Ignatius Loyola Donnelly was born on November 3, 1831, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into an Irish Catholic family.
The name “Loo” or “Lou” heard in accounts of ancient Irish paganism refers to Lugh (Old Irish: Lug; Modern Irish: Lú).
Lugh ranks among the principal deities of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology.
His festival, Lughnasa, survives in name as the Irish month of August (Lúnasa).
Scholars trace Lugh’s name to the Proto-Indo-European root *lewgh-, meaning “to bind by oath.” This aligns with Old Irish *luige* and Welsh llw, both signifying “oath” or “vow.” The older theory linking the name to “light” or “flashing” (leuk-) faces phonological objections and receives less support today.
Lughnasa (Old Irish Lugnasad, Modern Irish Lúnasa) means “assembly of Lug.” It falls on 1 August and marks the beginning of the harvest.
Medieval Irish texts — Lebor Gabála Érenn, Cath Maige Tuired, Táin Bó Cúalnge, and the Dindsenchas — preserve Lugh’s stories.
Likely connected to Proto-Celtic brixtā (“spell, magic, charm”) — compare Old Irish bricht (“charm, incantation”).
I feel like the Irish have something to say about it, too.
In Irish mythology, the Fomorians—monstrous sea raiders and chaotic beings—repeatedly clashed with the Tuatha Dé Danann, divine invaders of Ireland.
However, cross correlation of radiocarbon dating and counting of rings on thousands of ancient trees preserved mainly in Irish bogs and German rivers permits the conversion of carbon dates to an absolute chronology.
4000 BC: Ireland; Irish elm decline
Irish elm decline, 4000 to 3250 BC
Occupation of Irish tomb sites.
3199 BC: Europe; Irish oaks
3150 BC: Ireland; Irish elm decline
In Irish tales, it's the world of the Fae.
Murias is one of the four cities (Falias, Gorias, Findias, Murias) named in Irish medieval texts as the original homes of the Tuatha Dé Danann before they reached Ireland.
Some scholars connect her to the Morrígan, the Irish war and fate goddess, who also has shape-shifting abilities and a connection to kingship and death.
The Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology, a divine race of builders and warriors, mirror the Mairu's supernatural prowess and retreat from the world.
Selkies: In Scottish and Irish mythology, selkies are seal-like creatures that can shed their skins to become human.
If we could imagine Highland Scotch, Welsh, Cornish, and Irish populations emigrating en masse from England in later times, and carrying to their new lands the civilization of England, with peculiar languages not English, we would have a state of things probably more like the migrations which took place from Atlantis.
The Hebrew banah, to build, is the Irish bun, foundation, and the Latin fundo, fundare, to found.
The Chaldee word braic, a branch, is the Irish braic or raigh, an arm, the Welsh braic, the Latin brachium, and the English brace, something which supports like an arm.
And, in fact, the Irish annals tell us that their island was settled prior to the Flood.
The Irish annals speak of the Formorians as a warlike race, who, according to the "Annals of Clonmacnois," "were a sept descended from Cham, the son of Noeh, and lived by pyracie and spoile of other nations, and were in those days very troublesome to the whole world."
The first invasion of Ireland, subsequent to the coming of the Formorians, was led by a chief called Partholan: his people are known in the Irish annals as "Partholan's people." They were also probably Atlanteans.
In the Irish historic tales called "Catha; or Battles," as given by the learned O'Curry, a record is preserved of a real battle which was fought between the Tuatha-de-Dananns and the Fir Bolgs, from which it appears that these two races spoke the same language, and that they were intimately connected with the Formorians.
The Irish annals take up the genealogy of Magog's family where the Bible leaves it.
In the first place, the civilization of the Irish dates back to a vast antiquity.
The Druids of Gaul and Britain offered human sacrifices, while it is claimed that the Irish Druids did not.
The Irish Druidical rites manifested themselves principally in sun worship.
The Irish name for the sun, Grian, is, according to Virgil, one of the names of Apollo--another sun-god, Gryneus.
And unto this day the Irish call the first day of May "Lha-Beul-tinne," which signifies "the day of Bel's fire." The celebration in Ireland of St.
We find among the Irish of to-day many Oriental customs.
"The Irish keen (caoine), or the lament over the dead, may still be heard in Algeria and Upper Egypt, even as Herodotus heard it chanted by the Libyan women." The same practice existed among the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans.
The Irish wakes are identical with the funeral feasts of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans.
141.) The Irish custom of saying "God bless you!" when one sneezes, is a very ancient practice; it was known to the Romans, and referred, it is said, to a plague in the remote past, whose first symptom was sneezing.
We find many points of resemblance between the customs of the Irish and those of the Hindoo.
All these things speak of a common origin; this fact has been generally recognized, but it has always been interpreted that the Irish camp, from the East, and were in fact a migration of Hindoos.
We find another proof that Ireland was settled by the people of Atlantis in the fact that traditions long existed among the Irish peasantry of a land in the "Far West," and that this belief was especially found among the posterity of the Tuatha-de-Dananns, whose connection with the Formorians we have shown.
"There is an abundance of legends and traditions concerning the passage of the Irish into America, and their habitual communication with that continent many centuries before the time of Columbus.
An Irish Saint named Vigile, who lived in the eighth century, was accused to Pope Zachary of having taught heresies on the subject of the antipodes.
At first he wrote to the pope in reply to the charge, but afterward he went to Rome in person to justify himself, and there be proved to the pope that the Irish had been accustomed to communicate with a transatlantic world."
The Irish annals preserve the memory of St.
Irish Mythology: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians involves vast bloodshed described in vivid, poetic terms.
The Red Hand of Ulster, a symbol found on Irish sculptures, corresponds to red handprints in the ruins of Yucatan, Central America.
The discussion considers the blending of Scottish and Irish immigrant beliefs with Indigenous Cherokee traditions and how these shared cultural elements may have influenced Appalachian folklore.
875), although the country was uninhabited, they found there Irish books, mass-bells, and other objects which had been left behind by earlier visitors, called Papar; these papæ (fathers) were the clerici of Dicuil.
If, then, as we may suppose from the testimony here referred to, these objects belonged to Irish monks (papar), who had come from the Faroe Islands, why should they have been termed in the native sagas 'West men' (Vestmen), 'who had come over the sea from the westward' (kommer til vestan um haf)?" (Humboldt's "Cosmos," vol.
If they came "from the West" they could not have come from Ireland; and the Scandinavians may easily have mistaken Atlantean books and bells for Irish books and mass-bells.
Irish Bronze Dagger.
For instance, in the United States to-day, white, black, and red men, the descendants of French, Spanish, Italians, Mexicans, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, Africans, all speak the English language, and by the test of language they are all Englishmen; and yet none of them are connected by birth or descent with the country where that language was developed.
ANCIENT IRISH VASE OF THE BRONZE AGE.
The Irish legend of hunters pursuing an animal which suddenly disappears, whereupon a human being appears in its place is found among all the American tribes.
The ancient Irish killed all the hares they found on May-day among their cattle, believing them to be witches.
They have their dances, like the Irish fairies; and, like them, they kill the domestic animals of those who offend them.
The ancestors of the Irish elk, too, roamed in herds about the hill sides in much the same way as our Highland cattle do now—too wild to allow of easy approach, but still under the control of man.
The Aztecs, for example, spoke of Aztlan, a lost land across the sea, while the Irish told stories of Tír fo Thuinn (the Land Beneath the Waves).
ANCIENT IRISH CROSS--PRE-CHRISTIAN--KILNABOY.
The Tuatha Dé Danann then became known as the fairy folk, or the fairy fort people, in Irish folklore.
Also known as "the Land Under the Waves," is a concept from Gaelic mythology, often associated with the mystical and mythical lands in Irish folklore.
Mythological Origins: Tír fo Thuinn is one of the many otherworldly realms in Irish mythology, which includes places like Tír na nÓg (the Land of the Ever-Young) and Mag Mell (the Plain of Delight).
Tuatha Dé Danann: The Tuatha Dé Danann, a supernatural race in Irish mythology, are often linked to Tír fo Thuinn.
After being defeated by the Celts, the Tuatha Dé Danann were said to have retreated to live underground in fairy mounds, becoming the fairy folk of Irish lore.
I asked, "Did you ask him?" She said, "Yes, I did put my hand up and ask him to explain why he sees it that way, and he gave an answer, but I’m not sure he really believed what he was saying."[17:25] I thought, "Oh good, if you can pick that up—that the teacher doesn’t really believe this, he’s not convinced by it, doesn’t like the answer he has to repeat—then you have got the wherewithal to navigate these kinds of questions that adults wrestle with."[17:52] In that way, I think we prepare our kids to do their own thinking, to be willing to listen to all kinds of points of view, and then do the math for themselves.[18:00] I’ve heard from a number of people who will say, "I grew up in a traditional Catholic family, and my mom was very devout, and she’d take us to Mass every week, and she would always make sure that we knew our catechism, but then she’d also tell us the stories of our family, the stories of our people, the stories of our land.[18:13] They are stories of a non-human presence, stories of abductions, stories of hybridizations, stories of higher human cognitive abilities that we might call psychic abilities or clear sight or clear audience, stories about an invisible team of helpers.[18:31] It delights me to hear those stories, and it’s often from Scottish and Irish families who’ve been Catholic families, where they have maintained the Celtic heritage alongside the Catholic heritage.[18:48] In "Echoes of Eden," I talk about families who’ve maintained their Catholic heritage alongside their indigenous heritage, so there’s this whole mix of story for the children to think about and ask questions about from the get-go.
In Irish mythology, the giant Fionn mac Cumhaill is said to have built the Giant's Causeway as stepping-stones to Scotland.