Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

Ancient Irish Literatiire, ^oc
Spenser, though an EngHshman, did justice to Ireland
when he wrote— ^' It is certain the Irish hath had the use
of letters very anciently and long before England." Let
us acknowledge with Faber, that " fictions of ancient poetry
. . .
will be found to comprehend some portion of historic
truth." It is Bede, no real friend to the Irish, who tells
us that " many both of the nobles and the low state left
their country, and, either in search of sacred learning, or
a stricter life, removed to Ireland." Camden quotes St.
Sugenius, of the eighth century—
" Exemplo patrum, commotus amore legendi,
Ivit ad Hibernos Sophia mirabile claros."
Skene, in Celtic Scotland, observes, "Others of these
legends are undoubtedly purely artificial, and the entire
legendary history of Ireland, prior
to the establishment of
Christianity in the fifth century, partakes largely of this
character."
Dr. Todd, however, warns us "that the pagan
character of a passage fails to prove its antiquity,"—as
"early Christianity itself was deeply tinged by pagan influences."
In the same sense, Eugene O'Curry writes—
"The tales relating to the pre-Christian period have in
some form or other floated down the stream of tradition,
preserving in the midst of a richly-developed Christian
mythos much of their original pagan character."
The latter author draws a comparison between Irish and
Welsh literature, not much to the advantage of the latter,
saying, that there is in the first "a definite localization of
all the personages and incidents of the tales " ; whereas the
Welsh poems " bear incontestable evidence of having been
recast in the twelfth or thirteenth century." He deplores
the great destruction of Irish MSS. for several centuries
before the Norman conquest of Ireland, much information
being only preserved by tradition. The country must
have been for ages in a fearful state of feud and anarchy