I went to Fiona Richie's "Thistle and Shamrock" website tonight (npr.org/programs/thistle) and found this interesting bit of information to share with you all:
Matthew Duling - 02:23pm Dec 5, 1998 EST (#1195 of 1195)
The Thistle & Shamrock program of today (Dec. 5th) "Beyond the Keltic Fringe" referred to the music of Galicia (the northwest province of Spain)... all well and good. But it was erroneously stated that the Celtic presence in Spain derived from Britain. The "Celto-Iberians" did migrate to "Hispania" in the centuries before our era--but came from the original homeland of the Keltic people located in what is now the Franco-German border area. It was from this homeland that Celts migrated to the British Isles--about the same time. Later under Imperial Rome, Gaul (in what is now France) was the geographic center of the Keltic world. Celts peopled the river valleys of the Rhine and the Danube. Even a region of southern Poland is called "Galicia" after early Keltic presence. Further east in what is now Turkey, there was similarly a "Galatia" (referenced in the New Testament by Paul who wrote a letter to the "Galatians".) Centuries before, Celts had fought in the army of Alexander. This is, of course, "ancient history" but nonetheless part of Celtic roots, as these distant Kelts surely sang and played their music.