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20 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
Greece returned to Ireland bearing a new name-the Firbolgs-‘the men of bags.’ The origin of the name may have arisen because it is believed that while in Greece they were forced to carry clay in wallets from the plains to fertilise the rocky hills and highlands: they are also known as the ‘Pot-bellied ones.’ The first people to bear a Celtic name, this race may, as some historians claim, have been related to the continental Celtic tribe of the Belgae. Nevertheless, the tough, though largely pastoral Firbolgs were reputed to have been a small, short in stature, straight-haired, swarthy race, who have left a portion of their descendants with us to this very day. They were once referred to as being dark-haired, talkative, guile- ful, strolling, unsteady, and spoken of as ‘disturbers of every Council and Assembly,’ and ‘promoters of discord.’
In any case, the Firbolgs were not long in possession of the country, some sources claim a mere thirty-seven years, when new invaders arrived. Tradition would have us believe that upon landing the newcomers went first to Magh Rein, modern Fenagh in present-day south Leitrim, and later took up a position between Loughs Mask and Corrib. The magic-en- dowed newcomers who were known as Tuatha Dé Danann, ‘the people of Danu’ worshipped a pagan goddess called Danu, now Dana, and are said to have been descended from the othergroupof NemedianswhoearlierfledtoGreece.TheywereledbytheirchiefNuadat. The Tuatha Dé Danann were much more skilled, civilised, and cultured than the Fir Bolgs, and in MacFirbis’s MS. Book of Genealogies, there is mention of the three great forms of music associated with the Tuatha de Danann, Music, Sweet, and Sweet-String, i.e., CEOL, BIND, and TETBIND, also Goltraí, Suantraí, Geantraí, ‘Sad Music, Lullaby, Merry Music’- their chief harper was named Uathne, or Harmony. The skills they possessed may explain why they were regarded as magicians and necromancers, and as a result, greatly feared.
It is maintained that the Dé Dananns also brought with them their Lia Fáil, their ‘Coronation Stone’ or ‘Stone of Destiny.’ Believed by many to be a piece of the biblical Ja- cob’s Pillar, and because of its shape referred to as ‘Jacob’s Pillow’, the sandstone block of oracular virtues, this Lia Fáil from which Ireland derived the name Inisfail, was afterwards the stone on which the High-Kings of Ireland were inaugurated at the evocative Hill of Tara. It is supposed to have been removed from Tara to Scone in Scotland, where the Scottish Kings were crowned, and to have been finally placed under the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey. The stone is now back in Scotland in Edinburgh Castle, although, some, however, hold that the real stone of destiny is still to be found at Tara!
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