numerous archaeological findings, such as castros (hill forts) and artifacts bearing Celtic motifs, support the presence of Celtic-speaking cultures in Gallaecia dating back to at least the Iron Age.^[15] Classical sources, including Strabo and Pomponius Mela, described the Gallaeci and Astures tribes as Celtic, noting similarities in cultural practices and languages with the broader Celtic world.^[16]

Toponymy and Linguistic Substrates

While no Celtic language has been spoken in northern Iberia since the early Middle Ages, traces of a Celtic linguistic substratum persist in local place names and vocabulary. Toponyms with Celtic roots, such as those ending in "-briga" (meaning "fortress" or "hill"), are common in Galicia and northern Portugal.^[17]

Cultural Revitalization of Celtic Heritage

In recent decades, there has been a revival of interest in Celtic heritage across Galicia, Asturias, and northern Portugal. These regions actively participate in pan-Celtic events such as the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, where Galicia and Asturias are recognized alongside the six core Celtic nations. The annual Ortigueira's Festival of Celtic World in Galicia, one of Europe's largest celebrations of Celtic music and culture, attracts performers and audiences from across the Celtic world.^[18]

Irish was once widely spoken on the island of Newfoundland, but largely disappeared by the early 20th century. Vestiges remain in words found in Newfoundland English, such as scrob for "scratch" and sleeveen for "rascal."^[19] There are virtually no known fluent speakers of Irish Gaelic in Newfoundland or Labrador today, though memorized passages survive in traditional tales and songs.^[19]

Canadian Gaelic dialects of Scottish Gaelic are still spoken by Gaels in parts of Atlantic Canada, primarily on Cape Breton Island and nearby areas of Nova Scotia. In 2011, there were 1,275 Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia,^[20] and 300 residents of the province considered a Gaelic language their "mother tongue."^[21]

Patagonian Welsh is spoken principally in Y Wladfa in the Chubut Province of Patagonia, with sporadic speakers elsewhere in Argentina. Estimates of the number of Welsh speakers range from 1,500^[22] to 5,000.^[23]

The Celtic languages form a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. SIL Ethnologue lists six living Celtic languages, of which four have retained a substantial number of native speakers. These are the Goidelic languages (i.e. Irish and Scottish Gaelic, which are both descended from Middle Irish) and the Brittonic languages (i.e. Welsh and Breton, which are both descended from Common Brittonic).^[24]

Taken together, there were roughly one million native speakers of Celtic languages as of the 2000s.^{[citation needed]} In 2010, there were more than 1.4 million speakers of Celtic languages.^[25]

Formal cooperation between the Celtic nations is active in many contexts, including politics, languages, culture, music and sports:

The Celtic League is an inter-Celtic political organisation, which campaigns for the political, language, cultural and social rights, affecting one or more of the Celtic nations.^{[26][non-primary source needed]}

Established in 1917, the Celtic Congress is a non-political organisation that seeks to promote Celtic culture and languages and to maintain intellectual contact and close cooperation between Celtic peoples.^[27]

Festivals celebrating the culture of the Celtic nations include the Festival Interceltique de Lorient (Brittany), Ortigueira's Festival of Celtic World (Galicia), the Pan Celtic Festival (Ireland), CeltFest Cuba (Havana, Cuba), the National Celtic Festival (Portarlington, Australia), the Celtic Media Festival (showcasing film and television from the Celtic nations), and the Eisteddfod (Wales).^{[8][28][29][30]}

Inter-Celtic music festivals include Celtic Connections (Glasgow), and the Hebridean Celtic Festival (Stornoway).^[31][32] Due to immigration, a dialect of Scottish Gaelic (Canadian Gaelic) is spoken by some on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, while a Welsh-speaking minority exists in the Chubut Province of Argentina. Hence, for certain purposes—such as the Festival Interceltique de Lorient—Gallaecia, Asturias, and Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia are considered three of the nine Celtic nations.^[8]

Competitions are held between the Celtic nations in sports such as rugby union (Pro14—formerly known as the Celtic League), athletics (Celtic Cup) and association football (the Nations Cup—also known as the Celtic Cup).^[33][34]

The Republic of Ireland enjoyed a period of rapid economic growth between 1995 and 2007, leading to the use of the phrase Celtic Tiger to describe the country.^[35][36] Aspirations for Scotland to achieve a similar economic performance to that of Ireland led the Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond to set out his vision of a Celtic Lion economy for Scotland, in 2007.^[37]

The term Celtic nations derives from the linguistics studies of the 16th century scholar George Buchanan and the polymath Edward Lhuyd.^[44] As Assistant Keeper and then Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1691–1709), Lhuyd travelled extensively in Great Britain, Ireland and Brittany in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Noting the similarity between the languages of Brittany, Cornwall and Wales, which he called "P-Celtic" or Brythonic, the languages of Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland, which he called "Q-Celtic" or Goidelic, and between the two groups, Lhuyd published Archaeologia Britannica: an Account of the Languages, Histories and Customs of Great Britain, from Travels through Wales, Cornwall, Bas-Bretagne, Ireland and Scotland in 1707. His Archaeologia Britannica concluded that all six languages derived from the same root. Lhuyd theorised that the root language descended from the languages spoken by the Iron Age tribes of Gaul, whom Greek and Roman writers called Celtic.^[45] Having defined the languages of those areas as Celtic, the people living in them and speaking those languages became known as Celtic too. There is some dispute as to whether Lhuyd's theory is correct. Nevertheless, the term Celtic to describe the languages and peoples of Brittany, Cornwall and Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland was accepted from the 18th century and is widely used today.^[44]

These areas of Europe are sometimes referred to as the "Celt belt" or "Celtic fringe" because of their location generally on the western edges of the continent, and of the states they inhabit (e.g. Brittany is in the northwest of France, Cornwall is in the south west of Great Britain, Wales in western Great Britain and the Gaelic-speaking parts of Ireland and Scotland are in the west of those countries).^[46][47] Additionally, this region is known as the "Celtic Crescent" because of the near crescent shaped position of the nations in Europe.^[48]

In the years between 1815, when vast industrial changes began to disrupt the old life-styles in Europe, and Canadian Confederation in 1867, when immigration of that era passed its peak, more than 150,000 immigrants from Ireland flooded into Saint John. Those who came in the earlier period were largely tradesmen, and many stayed in Saint John, becoming the backbone of its builders. But when the Great Famine raged between 1845 and 1852, huge waves of Famine refugees flooded these shores. It is estimated that between 1845 and 1847, some 30,000 arrived, more people than were living in the city at the time. In 1847, dubbed "Black 47," one of the worst years of the Famine, some 16,000 immigrants, most of them from Ireland, arrived at Partridge Island, the immigration and quarantine station at the mouth of Saint John Harbour. However, thousands of Irish were living in New Brunswick prior to these events, mainly in Saint John.^[76]

After the partitioning of the British colony of Nova Scotia in 1784 New Brunswick was originally named New Ireland with the capital to be in Saint John.^[77]

In New Zealand, the southern regions of Otago and Southland were settled by the Free Church of Scotland. Many of the place names in these two regions (such as the main cities of Dunedin and Invercargill and the major river, the Clutha) have Scottish Gaelic names,^[78] and Celtic culture is still prominent in this area.^[79][80][81]