Irish mythology is enormously wealthy but is both fascinating and frustrating. The fascination lies in the age of its documentation, its magnitude, and its variety; the frustration lies in the extreme fragmentation that makes it so difficult to see a coherent picture.

The stories of the entry into Ireland probably reproduce much of the early movement and conflicts that were surely part of early Indo European history.

The wild enthusiasm and zest for life shown here probably reproduces the spirit of the original Indo Europeans when they swept out of southern Russia to conquer much of the world. Thus, in this regard, the Irish stories are perhaps the most faithful survivors of the stories of six or seven thousand years ago and match the better-known Norse and Greek myths in style and excitement.

It is useful to compare what we know of the entry of the Irish and Welsh speaking Celts into Ireland and Britain since they are quite different in character.

In the Welsh case we have well attested evidence of the time and the reasons for their movement into Britain. Although some of their peoples were present much earlier, to a large degree the later movements were because of the pressure from the Roman under Julius Caesar in 55 BC. And there are abundant historical sources that show the movement of these P-Celtic peoples into southern Germany, France, Spain, northern Italy, and the lands further east.

By marked contrast, there is very little evidence (for example, no archaeological data that we are aware of) that shows that the Irish (Q-Celtic) Celts were ever present in Continental Europe. The only indication that we can see is that some of the early languages in the region of Italy (before Latin dominated these lands) is that there are remnants of languages in Italy that match the Q and P characteristics of Celtic. Mario Pei in "The Story of Language" points out (page350) that Irish and Latin have the "initial Q" form while Welsh and Oscan-Umbrian have initial P; five in Irish is "cuig", in Latin is "quinque", Welsh is "pump", and Oscan-Umbrian is "pumpe. Pei himself is less than enthusiastic about the idea of Latin-Celtic links, but the writer would point out that his own language studies indicate some support for this (see "Indo European Invasions of Europe" paper).

Finally we will mention an intriguing, probably relevant, point that comes from Irish folklore. The Irish tradition, like Welsh, gives the origin of the Irish in the fall of Troy. After a series of travels from "Scythia" that includes a period in Egypt where Moses is encountered, they arrive in northern Spain where they build a tower from which they can see a distant land – Ireland. They travel to this land and eventually settle there – the last of the invasions of Ireland recorded in "Lebor Gabala Erin". While we can safely discount the reality of the earlier portions, the entry into Ireland by sea from Spain is completely plausible. Indeed, if sea-travel was the means by which they (often) traveled, then this may account for the apparent absence of archaeological evidence of their presence in continental Europe.

Unlike Welsh, Irish mythology comes almost entirely from Irish sources. There is no addition of Roman contacts and little that relates to Britain even though the islands are only separated by narrow seas. There were many assaults on Britain by Irish raiders, and Scotland and the Isle of Man were colonized from Ireland but no Irish myths derive from these sources.

In brief, the Irish tales present a picture of a succession of attempts to occupy Ireland, ending with the last which is that of "the sons of Mil", the first of the "Men of Ireland". But they must share the land with the "Tuatha de Danann", the wizards and faery folk who occupy the underworld. These latter appear throughout the later history. The stories begin with a brief Biblical root in a son of Noah and then progress through a series of epics including Cuchulain and Finn. They finally merge with the history of Christian Ireland. And all of this occupies many generations.

But we shall show that this impressive picture is completely false and that the traditional picture has evolved by stretching, separating, and repeating a much less complex story. Our problem then is to try to reconstruct the original myths from the fragments that have been dispersed over the millenia.

We shall now consider the separate documents. The reader should be aware that although there are many popular works that discuss Irish mythology, the full and authoritative texts are only those published by "The Irish Texts Society". They are not inexpensive and rarely found even most university libraries. We use these as our primary sources.

The most remarkable source is the "Lebor Gabala Erenn", or the "Book of the Taking of Ireland" which describes all of the successful and failed invasions. Nothing like it exists in any of the other Indo European mythologies; we shall refer to it as LGE.

The Irish manuscripts in which it is recorded are "The Book of Leinster", "The Book of Lecan", and "The Book of Ballymote"; the first of which dates from about 1150 AD. Disentangling the story from the manuscripts was very complex task for scholars because of such problems as borrowing. These matters are discussed in a five-volume work by R.A.S. MacAlister which gives the most reliable Irish text and a facing English translation. This set was published by the Irish Texts Society from 1938,through 1956.

The original manuscript work is divided into ten books, beginning with the Bible and ending with the "Roll of Kings". This excellent publication unfortunately does not contain an index, and we have been obliged to construct our own which includes summaries of all of the names and genealogical relationships.

The LGE itself is not the only source for the legends it contains. There is a book called "Foras Feasa Ar Eirrinn", or the "History of Ireland", which was written in 1629 by the Reverend Geoffrey Keating while in hiding from the English authorities. This draws extensively upon the LGE but also includes some information from other sources, some of which are no longer known. Thus it is not simply another version of the LGE.

A translation of Keating’s work was begun by David Comyn and finished after his death by Patrick S. Dineen; this was published as a four volume set by the Irish Texts Society between 1902 and 1913. It benefits greatly from the inclusion of a very good index.

But, there was an earlier translation of Keating. This was made by John O’Mahony who lived in Brooklyn; this was published in New York in 1866. It was well-regarded by Comyn who noted that it was a faithful translation with copious notes, but that it was "very rare", in 1902. The present writer is fortunate to have a copy and includes references from this source.

In addition to these sources there is a considerable body of stories that are not in the LGE and not fully mentioned in Keating and O/Mahony. First among these is the "Tain" which tells of the single-handed defense of Ulster by the great hero Cuchulain, but there are a number of others which relate to these and other times including those of the hero Finn.

The traditional description tells of five invasions and two heroic cycles.

The five substantial invasions were preceded by a number of previous smaller visits, but none of these led to a permanent presence and Ireland was uninhabited prior to the "Five Takings"

The first was led by Partholon 300 years after the Biblical Flood; they started from "Micil", believed to be Sicily, and involved a substantial number of Partholon’s family and retainers. They were opposed by the fierce Fomorians who had but one arm and one leg. The Fomorians were overcome (but not annihilated since they re-appear) and Partholon’s people thrived until they all died of the plague after 550 years.

The second invasion was led by Nemed, a descendant of Partholon, and again the Fomorians fought the newcomers. The Nemedians were successful initially, but more Fomorians came by sea and the Nemedians left Ireland. The survivors went to he north, to Britain, and to Greece.

The third invasion was by descendants of Nemed called "Firbolg" and, since the land was "laid waste" and there is no record of a conflict, apparently the Fomorians had died out or had left the land.

But the Firbolg were not to be left to occupy the land since after just 37 years the Tuatha de Danann, the "People of the Goddess Danu", invaded and offered the Firbolg the choice of submission or war. Although they too had descended from Nemed, they were a very different people who had learned "druidry and knowledge and prophecy and magic". After considerable battles the Firbolg were defeated and left Ireland for the Isle of Man and other places. But they left their mark since a Firbolg married one of the Tuatha de Danann and became the foster-mother of their god Lug.

The fifth and final invasion was of the "men of Ireland" under the leadership of Mil who came from Spain. They too were distant relatives of the Nemedians and Tuatha de Danann, and all these peoples spoke the same tongue, Scotic. The Milesians are said to have come from Scythia in a journey which took many generations, and which included some time in Egypt of the time of Moses. They traveled by sea from Spain and earlier had an experience similar to that of Odysseus where the rowers had their ears stopped with wax so that they would not hear the songs of the Sirens trying to lure them to their deaths.

The Milesians were fairly successful in their war against the Tuatha de Danann since they occupied the land, but the latter were not truly defeated since they withdrew to the Irish underworld and lived beside the Milesians in the many mounds that dot the land.

The rest of the Irish stories tell of the adventures the descendants of the Milesians, the men of Ireland, though the Tuatha de Danann continue to play their own roles.

The first epic is dominated by the life and adventures of "The Hound Of Ulster", a man born as Setanta but always known as Cuchulain since he offered to take the place of a famous guard-dog that he killed until a new one could be trained. There are many stories of Cuchulain and others of his time but the greatest is the one that led to his death. In "The Cattle Raid of Cualnge" the boy-hero has to defend Ulster alone against the invasion of Queen Medb and Aillill since the men of Ulster are laid low by a "wasting disease" as the result of a curse. He defeats champion after champion and delays the raiders until the men of Ulster recover, but he is mortally wounded in the battle.

The second epic called Fenian or Ossian after Finn or his son Ossian. They apparently take place much later, after the birth of Christ but before Patrick. But typical of the tangled nature of Irish legends, Finn’s mother is said to be the grand-daughter of Nuada of the Silver Hand who led the Tuatha de Danann in their battles against the Firbolg.

We shall not elaborate further here on the invasions or the epics since, as we shall show, we believe them to be grossly in error.

The Irish sources contain detailed genealogies, reaching back to Noah or even to Adam. And O’Mahony (in an Appendix to his translation of Keating) extends the genealogies from Keating’s own time (for example, Domnal, Earl of Clancare, 1565 AD) back to Adamh (sic), 122 generations in all. There are about generations from Noah to Cuchulain, and all of the great names of the Takings are interwoven here.

The richness of the genealogies gives hope that there is enough information to isolate discrepancies and derive a "true" genealogy for the important generations, but unfortunately we have not been successful in this task. As we will show later, while there is ample evidence of mixing and muddling of generations, the useful information lies in individual names rather that in linked genealogies. However, we have given detailed evidence in appendices so that others have the opportunity to build upon it.

In passing it is fascinating to note that our observations (though more detailed) have been hinted at in the past. Most striking is the fact that one ancient scribe felt obliged to point out that the four sons of Partholon were different persons from the four grandsons of Mil even though all four names were identical!

The outcome of our studies is that there are sufficient "coincidences" such as this that we are forced to two major conclusions. The first is that the "five invasions" are intimately connected with each other and the whole picture of multiple invasions collapses into probably just one. In particular we find that Partholon is connected with each of the other invasions even though they are supposed to be widely separated in time. The second point is that, far from being widely-separated in time from the "later" generations described in the Ulster and Fenian epics, the Tuatha de Danann were basically of the same age. Of course, the traditional account that attributes magical powers to the latter with perhaps the ability to live to great ages, is an equally acceptable from a storytellers view, but we believe that our simple answer is the correct one.

The detailed arguments and their results are given in our full account of our investigations of the stories of the invasions, but we will pursue it no further at his point.

Although the principal problem with Irish mythology rests with the duplication of invasions, a search for clarity in the detailed genealogies is equally frustrating. Examination of the many stories shows that apparently straightforward family relationships are often – perhaps usually – incomplete and conflicting. We frequently find isolated statements that show that principals in a given story actually have brothers or sisters or other relatives that link them to apparently unconnected events. And even the parentage can be very confusing, partly because either the father of the mother may be given as the parent – often without any indication of which is the case.

To give but one example, the great Queen Medb (Maeve), who has a huge number of adventures in a riotous and long life, is finally killed by Firbaid, a foster-brother of Cuchulain. We hear how Firbaid patiently practices with a sling until he is so skilled that he is able to kill Medb with a sling-stone from a distance while she bathes. But this story never reveals why he hates Medb. However, a sufficient reason can be found in just one completely unrelated source; in Dunn’s translation of the Tain (and nowhere else to our knowledge) we are told "Clothru - sister of Medb – Medb slew her while her son Firbaid was still unborn". Firbaid killed his mother’s sister who was also his mother’s murderer!

This single fact introduces a reality into Medb’s death that is otherwise a mystery and shows how a careful search of the sources may be important (note the similarity to the little-recognized fact of Arthur’s attempt to kill the infant Mordred as a reason for their final battle).

We wish that these painstaking searches always resulted in clear answers to unanswered questions and, in particular, in clear genealogies, but this hope is largely unrealized. However, by-and-large, the tangled array of names and genealogies remains tangled.

There are number of convincing examples of matches between Irish and other Indo European mythologies. Some are based upon close matching in names, some on matching themes, and a few combine both elements. We shall only summarize the most prominent matches here.

1. The name of the mother of the gods in Irish is Danu; the identical name is that of the mother of the Gods (and the demons) in Indian.

2. Gaedil Glas in Irish myth has a blue neck because he is bitten by a serpent (in Egypt, in Moses’ time). Shiva, the Indian God, has a blue neck because he swallows the poisonous part of the sacred drink during the "Churning of the Ocean" to make it safe for the other gods.

3. The "Great Cattle Raid" in which Cuchulain single-handedly defends Ulster is closely matched by an Indian story from the Mahabharata where Uttara defends the cattle of his father’s kingdom after the army has been diverted elsewhere. Uttara (note the similarity to Arthur) is actually the junior partner of a great warrior called Arjuna, but part of the Irish legend also mentions that Cuchulain was helped by his father, the god Lug, when he is exhausted.

4. Cuchulain begets a son when visiting a distant land and, when he is grown, the son is sent to find his father. But the son is told not to identify himself and he is killed in contest with his own father. This story is a close parallel to the Persian story of Rustum who unknowingly kills his own son, Sohrab, also born in a distant land.

5. Nuada, the leader of the Tuatha de Danann, loses his hand in war with the Fomorians and, since he is disfigured, has to resign the leadership. But he is restored to kingship when his hand is replaced by a silver one. There are two possible matching stories in Indian myth, One where the Sun cuts off his own hand because of improper behavior in a sacrifice and it is replaced by a golden one. The second is where Likhita’s hands are cut off for taking some of his brother’s fruit and are replaced by metallic ones.

6. Partholon in Irish legend kills his wife’s dog called Saimer; the Indian king of the gods, Indra, has a faithful hound called Sarameya. And one name of Indra’s son (and perhaps Indra himself) is Partha.

7. The Irish king Labraid Loinseach has ears shaped like a horse, and anyone who cut his hair was put to death because he discovered the king’s secret. But one such barber who was spared because of his mother’s pleas, was allowed to live. However he whispered the secret of the king’s ears to a willow tree whose wood was made into a harp which revealed secret. This is a close parallel to the story of the Greek King Midas who also has asses ears and whose barber (who was usually killed) told the tale into a hole in the river bank. But a reed grew up from the hole and whispered the tale to passers-by; the barber was killed and Midas killed himself.

We believe that there is ample evidence to show that Irish stories have elements which are well-matched with those in other Indo European mythologies. We believe that the great detail that exists in Irish genealogies and names of individuals indicates that these examples could be extended into these areas but we have had limited success here.