History of the Irish state to 1014 - National Library of Scotland

HISTORY OF THE IRISH STATECHAPTER IEARLY PEOPLESThrough all ages the people of Ireland have preservedwith reverence the memorials of the ancient inhabitantsof their land. It is a pious remembrance of an unbrokenhistory. The descendants of prehistoric peoples still formthe leading elements of the population in Ireland, andfew lands are richer in monuments of a great antiquity,and artistic work left by these first inhabitants. Thepeoples who created Irish civilization have bequeathedmoreover a heroic tradition and Hterature, which hasassured to this island an eminent place, one of singulardistinction among the nations of Europe (i).Irish archaeological research is still imperfect, and wecannot tell when men first appeared on this island.Remains of human life belonging to the close of thePalaeolithic or Early Stone Age of Europe have beenfound as far north as Oban in Scotland, and there musthave been a land connection between northern Irelandand south-western Scotland at that period, as the faunaof Ireland testifies. At Oban, as in Derbyshire and thePyrenean region, it is the recesses of caves that haveyielded the evidence of man in the late PalsoHthictimes. But in Ireland the great caves of Red Bay havenever been archaeologically explored, and in limestonecaves stalagmite formations may conceal earlier remainsof human life than have yet been identified. The firstraces of man that we know so far are in the NeoHthic