"Dark Age Irish colors" Topic

I have been painting some Dark Age Irish, and it occurred to me that I have just been assuming that most of the clothing (as there is very little armor) would be very drab and naturally colored with some occasional flourishes for the more prosperous folk.

Is my notion correct? I cannot find any authority to the contrary, and I know that someone out there in TMP land can tell me how and why I am wrong.

If I recall my "Armies of the Dark Ages" by WRG, the lower classes could indeed have various natural wools and linens, but there were also restrictions on what colors could be worn by each class. I'm at work so I don't have the book in front of me, but from memory the upper class garment-the leine?-was of linen and often bleached, but was also dyed, sometimes in striped patterns. The cloak (brat?) was usually wool, but could be made to look shaggy by adding unspun wool into the weave. Cloaks could be many colors including purple, red, green, grey , etc.

There were supposedly class guidelines/limits/laws in place that set color usage, but we still have only a limited idea how those colors were put into use.

Try this site:

link

The page I've linked too has excellent detail on clothing in general, and there's another page on the same site with details of the Brehon law, which stipulated which classes could wear which colours.

Hope that helps!

Edited to add: the links on that page aren't working, so here's a post on the Brehon Law Yahoo group which includes two translations of the colour-code:

link