Page 22 - Demo

22 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
After a lapse of several centuries, about 350 B.C., the supremacy of the Tuatha Dé Danann was challenged successfully by a fresh group of invaders named as Clanna Míleadh, the Milesians. Several scholars maintain that the Milesians migrated from Central Asia to Northern Spain, and through the long ages past, the Irish people have held to the ancient belief that they were the descendants of the third group of Nemedians who fled Ireland and who had settled in Europe, possibly Northern Spain. Their progenitor, Mileadh or Milesius, was also known as Míl Espáinne, ‘Milesius of Spain,’ literally ‘Soldier of Spain,’ and that many Galicians consider themselves closely related culturally to the Irish, attests to this belief, a belief which is still very much alive in the Iberian connection and tradition. One of their number, Ith, the story goes, caught a glimpse of Ireland from a watch tower situ- ated on the Spanish coast. Famine breaking out in their territory, the rulers resolved to seek a new home. So Ith, with a small following, was dispatched to explore the newly observed country “the Promised Land,” as it were, whose presence he was responsible for making known. Accordingly, it is told that when Ith and his company were setting out from Ireland on their return journey, they were attacked by the Tuatha Dé Danann and during the battle Ith was fatally wounded. In the aftermath, some of Ith’s followers escaped and carried his corpse back to Spain, whereupon arrival they urged their kinsmen to avenge his death. The appeal was not in vain.
The Lia Fáil at Tara
So it is told that the Milesians, commanded by the eight sons of Milesius, set out for this Inisfail, their Isle of Destiny. They effected a successful landing despite the incantations of the Druids of the Tuatha Dé Danann and in a bloody engagement at Teltown in county Meath, thoroughly defeated their opponents. In the aftermath of this success, two of the surviving sons of Milesius, Eber and Eremon, then divided the island between them.
Another version would have us believe that they came from Spain in a great fleet of
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