Tonight's music

This is Enya's video for her greatest commercial success the song Orinoco Flow. It is from the CD Watermark. While the song is as much New Age as it is Celtic it does express one of the defining characteristics of the Celtic people. Wanderlust.

The Celts spread themselves across Europe where they built a sophisticated and prosperous civilization which was in most respects a better place to live than the Roman Empire, which eventually conquered most of the Celtic lands.

Of course Rome did not subdue all of the Celtic peoples. Ireland and Scotland never new Rome's domination.

The Celts made the great leap over the Atlantic and settled in large numbers in the United States, primarily in the Southeast. The Scotts and Scotts-Irish had such an influence on the culture of the Southeast that it is more properly described as Anglo-Celtic rather than Anglo-Saxon as is the Northeast.

The music and dance of the Scotts and Irish evolved into the distinctive music and dance of the South. Irish step dancing became clogging and the Scottish jigs and reels became square dancing and the music of both nations blended and became bluegrass.

In terms of population descended from Celtic ancestors the United States is the largest Celtic nation in the world, in fact the largest in the history of the world.