Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

2 6 Irish Druids.
Culdeeism, the intrusion of pagan ideas in the early religious
literature can be more readily comprehended.
As so much
of old paganism was mixed up in the Patristic works of
Oriental Christendom, it cannot surprise one that a similar
exhibition of the ancient heathenism should be observed in
the West. O'Brien, in Round Towers, writes— " The Church
Festivals themselves in our Christian Calendar are but the
direct transfers from the Tuath de Danaan Ritual. Their
very names in Irish are identically the same as those by
which they were distinguished by that earlier race."
Gomm^e said, " Druidism must be identified as a non-
Aryan cult."
Elsewhere reference is made to the Culdees. They were
certainly more pronounced in Ireland, and the part of
Scotland contiguous to Ireland, than in either England or
Wales.
Ireland differs from its neighbours in the number of
allusions to Druids in national stories. Tradition is much
stronger in Ireland than in Wales, and often relates to
Druids. On the other hand, it differs from that of its neighbours
in the absence of allusions to King Arthur, the hero
of England, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany. Rome, too,
was strongly represented in Britain, north and south, but
not in Ireland.
It is not a little remarkable that Irish Druids should
seem ignorant alike of Round Towers and Stone Circles,
while so much should have been written and believed concerning
Druidism as associated with circles and cromlechs
in Britain and Brittany. Modern Druidism, whether of
Christian or heathen colour, claims connection with Stonehenge,
Abury, and the stones of Brittany. Why should not
the same claim be made for Irish Druids, earlier and better
known than those of Wales }
As megalithic remains, in the shape of graves and circles,