Chapter 3

First Colonists--The Landing of Ceasair, before the Flood--Landing of Partholan, after the Flood, at Inver Scene--Arrival of Nemedh--The Fomorians--Emigration of the Nemenians--The Firbolgs--Division of Ireland by the Firbolg Chiefs--The Tuatha Dé Dananns--Their Skill as Artificers--Nuada of the Silver Hand--The Warriors Sreng and Breas--The Satire of Cairbré--Termination of the Fomorian Dynasty.

[A.M. 1599.]

We shall, then, commence our history with such accounts as we can find in our annals of the pre-Christian colonization of Erinn. The legends of the discovery and inhabitation of Ireland before the Flood, are too purely mythical to demand serious notice. But as the most ancient MSS. agree in their account of this immigration, we may not pass it over without brief mention.

The account in the _Chronicum Scotorum_ runs thus:--

"Kal. v.f.l. 10. Anno mundi 1599.

"In this year the daughter of one of the Greeks came to Hibernia, whose name was h-Erui, or Berba, or Cesar, and fifty maidens and three men with her. Ladhra was their conductor, who was the first that was buried in Hibernia."[24] The Cin of Drom Snechta is quoted in the Book of Ballymote as authority for the same tradition.[25] The Book of Invasions also mentions this account as derived from ancient sources. MacFirbis, in the Book of Genealogies, says: "I shall devote the first book to Partholan, who first took possession of Erinn after the Deluge, devoting the beginning of it to the coming of the Lady Ceasair," &c. And the Annals of the Four Masters: "Forty days before the Deluge, Ceasair came to Ireland with fifty girls and three men--Bith, Ladhra, and Fintain their names."[26] All authorities agree that Partholan was the first who colonized Ireland after the Flood. His arrival is stated in the Chronicum Scotorum to have taken place "in the sixtieth year of the age of Abraham."[27] The Four Masters say: "The age of the world, when Partholan came into Ireland, 2520 years."[28]

Partholan landed at Inver[29] Scene, now the Kenmare river, accompanied by his sons, their wives, and a thousand followers. His antecedents are by no means the most creditable; and we may, perhaps, feel some satisfaction, that a colony thus founded should have been totally swept away by pestilence a few hundred years after its establishment.

The Chronicum Scotorum gives the date of his landing thus: "On a Monday, the 14th of May, he arrived, his companions being eight in number, viz., four men and four women." If the kingdom of Desmond were as rich then as now in natural beauty, a scene of no ordinary splendour must have greeted the eyes and gladdened the hearts of its first inhabitants. They had voyaged past the fair and sunny isles of that "tideless sea," the home of the Phoenician race from the earliest ages. They had escaped the dangers of the rough Spanish coast, and gazed upon the spot where the Pillars of Hercules were the beacons of the early mariners. For many days they had lost sight of land, and, we may believe, had well-nigh despaired of finding a home in that far isle, to which some strange impulse had attracted them, or some old tradition--for the world even then was old enough for legends of the past--had won their thoughts. But there was a cry of land. The billows dashed in wildly, then as now, from the coasts of an undiscovered world, and left the same line of white foam upon Eire's western coast. The magnificent _Inver_ rolled its tide of beauty between gentle hills and sunny slopes, till it reached what now is appropriately called Kenmare. The distant Reeks showed their clear summits in sharp outline, pointing to the summer sky. The long-backed Mangerton and quaintly-crested Carn Tual were there also; and, perchance, the Roughty and the Finihé sent their little streams to swell the noble river bay. But it was no time for dreams, though the Celt in all ages has proved the sweetest of dreamers, the truest of bards. These men have rough work to do, and, it may be, gave but scant thought to the beauties of the western isle, and scant thanks to their gods for escape from peril. Plains were to be cleared, forests cut down, and the red deer and giant elk driven to deeper recesses in the well-wooded country.

Several lakes are said to have sprung forth at that period; but it is more probable that they already existed, and were then for the first time seen by human eye. The plains which Partholan's people cleared are also mentioned, and then we find the ever-returning obituary:--

"The age of the world 2550, Partholan died on Sean Mhagh-Ealta-Edair in this year."[30]

The name of Tallaght still remains, like the peak of a submerged world, to indicate this colonization, and its fatal termination. Some very ancient tumuli may still be seen there. The name signifies a place where a number of persons who died of the plague were interred together; and here the Annals of the Four Masters tells us that nine thousand of Partholan's people died in one week, after they had been three hundred years in Ireland.[31]

The third "taking" of Ireland was that of Nemedh. He came, according to the Annals,[32] A.M. 2859, and erected forts and cleared plains, as his predecessors had done. His people were also afflicted by plague, and appeared to have had occupation enough to bury their dead, and to fight with the "Fomorians in general," an unpleasantly pugilistic race, who, according to the Annals of Clonmacnois, "were a sept descended from Cham, the sonne of Noeh, and lived by pyracie and spoile of other nations, and were in those days very troublesome to the whole world."[33] The few Nemedians who escaped alive after their great battle with the Fomorians, fled into the interior of the island. Three bands were said to have emigrated with their respective captains. One party wandered into the north of Europe, and are believed to have been the progenitors of the Tuatha Dé Dananns; others made their way to Greece, where they were enslaved, and obtained the name of Firbolgs, or bagmen, from the leathern bags which they were compelled to carry; and the third section sought refuge in the north of England, which is said to have obtained its name of Briton from their leader, Briotan Maol.[34]

The fourth immigration is that of the Firbolgs; and it is remarkable how early the love of country is manifested in the Irish race, since we find those who once inhabited its green plains still anxious to return, whether their emigration proved prosperous, as to the Tuatha Dé Dananns, or painful, as to the Firbolgs.

According to the _Annals of Clonmacnois, Keating_, and the _Leabhar-Gabhala_, the Firbolgs divided the island into five provinces, governed by five brothers, the sons of Dela Mac Loich:--"Slane, the eldest brother, had the province of Leynster for his part, which containeth from Inver Colpe, that is to say, where the river Boyne entereth into the sea, now called in Irish Drogheda, to the meeting of the three waters, by Waterford, where the three rivers, Suyre, Ffeoir, and Barrow, do meet and run together into the sea. Gann, the second brother's part, was South Munster, which is a province extending from that place to Bealagh-Conglaissey. Seangann, the third brother's part, was from Bealagh-Conglaissey to Rossedahaileagh, now called Limbriche, which is in the province of North Munster. Geanaun, the fourth brother, had the province of Connacht, containing from Limerick to Easroe. Rorye, the fifth brother, and youngest, had from Easroe aforesaid to Inver Colpe, which is in the province of Ulster."[35]

The Firbolg chiefs had landed in different parts of the island, but they soon met at the once famous Tara, where they united their forces. To this place they gave the name of _Druim Cain_, or the Beautiful Eminence.

The fifth, or Tuatha Dé Danann "taking" of Ireland, occurred in the reign of Eochaidh, son of Erc, A.M. 3303. The Firbolgian dynasty was terminated at the battle of _Magh Tuireadh_. Eochaidh fled from the battle, and was killed on the strand of Traigh Eothailé, near Ballysadare, co. Sligo. The cave where he was interred still exists, and there is a curious tradition that the tide can never cover it.

The Tuatha Dé Danann king, Nuada, lost his hand in this battle, and obtained the name of Nuada of the Silver Hand,[36] his artificer, Credne Cert, having made a silver hand for him with joints. It is probable the latter acquisition was the work of Mioch, the son of Diancecht, Nuada's physician, as there is a tradition that he "took off the hand and infused feeling and motion into every joint and finger of it, as if it were a natural hand." We may doubt the "feeling," but it was probably suggested by the "motion," and the fact that, in those ages, every act of more than ordinary skill was attributed to supernatural causes, though effected through human agents. Perhaps even, in the enlightened nineteenth century, we might not be much the worse for the pious belief, less the pagan cause to which it was attributed. It should be observed here, that the Brehon Laws were probably then in force; for the "blemish" of the monarch appears to have deprived him of his dignity, at least until the silver hand could satisfy for the defective limb. The Four Masters tell us briefly that the Tuatha Dé Dananns gave the sovereignty to Breas, son of Ealathan, "while the hand of Nuada was under cure," and mentions that Breas resigned the kingdom to him in the seventh year after the cure of his hand.

A more detailed account of this affair may be found in one of our ancient historic tales, of the class called _Catha_ or _Battles_, which Professor O'Curry pronounces to be "almost the earliest event upon the record of which we may place sure reliance."[37] It would appear that there were two battles between the Firbolgs and Tuatha Dé Dananns, and that, in the last of these, Nuada was slain. According to this ancient tract, when the Firbolg king heard of the arrival of the invaders, he sent a warrior named Sreng to reconnoitre their camp. The Tuatha Dé Dananns were as skilled in war as in magic; they had sentinels carefully posted, and their _videttes_ were as much on the alert as a Wellington or a Napier could desire. The champion Breas was sent forward to meet the stranger. As they approached, each raised his shield, and cautiously surveyed his opponent from above the protecting aegis. Breas was the first to speak. The mother-tongue was as dear then as now, and Sreng was charmed to hear himself addressed in his own language, which, equally dear to the exiled Nemedian chiefs, had been preserved by them in their long wanderings through northern Europe. An examination of each others armour next took place. Sreng was armed with "two heavy, thick, pointless, but sharply rounded spears;" while Breas carried "two beautifully shaped, thin, slender, long, sharp-pointed spears."[38] Perhaps the one bore a spear of the same class of heavy flint weapons of which we give an illustration, and the other the lighter and more graceful sword, of which many specimens may be seen in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. Breas then proposed that they should divide the island between the two parties; and after exchanging spears and promises of mutual friendship, each returned to his own camp.

FOOTNOTES:

[24] _Hibernia_.--Chronicum Scotorum, p. 3.

[25] _Tradition_.--O'Curry, p. 13.

[26] _Names_.--Four Masters, O'Donovan, p. 3.

[27] _Abraham.--_Chronicum Scotorum, p. 5.

[28] _Years_.--Four Masters, p. 5.

[29] _Inver.--Inver_ and _A[=b] er_ have been used as test words in discriminating between the Gaedhilic and Cymric Celts. The etymology and meaning is the same--a meeting of waters. Inver, the Erse and Gaedhilic form, is common in Ireland, and in those parts of Scotland where the Gael encroached on the Cymry. See _Words and Places_, p. 259, for interesting observations on this subject.

[30] _Year_.--Annals, p. 7.

[31] _Ireland._--Ib. p. 9.

[32] _Annals._--Ib. I. p. 9.

[33] _World_.--See Conell MacGeoghegan's Translation of the Annals of Clonmacnois, quoted by O'Donovan, p. 11.

[34] _Maol_.--The Teutonic languages afford no explanation of the name of Britain, though it is inhabited by a Teutonic race. It is probable, therefore, that they adopted an ethnic appellation of the former inhabitants. This may have been patronymic, or, perhaps, a Celtic prefix with the Euskarian suffix _etan_, a district or country. See _Words and Places_, p. 60.

[35] _Ulster_.--Neither the Annals nor the Chronicum give these divisions; the above is from the Annals of Clonmacnois. There is a poem in the Book of Lecain, at folio 277, b., by MacLiag, on the Firbolg colonies, which is quoted as having been taken from their own account of themselves; and another on the same subject at 278, a.

[36] _Hand_.--Four Masters, p. 17.

[37] _Reliance_.--O'Curry, p. 243.

[38] _Spears_.--O'Curry, p. 245.

[39] _Eye_.--There is a curious note by Dr. O'Donovan (Annals, p. 18) about this Balor. The tradition of his deeds and enchantments is still preserved in Tory Island, one of the many evidences of the value of tradition, and of the many proofs that it usually overlies a strata of facts.

[40] _Country_.--We find the following passages in a work purporting to be a history of Ireland, recently published: "It would be throwing away time to examine critically _fables_ like those contained in the present and following chapter." The subjects of those chapters are the colonization of Partholan, of the Nemedians, Fomorians, Tuatha Dé Dananns, and Milesians, the building of the palace of Emania, the reign of Cairbré, Tuathal, and last, not least, the death of Dathi. And these are "fables"! The writer then calmly informs us that the period at which they were "invented, extended probably from the tenth to the twelfth century." Certainly, the "inventors" were men of no ordinary talent, and deserve some commendation for their inventive faculties. But on this subject we shall say more hereafter. At last the writer arrives at the "first ages of Christianity." We hoped that here at least he might have granted us a history; but he writes: "The history of early Christianity in Ireland is obscure and doubtful, precisely in proportion as it is unusually copious. If legends enter largely into the civil history of the country, they found their way tenfold into the history of the Church, because there the tendency to believe in them was much greater, as well as the inducement to invent and adopt them." The "inventors" of the pre-Christian history of Ireland, who accomplished their task "from the tenth to the twelfth century," are certainly complimented at the expense of the saints who Christianized Ireland. This writer seems to doubt the existence of St. Patrick, and has "many doubts" as to the authenticity of the life of St. Columba. We should not have noticed this work had we not reason to know that it has circulated largely amongst the middle and lower classes, who may be grievously misled by its very insidious statements. It is obviously written for the sake of making a book to sell; and the writer has the honesty to say plainly, that he merely gives the early history of Ireland, pagan and Christian, because he could not well write a history of Ireland and omit this portion of it!

[41] _Pillars_.--The monuments ascribed to the Tuatha Dé Dananns are principally situated in Meath, at Drogheda, Dowlet, Knowth, and New Grange. There are others at Cnoc-Ainè and Cnoc-Gréinè, co. Limerick, and on the Pap Mountains, co. Kerry.