ABSTRACT
Along with the South Sea Islanders and the Arabs, the Celts are among literature's most over-romanticized peoples. Though it is not my task to add to the glorification of the Erin-that-was, it is important to establish that pastoralism or livestock keeping, the basic adaptive mode of the Celts, had and continues to have an enormous influence in Irish lives and landscapes, particularly in Southwest Donegal. In addition to Donegal's remoteness and its pastoral base, there are other continuities between past and present. Two such are the calendrical system and land tenure practices. A major discontinuity is the post-1600 loss of local secular leadership. All have an impact on present practices and perceptions.
