About ten years ago several ancient, mummified bodies were found in an Irish peat bog. An unusual detail of the bodies was that their nipples had been pinched and cut off. This led the archaeologist Eamonn Kelly to speculate that the bodies were those of failed kings. He explains:
I believe these men were failed kings or failed candidates for kingship who were killed and placed in bogs that formed important tribal boundaries.. Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland. Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship.
According to the Celt Eros blog, homosocial nipple sucking was widely practiced in ancient Pagan Ireland. It was called "sughaim sine."
This typically male act stood for many things in the pagan culture of the times. In one aspect, it was used as a way to pledge loyalty, devotion and submission for a king. Among common men, it was an expression of friendship, greeting, reconciliation, affection, fealty, protection and not surprisingly, as some sources suggest, sexual stimulation and pleasure.
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