Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

Legends.

1923

PAGAN IRELAND

Though this is almost all we really know about the coming of the Gaels to Ireland, we shall see later on that the old Irish historians, who were very much interested in the early history of their race, invented a number of legends about the various settlements which they supposed were made in ancient times in Ireland; they thought that there were a number of successive conquests made by people of different races, who dis-possessed each other.

It is quite possible that there is some foundation of fact in these stories, for it is most likely that the inhabitants did not all come at once, but in separate detachments. But how much is fact and how much fiction we shall never know, and the legends are now chiefly interesting because they show us how our forefathers thought about these things, and what ideas they had concerning their own past history.

The Greeks, the Romans, the Jews and many other nations preserved old stories telling how their ancestors came to settle in the lands which they afterwards pos- sessed. Let us consider some of these early legends of the Irish race. The Irish writers of mediaeval times were anxious to make out that Ireland was inhabited at a very early period indeed; they liked to think that their race was as old as the Jewish nation, about whom they read in the Bible. So, after they became Christians, they made up a story to prove that even before the Flood the first inhabitants had arrived in Ireland.

You will easily see that they could only have invented this story after they had learned Christianity, for if they had been heathens they would not have read the Old Testament, or known anything- about the Flood. It was said in this story that Noah had a grand- daughter, whose name was Cessair, who however is not mentioned by Moses. She and her father sent a message to Noah asking him to keep an apartment for them in the Ark, but Noah replied that he had not room for them, and he advised them to go into the western part of the world, where no one yet lived, and therefore where sin had not been committed, as perhaps the Flood, which was sent as a punishment for sin, might not overtake them there.

Some accounts say that Cessair was so angry, that she said that she and her people would forsake Noah's God, and take an idol with them to worship. Finally, she, with her father, brother and husband set out, with fifty maidens along with them, and came to Ireland. But alas ! the Flood followed them even there, and they were all drowned. This curious old story was firmly believed for many centuries, and we find some of the old historians putting it into their histories, which shows us how careful we have to be in accepting the legends from the old chronicles.

Many otherwise sensible people have been confused by these stories, so that they seem to be unable to judge what part of them is fact and what part legend; and they think that it is for the honour of Ireland that they should accept all they find in the old books as sober truth. But the old historians had not the means of distinguishing fact from fiction as we have to-day; more over, as I said, they were so anxious to make Irish history correspond with the history they found in the Old Testament, that they were obliged to put in many things to lengthen out the period during which men were supposed to have lived in Ireland, in order that the dates might agree with those that are generally given in the Bible.

But the later historians, such as Keating, did not believe all these old stories. Dr. Geoffrey Keating was, in his day, a learned and wise man, and he tells us that he only put down the legends as he found them, but he did not think that they could all be true. It is just in the same way that we propose to tell these legends here; they are interesting because they show us what our forefathers thought about their history, but they are not all to be accepted as facts.

After a time there was another legend added to the story of Cessair. For the story-tellers began to think that if Cessair and all her companions had been drowned, it was hard to see how the knowledge of their coming had been preserved. So it was added that Fintan, the husband of Cessair, somehow escaped the Flood, and lived for many years afterwards, so that he was able to relate not only his own history, but that of all the races who afterwards took possession of Ireland. We find him called upon in the sixth century by the King, Dermot MacCearbhal (Karval), to give his opinion as to the original extent of the Province of Meath, because he was the oldest and wisest man in the kingdom.

He was then an elderly man of some five thousand years. The Five Settlements. We will now relate the coming of the other tribes whose arrival Fintan is supposed to have witnessed, and who are said to have settled in Ireland at different periods one after another; but you will remember that the story of these early races is not to be taken as certain history, though there is very likely a foundation of truth in it.

The old stories of Ireland tell us that there were five distinct invasions of the country. Of the first two, the invasion of Partholan and the invasion of Neimheadh (Neve') we know very little. Partholan is said to have had to fly from his own country because he had murdered his father and mother, in endeavouring to obtain the kingdom from his brother. He and his followers lived chiefly in the pleasant country between Tallaght and Howth, near Dublin : a district which was called Magh n-Ealta, the " Plain of the Bird- Flocks," on account of the flocks of beautiful birds which used to congregate there.

Partholan was a man of passionate temper, and he only lived thirty years after his landing in Ireland. His people were all swept away by a terrible plague, which the old writers thought was sent by God as a punishment for the crimes of their leader. It is curious that the name Tallaght or Tamlacht, where they are said to have been buried, means a " plague- grave," and on the slope of the hill are still to be seen rude graves or burial-mounds, in which cinerary urns have been found. Second Invasion.

The second invader, Neimheadh (NeVe"), is said to have come from Scythia. His people were terribly harassed by fleets of pirates, called Fomorians, or sea- robbers, who descended upon the North coast, and en-deavoured to subdue the new settlers. These troublesome marauders are said to have come from Africa, but it is more likely that they came from the North of Europe. Ever afterwards in Irish story, a cruel giant was called a Fomorian, so terrible were their descents and so frightened were the settlers of them.

The Nermhedians or Nevedians conquered them in three battles, but in spite of this they returned and avenged their defeats by enslaving the race of Neimheadh. They imposed on them a heavy tribute. Every year at Samhain (Sowan) or Halloween, the un- fortunate people had to give them two-thirds of their children and of their corn, and of their milch-kine, besides flour and cream and butter in abundance. This tax was collected by a female steward, named Liagh; and at the last this tax aroused so much indignation, that the oppressed people gathered together and besieged the Fomorians in Tory Island off the coast of Donegal, where they had built a fortress and where they kept their fleet.

They destroyed the tower, but as fresh companies of robbers continued to arrive on the coasts, the children of Neimheadh finally decided to leave the country, and after long preparations they all scattered in different directions and settled in other lands, leaving only a small remnant behind.