This blog is intended to provide brief summaries of different aspects of
Irish, British and European History as they have affected the version of
pseudo-history taught in Ireland, and the UK, and on
which entire political movements have been based.
Ignorance of the origins of the peoples of Ireland and Great Britain, and their relatedness to each other, has allowed sectarianism, and the tribal violence that feeds on sectarianism, to flourish in a tragic way. However, this is not a political blog. Nor will it present anything particularly novel in subject matter; almost all of the information discussed here has been written about previously, by learned people ranging from Irish and English University Professors to laymen, and many in between, although I may express opinions that differ from accepted views. When that happens, they will be flagged as such.
Rather the intent here is to collect and summarise information from old and new sources, including recent genetic analysis, in an attempt to describe a history of Ireland (and of Britain, where pertinent) based as soundly as possible on actual evidence from different types of sources - ancient writings from people outside and inside Ireland, archeology, linguistics and genetics, rather than just the political propaganda written by different factions vying for supremacy in early Christian-Era Ireland.
Some medieval writers, perhaps under duress from their masters, put enormous effort into distorting, or even inventing, historical accounts, often in meticulous detail, with the single goal of legitimising their masters' claim to thrones, and to conceal any evidence that ran contrary to that goal.
This falsification is described in some of the books listed here, but, in particular, in great detail, in "Hand of History; Burden of Pseudo History" by Father Thomas O'Connor. O'Connor describes in detail the construction of the lie that Tara was the seat of Gaelic High-Kings of Ireland, and why the great treasure trove of the remains of the Gaelic invasion of Galway still visible today in the Turoe, Athenry, Knocknadolla complex, has not only been ignored, but is being wantonly destroyed by people either too ignorant to see the need to protect it, or who may actively want to get rid of any evidence showing that most of what history teaches about Tara and Irish High Kings is absolutely false.
In just one example of the success of the revisionists, the renowned Irish linguist and historian T F O'Rahilly, whose book "Early Irish History and Mythology" was published in 1984, knew that Gaelic Kings had been in Connacht fighting against the Ulstermen (and see comment below about the term "Ulstermen"), but since, according to the pseudo history, as "High Kings", they had to have been based at Tara, he had to concoct a convoluted scheme where the Gaels started off in Meath and then went to Connacht to establish themselves there to fight the Ulstermen. Only when he belatedly recognised (in the "Additional Notes" at the end of his book) that Tara was still in the hands of the Ulstermen while the wars with Connacht were taking place, did he realise that his interpretation could not be correct. Unfortunately his book, as scholarly as it is, contains many more errors and O'Connor writes "O'Rahilly's errors must be redressed for history's sake".
Father Tom O'Connor's book is not motivated by politics or religion. Rather he is incensed by the fact that actual Irish History, and actual archaeological remains, are being obliterated to maintain the fiction of Ancient Gaelic High Kings ruling Ireland from Tara. I share his frustration about that, and also his frustration in being unable to get his book published in Ireland. The powers that be just won't let happen. Today's Ireland has no need to base its sense of self-worth on mystical stories from the past. Like O'Connor, I believe that the peoples of Ireland today would benefit more from learning their TRUE history, or as close to true as we can get, since we have to treat many historical accounts as suspect, unless corroborated by one or more independent accounts, preferably supported by different type of evidence.
Ignorance of the origins of the peoples of Ireland and Great Britain, and their relatedness to each other, has allowed sectarianism, and the tribal violence that feeds on sectarianism, to flourish in a tragic way. However, this is not a political blog. Nor will it present anything particularly novel in subject matter; almost all of the information discussed here has been written about previously, by learned people ranging from Irish and English University Professors to laymen, and many in between, although I may express opinions that differ from accepted views. When that happens, they will be flagged as such.
Rather the intent here is to collect and summarise information from old and new sources, including recent genetic analysis, in an attempt to describe a history of Ireland (and of Britain, where pertinent) based as soundly as possible on actual evidence from different types of sources - ancient writings from people outside and inside Ireland, archeology, linguistics and genetics, rather than just the political propaganda written by different factions vying for supremacy in early Christian-Era Ireland.
Some medieval writers, perhaps under duress from their masters, put enormous effort into distorting, or even inventing, historical accounts, often in meticulous detail, with the single goal of legitimising their masters' claim to thrones, and to conceal any evidence that ran contrary to that goal.
This falsification is described in some of the books listed here, but, in particular, in great detail, in "Hand of History; Burden of Pseudo History" by Father Thomas O'Connor. O'Connor describes in detail the construction of the lie that Tara was the seat of Gaelic High-Kings of Ireland, and why the great treasure trove of the remains of the Gaelic invasion of Galway still visible today in the Turoe, Athenry, Knocknadolla complex, has not only been ignored, but is being wantonly destroyed by people either too ignorant to see the need to protect it, or who may actively want to get rid of any evidence showing that most of what history teaches about Tara and Irish High Kings is absolutely false.
In just one example of the success of the revisionists, the renowned Irish linguist and historian T F O'Rahilly, whose book "Early Irish History and Mythology" was published in 1984, knew that Gaelic Kings had been in Connacht fighting against the Ulstermen (and see comment below about the term "Ulstermen"), but since, according to the pseudo history, as "High Kings", they had to have been based at Tara, he had to concoct a convoluted scheme where the Gaels started off in Meath and then went to Connacht to establish themselves there to fight the Ulstermen. Only when he belatedly recognised (in the "Additional Notes" at the end of his book) that Tara was still in the hands of the Ulstermen while the wars with Connacht were taking place, did he realise that his interpretation could not be correct. Unfortunately his book, as scholarly as it is, contains many more errors and O'Connor writes "O'Rahilly's errors must be redressed for history's sake".
Father Tom O'Connor's book is not motivated by politics or religion. Rather he is incensed by the fact that actual Irish History, and actual archaeological remains, are being obliterated to maintain the fiction of Ancient Gaelic High Kings ruling Ireland from Tara. I share his frustration about that, and also his frustration in being unable to get his book published in Ireland. The powers that be just won't let happen. Today's Ireland has no need to base its sense of self-worth on mystical stories from the past. Like O'Connor, I believe that the peoples of Ireland today would benefit more from learning their TRUE history, or as close to true as we can get, since we have to treat many historical accounts as suspect, unless corroborated by one or more independent accounts, preferably supported by different type of evidence.
However, my passion for Irish History of the Pre-Christian and Early-Christian era wasn't inspired by Tom O'Connor, although I am in awe of his knowledge and his determination, but rather by Ian Adamson, writing years earlier. While casually reading his book "The Cruthin" back in the '80s (no, not the 1880's), things began to click into place. Many of the historical inconsistencies that had bothered me, and that I had simply ignored, and pushed into the back of my consciousness, suddenly came back into focus, with explanations that seemed plausible. Adamson's books "The Identity of Ulster" and "The Ulster People", obviously written with a focus on Ulster, and its contribution to World History, simply expand upon a history of the northern part of Ireland and its role in the history of the whole island.
Only after reading Ian Adamson's ground-breaking works, and subsequently the works of O'Connor and other scholars with expertise in different fields, did I realise that the stories of the Cruthin, Fir Bolg, and Gaels, do not reflect internecine struggles between warring clans and factions, or fictitious peoples, in Ireland, but rather the fierce struggle between the oldest people known to inhabit Ireland, the Pretani/Cruthin (and therefore, by definition, the only people that the term "native Irish" should be applied to) and invaders from the European Continent, primarily the "Fir Bolg" and "The Gaels". So when I refer to the "Ulster Capital" at Emain Macha, and the "Ulster Kings", the "ancient Kingdom of Ulster", and the "Ulstermen", I do not use those terms in the sense of some sort of xenophobic tribal "Ulster against Leinster, Munster and Connacht", but in the sense that the northern third of Ireland was where the last of the ancient Irish Kingdoms made their stand against the invaders from Continental Europe. Ancient Irish Kings may have held seats of power elsewhere in Ireland, but as Ireland emerges into the historic era, Ptolemy recorded the Irish Capital as Emain Macha (Twins of Macha) close to present day Armagh (Ard Macha), in Ulster and "The Other Capital" at Turoe, the site of the Gaelic invasion. If much of the writing, and the suggested reading is about "Ulster", as in the northern part of the Island, that is simply a reflection of the reality that most of the battles between the Gaels and the native Irish were fought there.
The works of Ian Adamson, Tom O'Connor and others, cut through the smokescreen thrown up by those who remain determined to maintain the fiction of an ancient Ireland ruled by Gaelic High-Kings based in Tara. Their opinions differ in some important respects, but the evidence they present about "The Myth of Tara" is overwhelming.
This blog is intended to present different types of evidence pertaining to the History of Ireland in that era, in an attempt to reconcile those different opinions.
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