Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

Round Tozucr Creed. 26
Ireland' Eye, a little isle north of Howth harbour, is
also associated with early religious history. It was the
Inis Nessan, from St. Mac Nessan, of the Royal family of
Leinster, who, in the sixth century, had his oratory at
Inis Erean, as then it was called. The word Eye is from
the Danish Ey, Island. There it was that the holy man
was assailed, as the story goes, by the formidable chief of
hell, who sought to terrify him by his gigantic and terrible
form. The Saint, excited, threw his book at the fiend,
driving him against a rock which, splitting open, received
him within itself.
The Abbey of Howth was erected in 1235. Fin Mac
Coul's Quoit, a stone of many tons weight, is now seen
covering a cromlech, upon which these verses were written
by.S. Ferguson, Q.C, recording the burial of the fair
Fenian, Aideen
" They hewed the stone ; they heaped the cairn :
Said Ossian, In a queenly grave
We '
leave her 'mong her fields of fern,
Between the cliff and wave.'
The cliff behind stands clear and bare,
And bare above, the heathery steep
Scales the blue heaven's expanse to where
The Danaan Druids sleep.
And here hard by her natal bower,
On lone Ben Adair's side we strive
With lifted rock, and signs of power,
To keep her name alive.
That while from circling year to year,
The ogham Icttcr'd stone is seen,
The Gael shall say, Our Fenians '
here
Entombed their loved Aideen."'
ROUND TOWER CREED.
Without entering upon a description of these ancient
and graceful architectural objects, it may properly be