Humans first began to settle in Ireland about 10,000 years ago. These Mesolithic hunters and gatherers brought with them animistic religious beliefs and practices. With the transition to a lifestyle that was dependent upon domesticated plants and animals about 6,000 years ago, the religion changed. Spirits which had once animated animals and places, now became gods and goddesses. With the conversion to Christianity which began about 300 CE, the old deities began to disappear, either subsumed into Christianity or suppressed by the new religion.
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