In ancient British times, the whole country belonged to tribes, and the tribes owned their several districts. At the head of each tribe was the chief.

The history of the Welsh, the Irish, the Highlanders, is just the same as that of the Gauls, one of internecine feud, no political cohesion, no capacity for merging private interests, forgetting private grudges for a patriotic cause.

The tribal system from which the Celt never freed himself entirely was the curse of the Celtic race, predooming it to ruin.

Sabine Baring-Gould Quotes