The Cáin Adomnáin is known as the ‘Geneva Accords’ of the ancient Irish and it is Europe’s first human rights treaty, writes Columban missionary Fr Dermot Carthy.
The 20th century saw two world wars in one generation, and a lot of conflicts in which countless millions were killed, maimed and forced into exile. Mankind is one of the few species which destroys its own kind.
Over the centuries in Europe, philosophers, theologians and lawyers have debated the criteria for a ‘just war’, but it was not until the 19th century that they considered the rights of non-combatants – all the unarmed civilians.
However, in Ireland in the late 7th century one Irishman did consider this reality in depth and succeeded in having the protection of the un-armed accepted in law.
Adomnán (Eunan), a Donegal man and abbot of the influential monastery of Iona who died in AD704, wrote the law known as Cáin Adomnáin. It is also called the Lex Innocentium meaning the Law of Innocents.
It protected civilians, notably women and non-combatants, in time of war. It was solemnly promulgated at the Synod of Birr in AD697 as binding on Ireland and Scotland, and thus was an early example of international law. The 91 signatories included regional kings, Tara’s King of Ireland, bishops and abbots.
The Cáin was thirteen centuries ahead of its time. It was only in the early 20th century that protocols and international legal standards were drawn up on the rights and protections for civilians and non-combatants.
Through organisations such as the League of Nations, the International Red Cross, and the Geneva Conventions, the UN Declaration on Human Rights efforts were made to reduce war and avoid the industrialised slaughter and massive destruction of World War II.
The media brings us daily examples of indiscriminate bombing and drone attacks on civilians and non-military targets in Ukraine. Adomnán’s attempts to limit warfare are therefore as relevant today as they were in AD697.
The fact the Cáin was written in Irish and not in Latin may explain why this ground-breaking law is not as universally known as it ought to be.
Further reading: ‘Adomnán’s Lex Innocentium and the Laws of War’ by James W. Houlihan (Four Courts Press 2020).
Fr Dermot Carthy was ordained in 1959 and went on mission to Peru in 1960. He retired to Ireland in 2022.
Published in the May/June 2023 issue of the Far East magazine. Subscribe here and help our missionaries: https://columbans.ie/product/far-east-magazine-yearly-subscription/
