Thoughts on Galicia?

[ELY]

It's a slippery slope. They're not really Celtic, the whole region being fully Romanised 2000 odd years ago. It'd be like England claiming it was Celtic because of scraps of culture that survived into the modern age.
For a couple of centuries there was a Briton community in the north of Spain. When the Saxons invaded southern Britain creating places like Wessex, Britons who could, fled. The largest group went to Gaul where they established Brittany. A smaller group went to Spain where they established Britonia. This was around the 6th century ad. It was too small to survive and was soon absorbed into the local population.

Galicians probably have pipes for the same reason the Scots have them. The tradition didn't die out because of the remoteness of these places. Bagpipes were once common across Europe. The highland ones come from Ireland where they'd been developed as war pipes but Ireland was likely introduced to the pipes some time during the middle ages through contact with Europe or even the English Pale settlements.

If they want to consider themselves Celts then that's up to them, but given they speak a Romance language they should at least try to resurrect a Celtic cant there.
Tartan like cloth is something that appears to be common to the ancient Celts and scraps of it have been found in ancient salt mines, suggesting that even low class workers wore it. More intact examples exist amongst the Tarim mummies and there are bog bodies from Ireland wearing tartan clothing. Not to mention the Romans record the Gauls as wearing striped clothing and clothes covered in squares and there are statues showing clothing that appears to be checked.
Tartan like cloth also appears in various places in Europe during the middle ages worn by both males and females as patterned cloth but otherwise in normal fashion for the time.

I live in Spain, and have Galician relatives. They cherish their Celtic roots and are very proud of their heritage. The earliest (to date) historical depiction of a kilt (skirtlike garment with plaid design) are several Celtic warrior statues from the Castro culture (1st or 2nd century B.C.)


As you have said, centuries of external influence have managed to water down their pre-Roman and pre-Catholic roots, but some things have survived.

There are many words in the Galician language that have Celtic origins. I am including a link to one of many pages that researches the Galician/Celtic people.
http://www.celtiberia.net/es/biblioteca/?id=698

There are many cherry blond blue eyed Galicians. That trait has managed to survive.

So, whether the chicken came first, or if it was the egg, I don't know. But there are Celts in Galicia.