HISTORICAL NOTES. IRELAND. IRELAND had many names. The first was Jnr na b-fjod bojde (veevee-e), "an island of the wilderness of wood." It received this name, about the year 2086, B.C., from a subject of Ninus, son of Belus, son of Nimrod. Ninus, as history tells, was ambitious of conquests and possessions. Hence his messengers were sent into all parts in search of such. When he explored this island he found it all covered with wood, except what is now called Clontarf (ox field), then Maghnalta (plain of birds), from the fact of its being the sunny resort of all sorts of birds to amuse themselves before the sun. 2nd. It was called "Crjoch na bhfineadhacha” (pro. creeugh na veenugha), "the end of nations," or of the world, it being the most western isle in the world. 3rd. A third name is "Inis alga" (noble island), which it had in the time of the Firbolg, or Bagmen, so called from carrying bags of clay in Greece, by way of oppression, to make them leave that country. A tribe in North America is termed "Algonkin" (noble people), alga, noble, kiné, tribe. Hence, we trace the common stock from the affinity in names. In fact, a large affinity exists between the original dialects of North America and the Celticsee "Voyage of Baron La Hontan to North America." It will be here noticed, the identity of the alga and the Greek ayλn, beautiful. 4th name of our land is "Eire." It was so called from Eire, a queen of the Tuatha de Danaans, or necromancers, a or little gods. She was the wife of Mac Grene, who was king of this island when the Milesians landed in it. Another author asserts that it was so called from " Æria," an old name of the island of Crete, now Candia. This appellation was given to Crete by the Gadelians, when they arrived in it from Ægypt, which they likewise called Æria. 5th name of Ireland is "Fodhla," from another queen of the Danaans; her husband was Mac Ceacht. 6th name of Ireland, "Banba," wife of Mac Coill, another king of the little gods. These queens were sisters, and were married, as above stated, to the aforesaid kings, who were likewise brothers. They ruled, in turn, for a year, and it was agreed that the island should be called after the name of the reigning monarch's queen during his year of supremacy. The reason why Ireland is oftener called Eire than Banba or Fodhla is this-Mac Greney, Eire's husband, ruled on the arrival of the Milesians. 7th. "Inis fail," or island of destiny, from the Lia fail, or Saxum fatale, as Boetius, in his "History of Scotland," calls it the fatal stone. The Danaans brought it here from Denmark, from the city "Falias,"called after it. It was said that this stone, whenever a monarch of Ireland was crowned on it, emitted a great noise and stirred, also that in whatever country it was kept there would certainly reign a monarch of the Milesian race. Hector Boetius writes "Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum The Scots shall govern, and the sceptre sway, Where'er this stone they find, and its dread sound obey." This stone was sent to Scotland that Feargus More might be crowned on it. There it remained until it was translated to London, and placed under the coronation chair in Westminster abbey, in the reign of Edward I., who carried it away forcibly. Shortly after, one of the Stuart family succeeded to the throne of England, and thus was verified the saying of Boetius. Even the present Queen has some of the Stuart's blood in her veins. Time only can reveal if she be as faithless as most of that family proved themselves. The assertion, that the Lia fail is still on Tara hill, was made for a purpose. What sincere historian believes it? Likely, indeed, that such a monument, possessing or not the wonderful enchantment attributed to it, would be allowed to remain either in Scotland or Ireland. We should have observed, that the Danaans were of the race of Nemedius; they were for some time in Boeotia, in Greece, thence they went to Denmark and Norway, thence to the north of Scotland, thence to Ireland. 8th name of this country was Mujcinis, from muc, pig, 11, island, so called because the De Danaans, or gods of verses, as is related, agreed with the Milesians, that if they put to sea again and landed in spite of them they should yield to them, and the latter, having retired from the palace of Teamair, where the sons of Cearmada (Carmody) kept their court, went to their ships in Kerry, put to sea, whereupon the island assumed, through the aid of the necromantic art of the Danaans, the appearance of a hog's back. In the effort to struggle against the storm raised by diablerie, and to reach the land again, all the sons of Milesius, except Heber Fionn, Heremon, and Amergin, were drowned.* * Lord Ross says, that the superstition of the people made them attribute to a supernatural agency what was natural. Hence he takes occasion to say, that of all nations the Irish were the most harmless in their worship. The whole island was divided between Heremon, Heber Fionn, and Heber or Eimhir, the son of Ir. Heremon had Leinster and Connacht, Heber Fionn had Munster, and Heber had Ulster. 9th. The Milesians gave the island the appellation of Scotia, after their mother Scota, who was killed in battle, and buried in Glean Scoithin, or the Vale of Scota, on the north side of Sliabh Mis* (fog mountain). 10th. Another name of Ireland is Hibernia,† the Latin of Heber inis, or island of Heber. Heber Fionn, urged on by his ambitious wife, sought to be possessed of the greatest and best parts of the island. He fell a victim in a battle between himself and his brother in Gesial, near the Shannon, not far from the present Banagher. It might have derived this name from Jübhear inis,‡ because of its beautiful estuaries or rivers-Inbhear, a river's mouth, and inis. As to the names Juernia, Iuernia, Ierna, and Verna, they are only corruptions of Hibernia. Erin is but an extension of Eire, which was explained above. The term "Irin," given by Diodorus Siculus, is the same as Erin. 11th. The term "Ireland"§ may be thus accounted for— Fonn Ir—fonn, land, of Ir, as Ir was the first of the Milesians buried in it when his vessel was wrecked off the coast of Kerry.—(See "Book of Armagh,” wherein the island is called "the grave of Ir.") 12th. It got the name "Ogygia" from Plutarch. It is * We understand that human bones were lately found in a place called Glean Scothin in Kerry. There is another Mis in Ulster. †This is disputed, as Heber never ruled paramount, whereas Heremon did.-[See farther on.] "Invir innish." § Or In, l'an-lawn. Irlan, the "d" is only euphonic, and "e" by epinthesis. a Greek word, and means Old land, or Ocean land, the radices being nv, ocean, and yn, land. Either signification is appropriate, as our island was peopled, comparatively speaking, soon after the flood, and most accurate accounts of it, from the earliest periods, have been preserved by antiquarians, chiefly in poetry, to prevent tampering with facts, it being nearly impossible to introduce or substitute other facts than those first recorded. Interpolation can easily be effected in prose, not in poetry. Again, "Ocean land" is peculiarly suited to this island, it being at the end of the world, in the ocean. PATRIARCHS. Noah was son of Lamech, Methusaleh was father of Lamech, Henoch begat Methusaleh, Jared was father of Henoch, Mahalaleel begat Jared, Cainan was father of Mahalaleel, Cainan was son of Enos, who was son of Seth, the son of Adam. All Cain's descendants were drowned; all who escaped the deluge were Seth's offspring. The space of time from Adam to the Flood was 1656, which an ancient poet thus testifies in this distich "Six hundred and a thousand years I count, And fifty-six, I add, from Adam to the Deluge." The age of each patriarch is as follows: Adam lived 930 years; Seth lived 912 years; Enos, 905 years; Cainan, 910 years; Mahalaleel, 895 years; Jared, 962 years; Enoch, 369 years; Methusaleh, 969 years; Lamech, 777 years; Noah, 950 years. Let me here call the attention of the reader to an interesting fact, that, in primitive languages, words were not made simply to be conventional signs of ideas, but were applied as a brief mystic history of the sense to be conveyed, and, as it were, a method of |