Mythology And Legend
Above : Ancient Ireland (A.D 460)
The traditional accounts of the earliest colonies are frankly mythological, and convey no impression of an attempt to deal with real events. The exploits of gods, heroes, and men are narrated without distinction, and incredible details are given with a minuteness which defies reason. Whether these fables are based upon any real events of importance, and what the nature of such events may * “ster ” was a Norst suffix added to thru oj the native names. have been, are questions of the merest conjecture. This applies especially to the accounts of all the colonies which are said to have landed before the coming of the ” Milesians,” and they may, therefore, be summarised as ” mythological ” history.
The first colony after the Flood is said to have been that led by Partholan, whose followers occupied the plains of Moynalta, north of the Liffey, for 300 years until they were all cut off by a plague. Thirty years afterwards the Nemedians came from Scythia. Their possession of the island was contested by the Fomorians, a race of sea-robbers of uncertain origin, whose great stronghold was in Tory Island. So oppressive were the exactions of the Fomorians that after two hundred years the bulk of the Nemedians fled from the country in three bands, from which eventually sprang the Firbolgs, the Tuatha De Danann, who were successive colonists of Ireland, and the Britons, who occupied what is now England and Wales.
Two bands of the Nemedians had fled to Greece. The descendants of one of these bands, after a lapse of two centuries, again returned to Ireland under the name of the Firbolgs. They landed in three separate bodies, numbering 5,000 in all, and occupied the country without opposition. They divided the island amongst five of their princes, and thus originated the popular conception of the ” five provinces.” To the Firbolgs is ascribed the erection of the great stone forts such as Staigue Fort in Kerry and Dun Aengus in Arran.
The legend of the Firbolgs is generally accepted as representing a real race of men, who probably settled in various small groups in Ireland. Who they were, however, is uncertain. They are thought to have been related to the Belgae, a Celtic-speaking people, probably Teutonic in race, one branch of which occupied the south-west of Britain, while another branch was situated on the rivers Seine and Marne, between the Celts of Gaul on the South and the Teutons on the North.
The next colony consisted of the descendants of the other Nemedian band which had settled in Greece. These were known as the Tuatha De Danann. They had become skilled in all the arts, and were feared on account of their magical powers. They travelled across Europe to Lochlann or Scandinavia, where they remained for a time teaching in four cities. Next they moved to the north of Britain, where they stopped for seven years. Thence they came to Ireland on the heels of the Firbolgs, when the latter had been only 36 years in oc upation of the country. Under their King, ” Nuadha of the Silver Hand,” they defeated the Firbolgs in the battle of South Moytirra near Cong (in Co. Mayo), and 27 years afterwards defeated the Fomorians—who still infested the country—at the battle of North Moytirra (in Co Sh>o). For two centuries they retained possession of the island. Many of the Firbolgs remained, however, especially in the West; and they figure as a distinct people long after the Tuatha De Danann themselves had been swept away.
To this people are ascribed the great sepulchral monuments at New Grange on the River Boyne. They, too, are said to have brought to Ireland the Ua pAit, or ” Stone of Destiny,” upon which the High King was crowned at Tara. Some believe that this famous stone was brought in later times by an Irish Colony to Scotland, and was thence taken to Westminster by Edward I of England. It is more strongly held, however, that the stone is that which still crowns the hill of Tara.
It is fairly certain that the fabled Tuatha De Danann were not a real people. The references to them are not definite ; and they disappear after the coming of the Milesians, when they vanish into the hills and raths to reappear as fairies. Their chief personages were probably the gods of the Pagan Irish, who, after the introduction of Christianity, came to be looked upon as having been human beings. It is probable also that to this mythical people were ascribed many of the adventures of other colonists in their struggles with the earlier inhabitants.
