On the issue of ancient place-names, it is generally accepted that "Aber" is an ancient P-Celtic Brittonic word meaning "mouth of a river/estuary" and that "Inver" is a Gaelic equivalent. That isn't controversial e.g. From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aber_and_Inver_(placename_elements) .......

"Place names with Aber are very common in Wales. They are also common on the east coast of Scotland, where they are assumed to be of Pictish origin" . "Inver is the Goidelic or q-Celtic form"

"Place-names with "Inver" are very common throughout Scotland, where they outnumber Aber-names by about 3:1. They are most common throughout the Western Highlands and the Grampians, the largest town containing the element being Inverness.

then ...

"Place-names with "Inver" are, however, oddly seldom in Ireland, given "that the form is originally Irish" 

Well, that word, "Inver" is from Gaelic, not Irish. People were living in Ireland and speaking a language that was NOT Gaelic, for millennia before the Gaels, with their weird archaic Q-Celtic (Basque?) language, arrived in Ireland in Christian times. Haughey's Fort, the ringfort just a mile from The Ancient Capital of Ulster at Emain Macha contained artefacts dating from 1100 BC, long before the Roman Empire was even a twinkle in Romulus's eye, and even longer before the words "Celt" or "Gael" were ever used. The people who built Ireland, who built the passage tombs at Slieve Gullion and Newgrange, who traded with the European Aristocracy during the Bronze Age, and into the early Iron Age, were not Gaels, and they had their own languages.

Again from the same Wikipedia article

"Ireland tends instead to have names with béal ('mouth') in such locations, as Béal Átha na Sluaighe (Ballinasloe, Co. Galway), Béal an Átha an Fheá (Ballina, Co. Mayo) or Béal Feirste (Belfast). The difference in usage may be explained by the fact that Gaelic names in Ireland are typically a thousand years older than those in Scotland^{[citation needed]}, and hence the prevailing fashion could have been different.

Sigh!!! There is a much simpler explanation. Many or most ancient Irish place names are not "Gaelic" and predate the Gaels by millennia. The Gaels appear to have arrived in Galway in Roman/Christian times. I refer back to Ptolemy's "Geographia" which shows the ancient capital of Ulster at Emain Macha (not Gaelic) and "another capital" at Turoe (likely start of the Gaelic invasion).

"Aber" place names are more common in parts of the British Isles where the European languages used during the Bronze Age (starting around 3000-2500 BC in Ireland?) and Iron Age (starting about 800BC?) had not been completely supplanted by the "Gaelic" language of the foreign invaders. That language appears to have spread through today's Connaught in Roman times, and was carried into South Western Scotland by the people in North Eastern Ireland who had had to learn the foreign language and were moving their capital of Dal Riata from Dun Severick in Antrim, to Scotland, under pressure from the invading Gaels.

The people living in Western Britain around that time were called "Wealas" by the Saxons invading from the East - "Wealas" - "the people who are not Saxon". The term included the P-Celtic-speaking "Britons" in their heartlands around Dun Edin (Edinburgh) Dun Bretain (Dumbarton),  Cumbria, and Cymru, names derived from  the term "combrogi" meaning "the brotherhood". Eventually the term  "Wealas/Welsh" became restricted to the people living in the country now known as "Wales" still called "Cymru" by the ancient Britons who live there and still speak a P-Celtic language. So, it is not surprising that place-names beginning with "Aber" are common in Wales, the last refuge of the ancient Britons, and are more common in North Eastern Scotland - the furthest away  from the invading Gaels with their "Inver" term. As an aside, the term "Sassenach" was used by Gaelic-speaking Scots to refer to the Saxons. 

Despite the Gaelic invasion, the North of Ireland still maintained pre-Gaelic place names such as "Beal Feirste" - Belfast, which was deep in the heartlands of the Cruthin and Ulaid, the last part of Ireland to come under Gaelic rule, in the 

According to accounts of the meeting between the the Gaelic Ui Neill (Christian) Prince "St Columba" and the pagan P-Celtic-speaking Cruthin in North Western Ireland, (written down by Gaelic Monks centuries later), a translator was required (references to be added). That doesn't accurately establish a date when the Q-Celtic Gaelic started supplanting the P-Celtic language in the British Isles but, it firmly places the arrival of Gaelic in Christian times. For whatever reason,  the "Gaelic Q-Celtic language" became the language of power, just as, later, "English" was adopted as the language of power in Ireland. English became the language of Power, not just in today's USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, but also in India, where the vast majority of the population spoke a number of different languages. Adoption of a foreign language of power, through necessity, says nothing about the ethnicity of the people who had to learn to speak it, nor their culture, nor their beliefs. And that includes the adoption of the archaic Q-Celtic "Gaelic" language in the British Isles in Christian times.

Writers such as Ian Adamson, Tom O’Connor, Norman Mongan, and others, have recognised and debunked the lies of those determined to give the Gaels (derived from the word Goidel, meaning "Raiders” or “Foreigners") a fictitious ancient lineage, rather than being simply one of several groups of people who moved to Ireland in the centuries immediately before, and since, the birth of Christ. 

The Gaels themselves said that when they arrived in Ireland, the region they landed in was held by people they called the Fir Bolg (in Celtic language). In his book “Early Irish History and Mythology” first published in 1946, respected Irish Linguist and Historian T.F. O’Rahilly made a convincing, and obvious, argument that the “Fir Bolg” were synonymous with the people known to Julius Caesar by the Latin name “Belgae” i.e. the Fir Bolg were the men (Fir) who came from the area now known as Belgium. 

The “solution” used by Gaelic historians to get around this unpalatable fact when history was being written down in the 8th and 9th centuries was simply to make the Fir Bolg a “mythical people” thus removing that reference point in history, allowing them to concoct a fiction with Tara as the seat of an ancient line of Gaelic "High Kings of all Ireland" (of whom there is no credible historical reference), rather than a seat of the Northern Cruthin/Ulaid Kings of Ulster, for which there is much stronger evidence. To do this they had to dissociate the Irish term Fir Bolg (Fir = Men) from the Belgae and did so by claiming that the term Bolg was derived from the Irish word for belly, bag, or sack. The notion that people would refer to themselves as the Fir (men) of the belly/bag/sack, or even breeches, or that others gave them that name, as has been suggested, seems far-fetched compared to simply referring to themselves as the men of the Belgae/Bolg. Of course this fiction frequently ran into problems, for example with the type of spear called Gae Bolg, or Gae Bulga (Gae = spear), which is mentioned frequently in writings about that era. To be consistent, this now had to be called a “belly spear”, or a "bag spear" etc, which is a little odd since it appears to have been a barbed throwing spear, rather than a thrusting spear. The alternate explanation is that this was just a type of spear used by the Fir Bolg, and therefore a Belgic Spear – Gae Bolg. Amongst competing theories, the simplest one, the one that requires fewest assumptions, is usually the right one. In any case, the fiction took hold. The Cruthin were given a mythical Gaelic ancestry, the Fir Bolg were ignored, and Ireland became “an ancient Gaelic nation, united under Gaelic Kings based at Tara”.

This “work-around” might have fooled people in the 8th Century but does not stand close scrutiny in the 21st Century, or at least it should not. However, the lie continues to have traction to this day, and was even incorporated into a recent study of Irish Genetics by Professor Brian Sykes, who, in his book “Saxons, Vikings, and Celts” took it at face value and ignored any contribution to the genetics of Ireland by the Fir Bolg, dismissing them as a “mythical people”. The people responsible for this elaborate deceit have done a disservice to all Irish people, by denying the realities of Irish History, including denying the existence of the Fir Bolg, one of the most important peoples to arrive in Ireland. We learn history to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, but if the very history that is taught has been falsified to support a particular point of view, then it is at best worthless, and at worst, harmful.

Dr Adamson, and others, including Tom O’Connor, in his book “Hand of History - Burden of Pseudo-History” have described eloquently, and in great detail, events in Europe that shaped Ireland in early Christian times. The Ireland they describe is not an ancient Gaelic nation, united under Gaelic Kings based at Tara. The reality is very different and no less interesting. It’s worth a brief re-cap of some of that history to justify my previous comments.

The Cruthin/Pretani (the same name rendered in different forms of Celtic languages) were the oldest named people in the British Isles. This is beyond doubt, and attested to by so many authentic sources that politically-motivated "revisionists" cannot get around that fact. The Greeks called our islands Pretannikai Nesoi - the British Isles, after the Pretani/Cruthin people who lived there, probably based on the writings of the explorer Pytheas in 325 BC.

By the time of Julius Caesar, Belgae had taken control of much of Southern England, particularly coastal regions; Julius wrote "The interior portion of Britain is inhabited by those of whom they say that it is handed down by tradition that they were born in the island itself: the maritime portion by those who had passed over from the country of the Belgae (northern Gaul, today's Belgium), for the purpose of plunder and making war;".

So, in the absence of any information to the contrary, it seems reasonable to assume that the people Julius described as "born in the island itself" in 54BC contained a large element of the Pretani/Cruthin referred to by Pytheas in 325 BC, and that there had clearly been significant incursions into Britain (and Ireland) by Belgae/Fir Bolg by the time of Julius’s invasion of Britain.
In fact many scholars believe that Julius Caesar's invasion was motivated at least in part by his determination to pursue a particular Belgic tribe the Romans called the Manapii (Fir Managh, or Fir Monagh in Celtic), who had refused to submit to him during his conquest of Gaul, and had fled to Britain instead. The first map of Ireland, drawn up by Ptolemy, shows Manapii in SE Ireland. It also shows the Iverni and Voluntii (believed to be synonymous with the Ulaid, ). The Manapii/Fir Managh left their mark on the British Isles in the places named after them, including the Isle of Man, counties Fermanagh (Fir Managh) and Monaghan, Dunamanagh (Dun = Fort, of the Managh) and many others. Since the Fir Managh were Belgae, they were Fir Bolg, and places are generally not named after mythical peoples, not even in Ireland. Furthermore, the descendants of the families Mooney, Meaney, Meeny, McWeeney, Monaghan, Monahan, Mannion, Manning, Mongan, Mangan, Minogue, Minnock, Mannix, Manahan, Mongey, Mongavin, McMannion, McMenamin, McMonagle, Marannan and Murnane, all derived from the Fir Managh, (See The Menapia Quest, by Norman Mongan) might be surprised to learn that they are fictitious people too.

The first map of Ireland was prepared by Claudius Ptolemy, who lived in the second century AD. His map showed two, and only two, “Regia” (Royal Site, or Capital) in Ireland. One is easily (and accurately) identified as Emain Macha, the seat of the Ulster Kings, close to present-day Armagh. The other is listed as Altera Regia (the other Regia) that some have tried to claim is Tara. Detailed mathematical analysis now places the “Other Regia” at Turoe in Galway, Connaught, NOT at Tara.

There is no evidence of any other Regia, at Tara or otherwise. Furthermore, Tara is in Meath, South of Ulster. Yet ancient literature records that when Ulstermen referred to their enemies they didn't refer to danger from the "South" i.e. from Tara in Meath, but rather from the Southwest, in the direction of Connaught, and the “Other Regia”.

There are detailed historical records of the wars between the Ulster and Connaught kingdoms. Ptolemy’s Map is entirely consistent with an Ireland where the Northern Kingdom of Ulster, with its Royal site at Emain Macha, was at war with a Connaught Kingdom based around Turoe. Since no other Regia is listed at Tara, or anywhere else in Ireland, this is absolutely inconsistent with a Gaelic High Kingship of Ireland based at Tara.

Who exactly the Gaels were, and where they came from, is unclear. O’Connor believes that they were associated with Commius, a Belgic King who had fought the Romans in Gaul and had subsequently fled to become king of Belgic tribes in SE England. On hearing of the impending Roman invasion of Britain, Commius fled England for Ireland, taking large numbers of his followers with him. Legend has it that sometime after landing in Ireland, his grandson, Dela, landed at today’s Clarinbridge on Galway Bay with 2000 warriors and captured Turoe from the Ulstermen. Since the kingdom of Ulster was a confederation of Cruthin and Ulaid (Fir Bolg) clans, that might explain the Gaels’ belief that when they arrived, the land had been held by the Fir Bolg and having lived in England for some time perhaps no longer considered themselves as Fir Bolg. They apparently had no name for themselves. The previous occupants of Turoe would reasonably have considered these people as “Gaels, or “Foreigners”.

It seems clear that the Ulster Regia was the older of the two Capitals, but the Turoe Regia was reported to have been by far the larger. Ptolemy described it as "the most illustrious city in all Britannia and the most considerable in size, located in the western part of Ireland". The invasion into Galway must have been of enormous proportions and duration.

Additional evidence of the hostilities between the invaders and the Ulstermen is evident from linear earthworks that ran from the Atlantic Ocean across the entire Island to the Irish Sea near Dundalk. The earthworks took advantage of natural obstacles, lakes etc., but many long stretches were man-made, including the “Black Pigs Dyke and “The Dorsey”. It was probably built to defend the North against Cattle-Raids from Connaught. It might be impossible to defend a fortification running the entire width of Ireland, but it would be difficult for cattle-raiders to steal cattle and get them across across an earthen bank with a wide 20 ft deep ditch on either side. The existence of these earthworks speaks to the state of war between Ulster and Connaught. It also speaks loudly against any notion that Ireland was one Gaelic nation under High Kings at Tara.

The situation shown in this map may mirror what had been happening in Britain, where Julius Caesar had noted the presence of invaders from the land of the Belgae (present day Belgium) around the coast of Britain, whereas in the interior, lived people who said they were native to Britain. i.e. the area shown in yellow may reflect that part of Ireland still controlled, in the face of Belgic invaders around the southern coasts, by the native Cruthin, who, legend says, had controlled all of Ireland and Britain. Thus the (Scottish) Pictish Chronicle says that "Thirty Kings of the name of Bruide ruled over Hibernia and Albania (at that time the word Alba referred to all of Britain, not just present-day Scotland.) A similar legend from the Cruthin Dal nAraide sated that "30 Kings of the Cruthin ruled Erin and Alba". Leaving aside the literal interpretation of these legends, perhaps they were based on the memory of a time before the arrival of the Belgae and other continental tribes. The fact that the old Cruthin kingdom became to be known as Ulster, a term now reserved for the northern part Ireland, is derived from the Cruthin alliance with the Ulaid, (who may themselves have been Belgae, as believed by O'Rahilly). Certainly the Cruthin considered themselves the "true Ulstermen".

Whoever the Gaels were, the reality is that wars between the people who came to be known as Gaels, based in Connaught, and the Northern Kingdom of Ulster went on for centuries. The Gaels expanded outwards relentlessly, and eventually, sometime in the 6th Century AD succeeded in pushing into the West of Ulster, up into Donegal. The old Regia at Emain Macha was abandoned and the Ulstermen were forced East of the River Bann, into today’s Antrim and Down.

No one knows what precipitated the fall of the Ulster Kingdom, but it is unlikely to be a coincidence that it appears to have happened in the middle of the 6th Century, around the time that civilizations from China, through Europe, Africa, and America were also falling.

There was a global climate catastrophe around 535 AD, recorded by Nan Shi in China: the Avars (Mongolians) were forced to move West by famine and within 20 years had conquered much of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Koguryo kingdom of Korea fell, and the Toetihuacan in Mexico disappeared. British tree-ring records confirm the catastrophy, caused by a volcanic eruption, or possibly an asteroid/comet impact. The Annals of Ulster reports that there was no bread in AD 536, and other reports speak of a failure of bread from AD 536-539. Famine may have played a role in weakening the Ulster Kingdom and allowing the invaders to break through. The Ulstermen attempted to reverse the Gaelic invasion in 637 AD, but were decisively beaten at the Battle of Moira, the largest battle ever to place within the shores of Ireland. From that time onwards, the Kingdom of Ulster was confined to the land East of the Bann and the Gaels became the dominant force in Western Ulster from late 7th Century until the Norman invasion in the 12th Century.

Somewhere in all of this there has to be some basis for the myth of Gaelic "High Kings of Tara" ruling "All of Ireland" from "Time Immemorial" - but where is it? Ptolemy's Map shows no sign of a "regia" at Tara, only the Regia that was the capital of the Kingdom of Ulster, and "The Other Capital" of the invaders. There is not a shred of evidence of anything other than a centuries-long war between Ulster and the Gaels of Connaught, and the eventual fall of the Ulster Kingdom.

Coincidentally, the Irish names for Tara and Turoe are the same – Temhair. References in ancient Irish documents to names such as Cnoc Temhro, Feis Temhro and Ri Temhro (the hill, the festival and the King of Temhair respectively, with Temhro being the genitive form of Temhair) could refer to Tara OR Turoe. Perhaps there was an accidental, or intentional, confusion between old stories of Gaelic Kings at Turoe around the time of Julius Caesar, with the actual existence of Gaelic Kings at Tara after the collapse of the Kingdom of Ulster several hundred years later.

Whatever the reason, there is no evidence of any Gaelic High Kings of Ireland, ruling from Tara in Meath until much later in history, until the 9th Century in fact.

The dark-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed, small boned, Cruthin who still make up the vast majority of the Irish population are the "ancient Irish" of legend. Cruthin, Fir Bolg and Gaels have all made significant contributions to Irish history, but, genetically-speaking, Ireland is not “Celtic”. Its gene pool was established during the centuries after the last Ice Age, when the land appears to have been settled primarily by peoples from the Iberian peninsula and, while it is generally accepted that subsequent invasions have had some impact, those effects have been small. According to Professor Stephen Oppenheimer, “Celtic languages and the people who brought them probably first arrived during the Neolithic period. Yet the regions we now regard as Celtic heartlands (Ireland, Scotland, Wales) actually had less immigration from the continent (based on genetic analysis) during this time than England. Ireland, being to the west, has changed least since the hunter-gatherer period and received fewer subsequent migrants (about 12 per cent of the population) than anywhere else”.

The people who built the passage tombs of the Boyne valley, Newgrange, or at Slieve Gullion, 5000 years ago were not Gaelic, let alone Celtic, genetically or culturally. There was no ancient line of Gaelic Kings in pre-Christian Ireland, and there is no evidence of Tara being the seat of “High Kings of Ireland”. Apart from that, it’s a great story. The settlement histories of the different regions of the British Isles are very similar, populations established in the Stone Age, and although the genetic signatures of subsequent invasions can be detected, none have been large enough to substantially change the natures of the local populations.

We are ALL British, geographically-speaking, if not politically-speaking, in the sense of being derived primarily from the gene stock of the initial Pretani/Cruthin settlers of the British Isles. It would be better for all concerned if that were more widely recognized.

 To unknown --- A very welcome and level-headed post. I will get back to it

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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.

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.