The losers of battles were forced to leave. Some integration naturally did occur, in my opinion.
The Belgae (Fir-Bolg)(originators of the name of the modern country of Belgium) were a fascinating and influential ethnic-cultural group of tribes with a dominant political and ideological presence among northern Europe's 'Celtic' peoples before and after Romanisation, in the period spanning the 2ndC BCE to the 4thC CE.
The Fomorians (African Moores)
There are many oblique references to the presence of Black people in ancient Ireland. Ancient Irish mythology refers to the original inhabitants of the island as being a giant, sea-faring people called the Fomorians (Fomors), which means “dark of the sea”. According to the ancient lore, they were a cushitic people from the African continent. Often depicted as demons, they defeated the first few incoming waves of invaders, but could not defeat the Firbolgs, who settled the land and lived side-by-side with the native Fomors.
Those myths may have a factual historical basis. It is proposed that the Formorians were a real people who were in all likelihood sailors from the African continent.
Two more invasions, the first led by the godly Tuatha de Danaan, and the second by the Celtic Milesians, took control of Ireland, mixing together with the Fomorians until they were no more.
There are credible sources for the African association with Ireland. The most likely of these is that they were Phoenicians and/or Egyptians. The Phoenicians were Canaanites, which came from the line of Ham. Ham is the mythological ancestor of the Black nation.
The Phoenicians were also well-known for their sailing skills, and are said to have traveled to the British Isles, which they called the “Tin Islands”. Perhaps, before Ireland was a Celtic domain, which it wasn’t until a few centuries BCE, the Phoenicians colonized it. It is noteworthy that the name Fomorians sounds a bit like Phoenicians.
There is also a legend that an Egyptian princess, Scota, left Egypt with some followers and journeyed to Ireland. Legend has it that Egyptians left many ancient tin mines all over Britain but especially Ireland which was their major source of the valuable metal.
Another idea is that they were Taureg Berbers. The Berber language is Hamitic, and the Berber people live in an area from which travel to Ireland would be easily accessible. The Berbers perhaps set sail from western Morocco, and settled on Ireland before the Celts, making it their new home.
Moorish Science Temple founder Drew Ali teaches that Ireland was once part of a Moorish empire, and that the Irish are a Moorish people. Perhaps there is a common root between the “moor” sound in Fomor and the word Moor?
Selkies and Half-Breeds
Another Irish legend tells of the Selkies, a sort-of “wereseal” that is a seal during day, but a human by nightfall. Sometimes, in an Irish family of fair-skinned, light-haired people, a child is born with dark hair eyes, and skin, and is called a Selkie.
The concept of the Selkies appears to make subliminal reference to the half-breed children that resulted from the extensive miscegenation that occurred between the Celts and the dark skinned original inhabitants that they had met upon their arrival in Ireland.
Many people of Irish descent have distant and recent African roots, and these features can still be seen in the people and in the culture. There are some Irish people with Afros (just like Andre the Giant a late continental European wrestler with afro-hair). In Southern Ireland, some people, referred to as “Black Irish”, are noted for their strikingly dark features, as opposed to the fair-skinned, light-haired north.
Although many Irish descendants are particularly pale, they do have pronounced Africoid facial features, as well as dark brown eyes, and dark brown hair that is sort-of kinky, especially in moist conditions. A sub race of the Irish called the Bronn are noticeably Mediterranean (read: African) in features especially their hair.
In addition to all of this, Celtic music is distinctly different from the rest of Europe, and easily comparable to African music.
Black, Viking and Irish
Unlike Scotland and England, Ireland was never colonized by the Romans. As a result, Ireland remained relatively isolated.
The Vikings established port cities like Dublin. The Viking texts left stories and descriptions of African soldiers captured in Ireland whom they called blaumen[blue-men].
Most Viking references to ”black” in Norse would have signified having black hair as opposed to skin color but blaumen meant black skinned. Most of these blaumen were captured soliders from Moorish Spain. It was observed that:
“A prominent Viking of the eleventh century was Thorhall, who was aboard the ship that carried the early Vikings to the shores of North America. Thorhall was “the huntsman in summer, and in winter the steward of Eric the Red. He was, it is said, a large man, and strong, black, and like a giant, silent, and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged on Eric to the worst; he was a bad Christian.””
“Another Viking, more notable than Thorhall, was Earl Thorfinn, “the most distinguished of all the earls in the Islands.” Thorfinn ruled over nine earldoms in Scotland and Ireland, and died at the age of seventy-five. His widow married the king of Scotland. Thorfinn was described as “one of the largest men in point of stature, and ugly, sharp featured, and somewhat tawny, and the most martial looking man… It has been related that he was the foremost of all his men.””
What about Scotland and Wales?
“Any comprehensive account of the African presence in early Europe should include England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia. The history and legends of Scotland confirm the existence of “purely Black people.” We see one of them in the person of Kenneth the Niger. During the tenth century Kenneth the Niger ruled over three provinces in the Scottish Highlands.
The historical and literary traditions of Wales reflect similar beliefs. According to Gwyn Jones (perhaps the world’s leading authority on the subject), to the Welsh chroniclers, “The Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles, Black Norsemen, Black Host.””
Ogu Eji Ofo Annu
Sources:
Ancient And Modern Britons, by David Mac Ritchie
Nature Knows No Color-Line, by J.A. Rogers
Ancient And Modern Britons, by David Mac Ritchie
Nature Knows No Color-Line, by J.A. Rogers
1. The Fir bolg. It is unnecessary to sicken the reader by any detail of these fables. The Fir-bolg, according to Irish antiquaries, came to Ire∣land about 1500 years before Christ. The Tuath de Danan about 250 after. The Milesians about 1000 years before our aera. Simply to enquire how the memory of these events was preserved, in an illiterate country, is a sufficient confutation of those childish fables. He who believes them is incapable of reason, or conviction. It would therefore be labour lost to confute absurdity; for
the foolish cannot be convinced; and those indued with the smallest portion of common sense would only have recourse to laughter.
In this fable the name alone is just; for it is now allowed that the Fir-Bolg were the Belgae, placed by Ptolemy, the geographer, in the South of Ire∣land. But these Belgae, as appears by the Disser∣tation annexed, could not be there till about 300 years before Christ, so that the reality of the name, as preserved in Irish tradition, palliates not the fable; which ought to be wholly set aside, espe∣cially as it precedes the Milesians, a race entirely and utterly fabulous. It is indeed clear that those dreaming compilers, who mention the Fir-bolg and Tuath de Danan, have erred grossly in placing the Milesians after them. None of those Irish fablers are older than the Thirteenth century, and have altered the real series of the fables in order to make their favourite Milesians the last, and conquerors of all the former. Nennius, who wrote in 858, and used the Irish accounts then existing, says nothing of the Fir-bolg, nor Tuath de Danan; but only tells of the Spanish (or Milesian) colo∣nies as the first inhabitants of Irelandb. So also Giraldus Cambrensis, who wrote about 1170. The Psalter of Cashel, which seems the very fountain of these visions, is by some Irish antiqua∣ries said to have been written by Cormac, king of Ireland, about the year 260. Others ascribe it to a Cormac king and bishop of Cashel, about the year 900. Mageogaghan, who details a long account of the matter, gives it to king Brian Borowe's time, about the year 1008. I have redd many quota∣tions and extracts from it, and it seems a collec∣tion of poetical romances on Irish history, compiled
in the Thirteenth century, at the earliest, and kept and found at Cashel, whence the name.
2. The Tuath de Danan. That a great part of the Damnii fled from North Britain into Ireland, before the Pikish pressure, has already been shewn to be highly probable. But this event could not happen above 200 years before our aera; whereas these Tuath de Danan are placed about 1250 years before Christ. The name, as with the Fir-bolg, seems genuine, and traditional: but the Irish ac∣count of this colony of magicians, for such they are represented, is ridiculously false. All the Irish accounts agree that the Tuath de Danan went from North Britain to Ireland; but represent them as before that, residing in Denmark, and practising magic.
An ingenious Irish author, who is writing an history of Ireland, and whose judgment despises what even fancy cannot believe, is inclined to think that the Tuath de Danan were the Danes. Certain it is that Danan was, and is, the Irish for a Dane. But it is also certain that the name of Dane was unknown till the Sixth century, when Jornan∣des and Procopius first mention itc. The Danish writers allow it not to have been the ancient name, but to have proceeded from a king called Dan, or from Daun, our down, 'Low country,' as Den∣mark is to Scandinavia. And from a complete series of writers, and geographers in particular, it is perfectly known that the name was not existent till the Sixth century. Like the name of Saxons, Franks, Alamans, Slavons, it seems to have arisen at a late period, from some adventitious circum∣stance. That no Scandinavians nor Danes pro∣ceeded to Ireland till the end of the eighth century, shall be presently argued. Had the Tuath de
Danan been Danes, how came they to be totally unmentioned in the Annals of Ulster, or more an∣cient writers, till the Eighth century? To them who know the nature of tradition, and of Celtic tradition in particular, it will not indeed be sur∣prizing that ignorant bards of the Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries should confound all chrono∣logy, so far as to make the Danes, who arrived in Ireland in the Eighth century, settle there more than a thousand years before Christ. In this view, but in no other, the Tuath de Danan may be the Danes. But as the Milesian frenzies follow these Tuath de Danan, there is no reason to discrimi∣nate them, or the Fir-bolg, from the mass of fable, merely because the names may be real and traditional, while that of Milesians confessedly is not. If the Irish antiquaries, as they have from the beginning daily changed their ground, will change it once more, and put the Milesians first, and the Fir-bolg and Tuath de Danan after, some plausible discussion might follow. But as the case stands, the Firbolg, Tuath de Danan, and Mile∣sians, form one lump of fiction.
3. The Milesians. This fabulous progeny, ac∣cording to Irish accounts, after many adventures in Europe, Asia, and Africa, arrived in Spain, and from thence came to Ireland, about 1000 years before Christ. There subduing the Tuath de Danan, they founded a great and powerful kingdom, flourishing in literature, arts, and arms, but, by a singular fate, unknown and invisible to other nations. The kings and leading people of Ireland were all, in the diseased imagination of later bards and antiquists, descended from the Milesian stock; and hence of course the chief fables of Irish antiquity rest upon it. The Fir-bolg, and Tuath de Danan, are regarded as foreigners; and the Milesians as the ancestors of the Irish nation.
As this Milesian Tale is the grand object of religi∣ous faith, and reverent research, among the Irish an∣tiquaries;
and of eternal laughter, and utter scorn, among those of all other countries; it is hoped that a short acount of it will not be unacceptable. There are two systems of this deplorable piece of absurdity: that of the Irish authors, and that of the Scotish. The later, as Father Innes shews at great length, is by far the more rational of the two; and is also the most pure and ancient, being in consonance with Nennius, and other early wri∣ters, while the Irish is perverted and corrupt, and more foolish than folly.
The Irish story is briefly this. Fenius Farsa was great grandson to Japhet, one of Noah's sons. Farsa's son Niul, came from Scythia to Greece. Niul's son GATHELUS went to Egypt; and thence to Spain, where he founded a kingdom, which there lasted for thirteen generations before MILE∣SIUS, This Milesius went to Scythia, where he served under king Resloir: thence to Egypt, where he married SCOTA the daughter of Pharaoh, and carried her to Spain. HEREMON, eldest son of Milesius, led the Milesians to Ireland, and founded his kingdom there about 1000 years before Christ. From him the catalogue of Irish kings is drawn in constant succession. HIBER the brother of Here∣mon also attended him, and had the North of Ire∣land.
The Scotish account, as given by Fordun, Win∣ton, Boyce, &c. runs thus. Niul, the twentieth from Japhet, went from Scythia to Greece. GA∣THELUS, Niul's son, went to Egypt, where he married SCOTA, the daughter of Pharaoh; and, after the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, he proceeded to Spain, and founded a kingdom. EBER, the son of Gathelus, discovered Ireland, and called it Scotia, in honour of his mother; and it was also called Hibernia from the discoverer. But he founded no kingdom there, returning immediately to Spain. MILESIUS, whom the blundering transcribers of Fordun call Micelius,
Winton, Milet, was the thirteenth from Gathelus, and reigned in Spain. Heremon, Partholm, and Hybert, sons of Milesius, led a colony to Spain; and the two last remained there, but assumed no kingly title. Heremon returned to Spain, where he succeeded his father. Winton makes no men∣tion of any colony being led by the sons of Milesius; but puts him barely in the list of the successors of Gathelus. The seventeenth in a right line from Mi∣lesius was the famous SIMON BREC; who, by the Scotish tale, brought the noted stone from Spain to Ireland; and founded the monarchy there. Winton says that Fergus, son of Erc, who brought the stone to Scotland, and founded the Scotish monarchy, was in the Fiftieth and Fifth degree of descendance from Simon Brec. With this illustri∣ous founder of the Irish monarchy, according to the Scotish account, Old Sir Simon the King, the later Irish antiquaries are so angry, that, to prevent the Scotish tale from prejudicing Heremon, they have some of them hanged Simon Brec, and others have torn him in pieces, for some pretended crime, of which they cannot at this day produce any evi∣dence. As a Scotishman, i must loudly, in the name of my country, protest against this gross in∣justice, of hanging a man without hearing his de∣fence: and wonder that Mr. Goodal, or some such zealous Scotish author, has not written "A Defence of Simon Brec, alias Old Sir Simon the King, against the bloody, atrocious, and crying slaughter, committed on him after he was dead, by certain Irish antiquaries: with some reflections from the book called God's revenge against mur∣der."
But to be serious if possible. The Scotish ac∣count is more coherent and plausible than the Irish, as Father Innes shews at great length. To add to the absurdity of the later Donald O'Neal, king of Ulster, in his letter to Pope John XXII. in the year 1317, informs the Pontif, that it was
then about 3500 years since the three sons of Mile∣sius settled in Spain: that is, they were there about 2200 years before Christ's birth. But the grand and radical difference, between the Irish and Scotish account• is that the former commences the Mile∣sian monarchy with HERE•ON the eldest son of Milesius, and, as stated by O'Flaherty, about 1000 years before Christ: whereas the Scotish relation begins that monarchy in the person of SIMON BREC, the sixteenth in degree from Heremon, and yet about 1200 years before Christ. By the old genea∣logy there are fifty-eight generations, from Simon Brec, down to Fergus, son of Erc; tho Winton makes but fifty-five. Of these generations there are twenty-four from Simon to Forgo, the mock Fergus I. of Scotish dreamers: and thirty-four from Forgo to Fergus, son of Erc. Allowing 30 years, as usual, to each generation, fifty-eight generations extend to 1740 years. Twenty-four generations make 720 years from Simon to Forgo; and thirty-four make 1020 from Forgo to Fergus, son of Erc. Fergus, son of Erc, ascended the Scotish throne about 503 years after Christ; and of course, by the Scotish account, Simon Brec lived about 1200 years before Christ: and Forgo about 500, instead of 330, as Fordun, Boyce, Bucha∣nan date him, merely to make him cotemporary with Alexander the Great.
The Milesians were the inhabitants of Miletus, an ancient Greek city in Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and at the mouth of the Meander River. Settlers from Crete moved to Miletus sometime in 16th century BC. By the 6th century BC, Miletus had become a maritime empire, and the Milesians spread out across Anatolia and even as far as the Crimea and Olbia, Ukraine, founding new colonies.
