Quote Originally Posted by oudysseos View Post
Also, it seems to be the case (or is being asserted) that there was a serious population decline after the end of the Bronze Age prosperity in Ireland. If true, this would simply mean that there is not much to know until maybe the 600s AD.
No, not at all: just that there wasn't the same increase in population that were was among the Continental Celts, or even the lowland Britons.

In the early Bronze Age, Ireland was building New Grange, inventing the Hibernian Axe (which I think was the first purely military weapon in Western Europe) and exporting gold lunulae. Roughly at the same time as the Beaker Culture spread, the easily accessible gold and copper deposits seem to have started to dry up and Ireland stopped being the land of milk and honey and was left on the edge of later developments.