Newgrange Megalithic Tomb dates: 4425+/- 45 BP; 4415+/- 40 BP burnt soil from roof caulking of Newgrange; 4480+/- 60 BP vegetation from turf beneath main monument; 4399+/- 67 BP from site 16 near Knowth tomb site (O'Kelly, Early Ireland). (BP = uncalib) radiocarbon dates: Newgrange Megalithic Tomb
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Cessair's Name
1. Ireland-whatever is asked of me
I know pleasantly,
Every taking that took her
from the beginning of the tuneful world.
2. Cesair came from the East,
the woman was daughter of Bith;
with her fifty maidens,
with her three men.
3. Flood overtook Bith
in his Mountain, it is no secret:
Ladra in Ard Ladrand,
Cessair in her Nook.
6. I was in Ireland here,
my journey was everlasting,
till Partholon reached her,
from the East, from the land of Greeks.
7. I was here in Ireland,
and Ireland was desert,
till the sone of Agnomain reached-
Nemed, brilliant his fashion.
8. The Fir Bolg and Fir Gailian
came, it was long ago:
the Fir Domnann came,
they landed on a headland in the west.
9. Thereafter the Tuath De came,
in their masses of fog,
so that there was sustenance for me
though it was a long lifetime.
10. The sons of Mil came
from Spain, from the south,
so that there was sustenance for me
at their hands, though they were strong
in battle.
11. A long life fell
to my lot, I shall not conceal it;
till Faith overtook me
from the King of Heaven of clouds.
12. I am Fintan the white
son of Bochna, I shall not conceal it;
after the Flood here
I am a noble great sage.
XXII
1. Capa and Laigni and pleasant Luasad,
They were a year before the Flood
over the Island of Banba of the women;
they were valorous and equally pure.
2. They reached great Ireland
far from the Pillars of Hercules;
they took kingship over every hill-fort
that was in Ireland before them.
3. As a wright and a leech are those
celebrated,
and a ruthless fisherman:
they were the first three men who came
here for a space,
into the great island of the sons of Mil.
4. This is what took them out of their
dwelling-
the three-a wonder unheard-of!
For setting nets into cold water;
and so they reached the fair haven.
By: mythological
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Celts have the biggest noses in Europe.
Language Nose length, cm
Celtic 54.5
Greek 54.2
Basque 53.2
Turkish 52.9
Latin 51.9
Baltic 51.5
Maltese 51.3
Finnish 51.3
Germanic/English 51.2
Slavic 50.7
Big, heavy, wide headed, wide faced, brachycephalic, long nosed, convex
nosed, pink skinned, rotten toothed, blue-brown eyed. These are the
physical characteristics of 1100 Cork and Kerry Irishmen, measurements
performed under the supervision of Harvard anthropologists in the 1940s and
1950s, see Hooten, E; "Physical Anthropology of Ireland," 1955. This study
concluded, with some dissent among the researchers, that the western Irish
group studied were probably Upper Paleolithic and Iron Age peoples
originally from Alpine-Mediterranean Europe. However these west Irish were
probably not the most recent Celtic arrivals, who were more likely to be
found in eastern Ireland. Notwithstanding the authors' serious warnings that
racial studies of this type should not beused to place peoples on scale
between ape and modern man, the general thrust of the study has a kind of
racial tinge to it. Ironically Harvard's long term interest in this subject
was muchdeveloped by Louis R. Sullivan, "Essentials of Anthropomtery."
These studies have traditionally been taken to indicate an east-west
gradient of genetic heritage suggestive of waves of migration from the edge
of Ireland, with the older peoples being progressively pushed to the western
peninsulas.
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The Irish participate in the tower of Babel, and taking the 72 languages of the world and fashioning the Gaelic tongue from them. The text of the Lebor Gabala lists the languages in mneumonic form, and scholars have pointed out that the list has been assenembled from a list of places in the world presentned by the Philosopher Isidore of Seville, whose marvelous view of the wolrd was eagerly accepted by the Irish in early medieval times and who will be discussed later.
Now Nel and his son Gaedel Glas, having participated in the great tower project, are retained by the Pharoah as tutors, and the subsequent marvelous events are discussed in the Irish Book of Invasions as follows: So Nel son of Feinius Farsaid dwelt southward in Egypt.
This is the estate which he received, upon the shores of the Red Sea, and around Phi- Hahiroth: and he was there till the Sons of Israel escaped from Pharao and from the host of Egypt. Now it fell out that the Sons of Israel, in that flight, came to the estate where Nel was, and his son, Gaedel Glas. The Sons of Israel took camp at Phi-Hahiroth, on the border of the Red Sea. Then Nel son of Feinius came to converse with them: and there Aaron [brother of Abraham (sic)] met Nel; and Aaron told him tidings of the Sons of Israel, and the miracles and marvels of Moses, and how the ten plagues-[a clearness of testimony!]- were brought upon the people of Egypt by reason of their enslavement. And they ratified a friendship there, and Nel gives wine and wheat to the peoples of God for provision. So Aaron went thereafter to the place where Moses was, and told him of the welcome which he had received at the hands of Nel, and the good which he promised to the Sons of Israel. Moses was grateful to Nel for that.
Now as for Nel, in that very night a serpent stung the little sone tht had been born to him, to wit Gaedel Glas, and death was near to him. [From that circumstance he received his name, Gaedel Glas.] And the lad was carried to Moses, and Moses made fervent prayer before God, and put the noble rod upon the place where the serpent had stung him, so that the lad was cured. And thereafter Moses said: I command, by the permission of God, that no serpent harm this lad, or any of his seed for ever; and that no serpent dwell in the homeland of his progeny. There shall be, he said, kings and lords, saints and righteous, of the seed of this lad; and in the northern island of the world shall be the dwelling of his race. This, then, is the reason why there are no serpents in Ireland, and why no serpent does harm to any of the seed of Gaedel Glas. 120. Then it is that Nel said: Pharao shall come to us, said he, and shall enslave us, for the welcome that we have given you, and for the guilt of failing to hinder you. Come thou with us, said Moses, with all thy people, upon tomorrow's route, and if thou wilt, thou shalt receive an equal share of heritage in the land which God hath promised to the Sons of Israel. Or, if thou dost perfer, we shall put the pinnaces of Pharao at thy disposal: embark ye therein upon the sea, and stand ye by, to know by what means we shall separate us from Pharao, and thereafter do thy good pleasure.
The company that was in the ships set forth and they stood by to see the transactions of the following day: the division of the Red Sea in the wake of (sic) the people, and the drowning of Pharao with his hosts therein-six score thousand footmen and fifty thousand horsemen, that is the tally which went to meet death, of the people of Pharao, in the Red Sea.
Then they went on a journey that ended in Spain.....
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What is known is that approximately 500 B.C. the Galician area of Spain,
west, wet, and green, much like Ireland itself; green maritime valleys on
the warm Gulf stream Atlantic, were colorized by the Hallstat Celts who
built forts there. Conceivably these Celts, the Galaeci, later may have
mixed with a non-Celtic people known as the Iberians to form a culture known
to the ancients as Celtiberians.
Now were it not for the fact that some miles of ocean separates these
Atlantic facing valleys from the rugged south west coast of Ireland, Banty
Bay, one could easily imagine that they were of the same country. A ragged,
Atlantic-facing coast, year-around rainfall, a baffling, almost mystical
terrain of mist, green hills, boggy little valleys. A fondness for fish,
wine, and a form of christianity and poetry that are oddly similar, a quirky
garrulous streak of independence, a fondness for bagpipes, a tendency to
live comfortably with Jewish town merchants, a vague recollection of being
from somewhere else. Troublesome folk...Fidel Castro, whose father came from
the village of Lancara 88 miles east of Santiago de Compostella, along with
hundreds of thousands of other Galacians who left Spain for Cuba from 1900
to 1920.
This and subsequent wrtitings by Herodotus and others place he Celts
(Keltoi, Celts, Galli, Gauls, Galatatae to the Greeks and the Romans) in
NOrthern Spain along with the Basques in the Iron age. "there is enough
evidence of q-Celtic in Spain to urge the view that the Irish Goidels
originated in that country. This idea would certainly be in agreement with
the myth of the sons of Mil." (H. D. Rankin, The Celts in the Classical
World)
In fact, no one really knows when the Gaels (that is those speaking the
Indo- European language that became known as Q-Gaelic) actually came to
southern Ireland, and the theory that they came from Spain -- supported in
some degree by similarity of certain stone fortifications in the Aran
Islands and in Spain and northern Portugal, suggesting a possible migration
in 133 B.C., when the Romans conquered Spain.
By: Celts defeat the army of Rome 12 miles north of the city. Rome is sacked
but Romans hold Capitoline Hill, recover the city by paying tribute to the
Celtic chiefs. In a celebrated incident the Roman senate stares dwon the
Cletic chiefs until one of them, disbelieving them, pulls on the beard of
one of the senators, who repsonds by striking the Celt on the head. General
slaughter of the senate follows. Celts will continue to threaten Rome during
this century, but the Romans will progressively develop their military and
organizational skills and develop tactics that overcome the Celtic style of
battle. In 340 the Roman consul will prohibit the Romans from engaging in
single combat with Celtic chiefs, the preferred methos of warfare among the
Celtic tribes.
"There is a tradition that it was the lure of Italian fruits and
especially of wine, a pleasure then new to them, that drew the Gauls to
cross the Alps and settle in regions previously cultivated by the Etruscans.
Aruns of Clusium, the story goes, had sent wine deliberately into their
country to entice them over, as he wanted his revenge for the seduction of
his wife by his ward Lucumo, a man in too powerful a position to be punished
except by foreigners called in for the purpose." Livy 5.32
By: Alexander the Great meets a delegation of Celtic chieftains on the Danube.
Asking them what they fear, he is surpirised to be told only the sky
falling. This answer has been given many interpretations, ranging
from prescientific native anxiety to the claim that the
Greeks misunderstood or mischaracterized what was intended to be an oath of
friendship of loyalty.
What was the ancient view of Celtic character? Plato and Aristotle criticize the Celts for
drunkenness and bravery arising
from mere ignorance and high spiritedness and Aristotle considered it their
rashness (as in the Celtic custom of a warrior attacking the sea). The Greek historian
Polybius,
writing from Rome,
would echo this criticism of the Celts, their athesia, a certain volatility or
instability taken to the degree of being a moral defect. Perhaps this impression arose
from their reported harshness with their children, their failing to dress them warmly enough.
Aristotle considered it in their favor that they openly esteemed homosexuality because the
practice
counteracts the tendency toward greed that develops in warlike nations (such
as Sparta) where women are given too much license.
For, a husband and a wife being each a part of every family, the
state may be considered as about equally divided into men and women; and
therefore, in those states in which the condition of the women is bad, half
the city may be regarded as having no laws. And this is what has actually
happened at Sparta; the legislator wanted to make the whole state hardy and
temperate, and he has carried our his intention in the case of the men, but
he has neglected the women, who live in every sort of intemperance and
luxury. The consequence is that in such a state wealth is too highly valued,
especially if the citizens fall under the dominion of their wives, after the
manner of most warlike races, except the Celts and a few others who openly
approve of male loves." (Aristotle Politics, II,9,7).
Other Greek historians of the fourth century B.C. favorably mention their fire
music, the Greek-like hospitality, and the philosophical interests of the Celts, particularly
in
Spain.
By: Aristotle 300 BC: Sons of Mil (Celts, from Spain, possibly Helvetians or Celt-Iberians); In a story
contained in the "Book of Invasions" to
be repeated in history in 1588, the Milesians, upon landing at the mouth of
the River Slaney, were accused by the spirit race De Danann of landing by
surprise, and shamed into reboarding their ships for a proper Iwo Jima-like
landing. This proved to be a De Dannan trick giving them time to conjure up
a storm that scattered the Spaniards fleet. Eber's ship after blowing about
for some time eventually made a landing on the coast of Kerry, establishing
themselves there after a bloody clash with the local natives.
"Celtic Ireland", MacNeill DA 930 M2;
By: mythological Revolt of Celtic mercenaries against Ptolemy II, resulting in impisonment of
many on an island in the Nile, where many starve to death. During this
century thousands of Celts will fight as mercenaries for the Egyptian
Pharaoss and the Carthaginians. Celts will make up a mjor part of Hannibal's
army at such battles as Cannae in 216 bc and at Hannibals last battle with
Scipio Africanus in 201.
By: Chiomara, wife of a celtic chief defeated by the Romans in Galatia in 189 BC
who was raped by a Roman officer, kept her as his mistress and later
arranged to return her to her tribe for ransom. Chiomara, feigning
affection, arranged for his decapitation during the transfer, and presented
his head to her husband on her return to her clan, remarking, "a better
thing only one man should be alive who had sex with me."
By: Greek historian DIODORUS SICULUS, V 25-32, on the Celts: Physically
the Gauls are terrifying in appearance, with deep-sounding and very harsh
voices. In conversation they use few words and speak in riddles, for the most
part hinting at things and leaving a great deal to be understood. They
frequently exaggerate with the aim of extolling themselves and diminishing the
status of others. They are boasters and threateners and given to bombastic
self-dramatization, and yet they are quick of mind and with good natural abilty
for learning. They have also lyric poets whom they call Bards. They sing to the
accompaniment of instruments resembling lyres, sometimes a eulogy and
sometimes a satire. They have also certain philosophers and theologians who
are treated with special honour, whom they call Druids. They further make use
of seers, thinking them worthy of high praise.
By: Diodorus Sicilus Belgic tribes (Fir Builg) settle in
modern Ulster and Munster
By: Keating Eoganachta from N. Iberia or S. Gaul
(?) under Mug Nuadat (Eogan) colonise modern
Munster; Belgic Erainn submit to Eoganachta rule.
Connachta (tribe of Conn); Ireland divided into Leth Connachta (tribe of Conn); Ireland
divided into Leth Cuinn (Conn's half) and Leth Moga (Mug's half)
By: Williams Sullivan descended form
Eber, whose descendants inhabit Southern Ireland. Some generations farther
down the line Oilioll Oluim, King of Munster, dying in 234 A.D., has seven
sons, one of whom, Eoghan fou?? the "Eugenian" line which includes
MacCarthys, O'Sullivans, O'Keeffes. ???? affiliations are important to the
Irish Filidh: a genealogy, in their terms, includes the entire group of
related families (as apposed to a pedigree, which involves only vertical
descent along a male line. King Mil, or Milesius, travelled from his native
Spain to Scythia and Egypt with his people, acquiring on this journey the
various arts valued by the ancient Gaels: druidism, judging, poetry,
history, story-telling, music, etc.
By: Keating
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478
-390: Pull beards
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53
-335: Asks Celtic Chief's Fears
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477
-300: Sons of Mil (from Spain, possibly Helvetians or Celt-Iberians)
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479
-259: Egyptian revolt
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480
-189: No sex for her
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99
-100: Calls Gauls Bombastic
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212
-50: Early Munster Settlers
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445
200: Ascendancy of Eoganacht ancestors of Sullivans
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213
200: AD 47th Oliol Ollum, son of Princess Beara, father of Eoghan, founder of Sullivan
line
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