Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

RoiLud Tower Creed. 271
of Babel was none other than the rivalry between the
believers in the Father Principle and those adopting the
Mother Principle. He declared that the Cuthites or Scotis
were upholders of the first, and that, being defeated by the
other party, they emigrated to Ireland, and raised the
towers as monuments of their faith.
The Magian or Fire theory, associated also with sunworship,
had advocates in Weld, O'Conor, Bethan, Webb,
Moore, Lanigan, &c.
Dr. Lanigan found buildings in India with an interior
like that of Irish Towers.
" Those temples," says he, "were
usually round, and some of them were raised to a great
height. The lower part of an Irish Round Tower might
have answered very well for a temple ; that is, a place in
which was an altar, on which the sacred fire was preserved,
while the middle floors could have served as habitations
for the persons employed in watching it. The highest part
of the tower was an observatory, intended for celestial
observations, as I think evidently appears from the four
windows being placed opposite to the four cardinal points."
Finding most doors facing the west, he is the more confirmed
in the fire-worship theory, as Magians always
advanced from the west side to worship the fire.
We are reminded of the words of Diodorus Siculus, that
an Isle opposite Gaul, and nearly as large as Sicily, had
temples of a round form, dedicated to the sun, in which
priests with harps sang praises to their god. The Psalter
of Cashcl distinctly speaks of the preservation of their
sacred fire.
Dr. O'Brennan, who thought they were raised by the
Tuaths, recognized the fire-worship of the Gadelians in
Ireland, and the use of the towers for that purpose.
Though known of old as Bell-honses, he observes— " That
these towers might have been, in after times, used as bell-