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Chapter 1
Wrapt in mystery and lore, few countries the size of Ireland have had such a vivid and dramatic early history.
With noble simplicity, but in great detail, many of our ancient legends inform us of the arrival to these shores of colonies from far distant lands. How much of the matter contained in these legends can be taken as historical fact is a question which will not be answered here, and remarkable and precious as these legends are, unfortunately, this volume can only make leeting reference to them as it proceeds to a more documented period, a period where there is less danger of fact and iction being confounded.
But, bearing in mind the great mystery and fabulous obscurity of our history, is there a point where we can actually say ‘here ends legend, here begins history.’ Well why don’t you stay with the narrative and see where the journey takes you, and maybe somewhere along the path a few ancient anomalies may be clariied and a small understanding of what has gone before gained.
Known to some Greek chroniclers as the possible location of Ogygia, a very ancient place, and to the Romans as Terra Finalia, ‘The Last Land,’ the actual edge of the world, as it were, the island of Ireland, once named variously as Erin, a shortened version of Inis Eireann-‘the island of Eire’ from which the present name Ireland was later formed by the Anglo-Normans, Banba, Fodhla, Hibernia, Scotia, Eremon, Ugaine, and later Inis Ealga, i.e the ‘Noble Island,’ Inisfail-‘The Island of the Stone of Destiny,’ to mention but a few, lies of the north-west coast of the continent of Europe. Westwards, for thousands of miles, stretches the broad Atlantic Ocean; to the north, across a cruel sea lies Iceland and the frozen Arctic regions; to the south, the European Continent ends in the Iberian Penninsula; and a short way east across Muir Eireann/Muir Meann, ‘the Irish Sea,’ is our nearest land neighbour, the island of Great Britain.
It is a reality, not merely the relection of reality, as some suggest, that as a fortuitous result of our remote location, Ireland’s history difers greatly from most of our European neighbours in one respect, and in this we are very fortunate indeed. We Irish have a fuller knowledge of our ancestors than has any other nation of Western Europe, and consequently
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