I certainly consider the Galicians to be Celtic.
What your describing with the neo-druidism and so on has come to be known in Ireland at least, as the Celtic revival.
As far as I know, the movement consisted of historians, poets, artists, those types. It was more an act of rebellion than anything else. To be unashamedly Celtic in Ireland at that time, was a statement of defiance.
This of course led to the types of romanticism that you're describing, over-egging the pudding so to speak.
In their defence, and as you pointed out, we know very little about druids, as their tradition was an oral one, and the Celtic revival had to piece together their artistic vision from scraps of folklore, which perhaps has led to the over emphasis on fairies and such, moreso than anything else.
Fairies are by far the most misrepresented aspect of celtic mythology.
Fairy = Na Sidhe meaning mound.
The people of the mound, that is to say, ancestoral forces.
Mound refering to the ancient burial mounds scattered throughout Ireland.
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Interesting that the warrior aspect seems to have been ignored. I would have thought it quite inspiring.
Another question I have.....is there any evidence of the actual types of tattoos/body painting that people might have worn in those times?
I can actually answer that quite easily:
The brutish aspects of celtic society were glossed over.
Those in the celtic revival were all to concerned with the British accusation that the Irish were brutish, uncivilised, and therefor completely incapable of governing themselves.
They believed such depictions would harm their nationalist cause, as they would only serve to affirm these accusations.
As such, they focused on the softer, abstract and poetic elements.
This type of self depricating appeasment continues even today, with the Gaelic Athletics Association refusing to recognise legitimate Irish martial such as Bataireach (Shillelagh/Cudgel) fighting.
https://youtu.be/WG3upFRd9R0?feature=shared
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Tattoos were made of woad, but how that's known I'm not sure.
Animals were imitated in the hopes of inheriting their characteristics in battle.
For example, dying hair white and spiking into a mane, to perhaps invoke the swiftness of a horse ( ie. Epona/Macha).
Shields were almost always adorned with depictions of hounds ( observant protectors, always watching for incoming danger )
It might interest you to read a depiction of Irelands mythological hero Cú Chulainn, to get a sense of the kind of battletrance the celts likely cultivated before battle:
This is translated from the ancient text "The Táin"
"The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and organ from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream. His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front... On his head the temple-sinews stretched to the nape of his neck, each mighty, immense, measureless knob as big as the head of a month-old child... he sucked one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull; the other eye fell out along his cheek. His mouth weirdly distorted: his cheek peeled back from his jaws until the gullet appeared, his lungs and his liver flapped in his mouth and throat, his lower jaw struck the upper a lion-killing blow, and fiery flakes large as a ram's fleece reached his mouth from his throat... The hair of his head twisted like the tangle of a red thornbush stuck in a gap; if a royal apple tree with all its kingly fruit were shaken above him, scarce an apple would reach the ground but each would be spiked on a bristle of his hair as it stood up on his scalp with rage."
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