Celtic Tara

Celtic Tara
Celtic Tara Celtic Tara

An Leabhar Gabala (The Book of Invasions, c. eleventh century) details the origins of the Gaelic people. They descended from the Goideal Glas, who came from Scythia (a vast area covering present day Ukraine, South West Russia and Central Asia), and Scota, a daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh. Their descendants left Egypt at the time of the Exodus of Moses, they wandered until they arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, where they settled. Breogan built a tower at Brigantia (in present day Galicia) from the top of which his son Ith first saw Ireland.

Ith made an expedition to Ireland but was killed by the Tuatha De Dannan, in revenge the eight sons of Ith's brother Mil Espaine landed in Co. Kerry and fought their way to Tara, eventually defeating the Tuatha De Dannan. The Milesians divided the country amongst their principal leaders, establishing themselves as the dominant class. TF O'Rahilly proposed that the descent of the kings of Ireland from the kings of Mil is a fiction created to provide legitimacy for the Goidels who invaded Irealand in the second century BC, giving them the same origin as the people they dominated. As late as the seventeenth century Geoffrey Keating utilised the myth to promote the claim of the Stuart dynasty to reign over Ireland, demonstrating that Charles I was descended through Brian Boru, Eber and Galamh, from Noah and from Adam.

Until the late nineteenth century historians readily accepted that The Book of Invasions was an accurate and true account of the history of Ireland. Eoin MacNeill was the first commentator to cast doubt on it, in his seminal works - Phases of Irish History and Celtic Ireland. Subsequently, historians have being divided as to whether The Book of Invasions is a mere fiction, concocted for a number of reasons including an attempt to debase the early pagan religions by transforming their gods into mere mortals, and the other school of thought who maintain that it is a historical work of merit. O'Rahilly in his Early Irish History and Mythology concludes that fact and fiction blend in the early Irish manuscripts and that we must tread with caution to decipher which is which when we are trawling the ancient primary sources.

Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland.

http://www.exploringireland.net

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