Important place in the Gaelic Society

In Celtic Ireland, there were numerous poets, but it could be a mistake to think that all of them had the same place in the hierarchy.

According to Greek and Roman ancient texts, the Celtic society was organized in 3 social classes: military class, priest class and populate people. Bards were members of the priest class, with the druids and the forecasters.

Bards was members of one group of poets, that we may distinguish with the other one, called "Fili".

The Early Irish Law text on poets specified that the disctinction between Bards and Fili can be explain because bards were a lesser class of poets, not allowed to obtain the higher poetic roles. One other version say that the distinction between Bards and Fili come from the Christianization of Ireland, in the Middle Age. In fact, it seems to be that Fili was attached to the Church, instead of Bards were still attached to their previous religion.

But Bards were members of the priest cast, and naturally the nature of their poetry is predominantly religious, being mainly used in ritual, or certainly in a spiritual context. Their main preoccupation is the perception of what they call "poetic truth" and its subsequent translation and refinement into exact statement.

Since a long time, their place in the society was recognized, and estimated. They had an official situation, and they were respected because of the quality of their knowledge about History and traditions.