Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Letter of Florence Mac Carthy to the Earl of Thomond, on the ancient history of Ireland (Author: Florence MacCarthy Reagh)
paragraph 4
By the which repeating first the king's son's demand he signifies that Scethieth, terra Cethim, belonged to Gaedhal or Gelanor's father and Grandfather, that Gaedhal reached into Egypt, was favorably accepted by Pharao and prevailed in the love of Scota, here (as all our writers) he calls the grandfather of Gaedhal (or Gelanor) Féinios, who is by Eusebius and Pausanias called Crotopus which (proceeding of the several names of one man then) brings to differ often in names those authors that call one by sundrie names, as the Egyptian kings are called by Eusebius and many Greeks by them both. It (for the time) agrees well with our writers who sette down that Gaedhal or Gelanor being thro' controversies expulsed, went into Egypt shortly after Moyse's time, which must be in Jesus naue his time, and that he married Scota the Daughter of Pharao which (as some supposed) could not be Orus that long before succeeded Amenophis, called Memnon whose Image gave some noise at the rising of the sun, but rather Egyptus, unto whom Gaedhal is likelier to have gone, or sought because he expulsed his adversary Danaus of which woman Scota all our ancient books and writers conclude that the nation are called Scotts and Gaedhail or Gaedhil who came not into Spain as was also supposed himself and Scota, and their son Esru, having all ended their lives in Egypt, but Esru his son Sru11 together with his son Eber Scot came with four vessels
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back into Greece where Sru died immediately, his son Ebher Scot attained to be of great degree, who had to his son Beoman, he had Oghamán, he had Taat, he had Adhnomhan, he had Láimhfhinn, he had Ebher Glúnfhinn, he had Adhnamhan Finn, he had Ebhric Glas he had Nenuall, he had Nuadhat,12 he had Alloid, he had Ercada, he had Deaghatha, whose son Bratha or Bractius was the first of the nation that (not very long after the return of the Greeks from Troy) brought a colony in seven vessels to the south-west part of Spaine, where having by mischance lost some of his men and overthrown in two battles by that country people he came in Galicia and into the northeast part of Portugal wherein he founded Bracha or Braga so called of him and the countrie of him and his people Galicia Bracharenes his son Breogan or Breghan founded Brigancia which (as divers holde and write) is not St James called Compostella but Corunna, as some of the ancientest of Spanish writers holde, and ours also who write Brigancia to be upon the sea, as St James's is not, nor nere it, and make mention of a tower which he built13 near the city upon the sea, the ruins of which tower that standes within half a mile of Corunna down towards the sea on the west side of the haven or bay is called still Tower of Brighan. This Brighan, the son of Bracchus, had many sons whereof the eldest Bile or Bilius and his son Miledh14 or Milesius after him were Lords of Biscay, and kept their chief seat upon the river of Vermeo in a place called Mondaca in which Ireland being then well known, for Echaidh mac Eirc15 the
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last king of the posterity of the sons of Dela, who was the first that gave lawes in Ireland,—had his wife Tailltin from thence, it happened that Ith or Ithius,16 another son of Brighan came to see Ireland, where Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine, sons to Cermoda of the nation called Tuatha de Danann, by whom the posterity of the sons of Dela was [had been] long before suppressed, reigned together who were then gone to Oileach17 in the north to divide the goods of Nuada18 that was killed by some of those septentrional corpulent Easterlings called Fomoiri19 that of ould vexed these three kingdoms, which they invaded in the times of Brittanus20 and the rest of Nemeus his grandchildren, whereof Britanus or (as is said) Brutus his warrs with the giants was, altho' they were, as the word Fomóir signifies, but corpulent men that under Conaing mac Faebhuir came from the northest parts where to this day the name of a king is Coningc.21 Ithus the son of Brighan, landing then in the west of Munster went thro' the country to Oilech where he found at dissention those three brothers that were kings, who being by them made their arbitrators agreed betwixt them, and he commended the fertility, goodness and temperature of their country which, after his departure, moved them (imagining it dangerous that such a stranger that knew their country and dissension, should go away safe), to follow and kill him, whose son Lughaidh22 escaped into Spain, and complained thereof to the sons of Milesius, that were then chiefs of all the nation,
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who to revenge that act came with an army for Ireland23 when King David24 reigned over the Israelites and Eupalus the 30th king over the Assyrians and Archestratus the 3rd king over the Lacedemonians, and Trion the 2nd king over the Corinthians, in the time of the 1st Athenian magistrate, Medon the son of Codrus, their last king. Of the 7 sons of Milesius that came to that expedition 4 lost their lives before any landed in Ireland. Aranán having fallen from his ship mast, whereof he died, and Colpa was lost at lnbher Colpa25 as Donn was upon the rock beyond Dorsies called also Tech Duinn,26 and Ir or Irenos one of the best of them, died the night before Ebher or Iberus and Hermon, and Amarginus the other 3 brothers landed at Inbher Scéine27 in the west of Munster, from whence having led their forces, after some fighting, at Sliabh Mis28 and other places, the 3 brothers that were kings and they came to fight a battle at Tailtin29 where those 3 brothers and most part of their nation were killed, the rest, but a few that served our nation being driven out of the land whereof (by division) the Princes of south and north Munster with a great part of Leinster and Conaught was allotted to Iberius: the middlemost part called Meath with the rest of Leinster and Connaught to Hermon, and upon their landing Ebher Donn or Iberius the son of Irenis (that died the night before) had the west part of Munster, and afterwards, at the division, the north part of Ireland, but they fell shortly in civill warre, wherein Iberius was killed by his second Brother Hermon which gave occasion to their houses to be most commonly afterwards at wars, as the House of Hermon was also at warrs much with the house of Ireus that were kings of the North or Ulster, of which 3 houses the kings who reigned over all Ireland were descended,
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and all the kings of the nation that reigned in Scotland, which they invaded about 250 years after their coming into Ireland, under the conduct of Eneas King of Ireland called Aengus Ollmhucaidh30 the son of Fiachaidh Labhruinne, of the house of Hermon, by whom the nations that were in Scotland, and in the north parts of this land (as Pights, Britons, some of the posterity of the sons of Dela,31 and some of them that we [Milesians] expulsed) were overthrown in many battles whereby that land was afterwards reduced under our nation, who called it of themselves (or as they called Ireland before) Scotland, where before they had kings there, one king reigned over both countries, and afterwards sometimes, in the names of whose ancient kings and chiefest men, which ordinarily was Eachus, Nateus, Atrius, Diomed,32 or such ancient Greek names, and in their manner of Government, their assemblies at Tailltin,33 for the like exercises that the Greeks used at Olympus, their affection to letters and poetry, and in all their fashions customs and usages they shewed themselves Greeks.