Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

Irish Magic, and Tuatha dc Danaan
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" By the force of potent spells and wicked ma-ic
"^
And conjurations horrible to hear,
Could set the ministry of hell at work,
And raise a slaughtered army from the earth
And make them live, and breathe, and fight a'^ain
Few could their arts withstand, or charm's unljind.""'
They were notorious in Sligo, a county so full of socalled
Druidical remains. In Carrowmore, with its sixtyfour
stone circles, there must once have been a large
population. "Why," asks Wood-Martin, "is that narrow
strip of country so thickly strewn with monuments of the
Dead "
.? But he learned that the Fomorian pirates, possibly
from the Baltic, swarmed on that wild coast. He especially
notes the tales of Indech, a mighty Fomorian Druid,
grandfather of the dreaded Balor, of the Evil Eye.
The mythic Grey Cozv belonged to Lon mac Liomhtha.
the first smith among the Tuathswho succeeded in making
an iron sword. At the battle of Moytura, Uaithne was
the Druid harper of the Tuatha. Of Torna, last of Pagan
Bards, it was declared he was
" Sprung of the Tualtha de Danans, far renown'd
For dire enchanting arts and magic power."
But, as Miss Brooke tells us, " most of the Irish romances
are filled with Dananian enchantments, as wild as the
wildest of Ariosto's fictions, and not at all behind them
in beauty." It was Dr. Barnard, Bishop of Killaloc, who
traced the race to visitors from South Britain ; sax'ing,
"The Belgae and Danmonii, whose posterity in Ireland
were called Firbolghs and Tuatha de Danan."
In the destructive battle between the "manly, bloody,
robust Fenians of Fionn," and " the white-toothed, handsome
Tuatha Dedaans," when the latter saw a fresh corps
of Fenians advancing, it is recorded that " having cnvclo])cd
themselves in the Feigh Fiadh, they made a precipitate
retreat."