Did the irish/scottish ever keep slaves black or otherwise?
Yes. All Celtic tribes (not only in the British Isles – the Celts originated in Eurasia, and migrated westward) had institutional slavery. I have seen no evidence of chattel slavery (slaves who were bought and sold like cooking pots or cows) in the Celtic areas of the mainland but it might have happened. A normal way of acquiring slaves was of course warfare; prisoners who were not killed would be used as servants and workers. In Scotland there were whole septs (extended families) which were nominally part of a clan, but in fact had the status of hereditary servants of the clan: in other words, whole families of unfree labourers. In Ireland there was certainly chattel slavery in both the dark and middle ages. The Irish, both under the Vikings and later, had a major slave-market in Dublin: in fact the town of Dublin only exists because of the slave trade. The slaves came from slave-raiding; both Norsemen and Irish systematically raided coastal areas to acquire slaves, which were valuabl
