"Figures for Bronze- & Iron-Age Irish?" Topic

What suggestion[s] (vendors -- e.g. Warlord Games) would folks here recommend for figures to use for Bronze & Iron Age Irish?

Am looking for some novel options for games in "Hail Caesar!" In the Bronze Age; probably Irish tribes vs. Irish. In the Iron Age, that kind of conflict could continue. OR… It's ca. 80 A.D., and Gnaeus Julius Agricola takes a "little diversion" along the way to Scotland -- taking a small Roman Army to Ireland?? OR, or, in the second or third century a Roman governor sends a small military force to protect an "Annual Market" on the east coast of Ireland for a large Romano-British trading fleet??

Maybe have a little fun… Need figures that make a good representation of the Irish. Would prefer NOT to simply 'recycle' any vendor's "Celtic British" -- unless that were appropriate.

Thanks in advance for support!!

Crusader Miniatures via North Star Miniatures does Irish. And Alternative Armies makes some nice ones as well.

Try Dark Age Irish and mix in a few generic Celts, at least for the leaders who may have been influenced by British or even continental trends.
Celts from Britain and or Gaul, maybe via Britain ended up in Ireland. They are probably the Fir Gailion, Fir Bolg, Fir Domnan mentioned in Irish myth. The Gailion are the likely source of the Laign who gave their name to Leinster and also the Lleyn Peninsula in Wales.
The Domnan are possibly the Dumnonii of south west England or the Damnonii of Scotland assuming they're not branches of the same tribe. The Bolg are most likely the Belgae.
There really is nothing on the pre-Christian Irish other than a handful of archaeological finds.
Clonycavan man (a body found in a peat bog) suggests some of the Irish used hair gel to style their hair. The gel was made of plant oils and pine resin and he was also found with a hair tie. He had a moustache and chin beard (goatee). The front of his head was shaved to the ears, possibly a religious tonsure as the later Celtic monks are said to have had some kind of tonsure which went ear to ear instead of the bald spot that the Roman monks had.

Miniature Figurines do a few "Scots-Irish" based on the drawings in Phil Barker's old "Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome" – link They will be 25mm so a bit smaller than some modern offerings.

What do folks here think about using Foundry's "No. European Bronze Age" figures for BA and early to late Iron Age Irish? I.E., pre-Christian Irish? I have looked at the various "Dark Age" figures suggested. Most of them just look too "Medieval."

Basic medieval fashion evolved from Iron Age fashion which came from Bronze Age fashion. I think Foundry's figures are based on clothing found from bog bodies dating back to the Bronze Age in Denmark.
Maybe the Irish wore the same, maybe they didn't.

Iron Age Ireland though probably had fashion similar to Britain which was similar to Europe and overall the fashion of the Celts, Germans and Dacians wasn't that different with trousers and a tunic and a cloak being worn by all. The differences would have been length and shape of cloak, brooch types, Dacians wore the Phyrgian cap which becomes fairly widespread in the later Roman Empire, the Anglo-Saxons wore them too. Other differences were hairstyles and facial hair.

The way I look at the middle ages is that in many ways, at least for western Europe, it was a return to how their ancestors lived in the Iron Age before the Romans. Power reverted back to local lords and their household troops, the church exerted huge control over politics.
The irony is that a late Roman infantryman with his trousers, flat oval shield, long sword was more like an iron age Celtic or Germanic warrior than anything the Republican or classical Romans would have recognised as a Roman soldier.Which is also why it's possible to use figures from different cultures and eras for variety as many have overlapping styles where the differences can be sidelined with a head or shield swap.

Bronze Age is not my forte but from what I've read horned helmets have been found from Scandinavia to Greece. So it's possible that Mycenaean figures could be used as well.

There is also organic weapons and armour that tends to get ignored. There was a bark shield found in Leicestershire dating back to the 4th century bc. Bone spearheads, probably javelins have been found all over Britain and even the Orkneys and also in Europe. These are Iron Age weapons too, not stone age, many were found in graves alongside iron spearheads.

I think as long as things look like they belong together and aren't obvious anachronisms like using a Roman in segmentata but painting the armour a bone colour, then do what you want, the Bronze Age is a real black hole in terms of information for places like Ireland.