This will be an ongoing work in progress for some time
My best guess is that the Emerald Isla was already well populated before 7,500 BC. The civilized navigators that I am writing of below came thousands of years later. However, the earlier hunter harvesters ate well, dressed well, and knew how to live quite nicely and neatly.
Here I will try to give some chronological order to differing prehistoric people on the island called Ireland by some. I will also try write something of the nature and doings of each of these people. I hope to gather some facts to offer here and to make my best guesses as to the dates of doings and happenings.
One of the people I will speak of are the Dan. The were on the Island when the Mil arrived. They are one of the storied people of Ireland not known much beyond the Island.
There is another list of people more widely known which I will also include here. They are Persians by many names, Greek, Norse, Phoenician and others.
Among the last of prehistoric and the closest prehistoric people to our historic times were those the Romans heard stories of. Historic times arrive with the Roman occupation of the land we have call England. Romans were not the first to write early accounts of Ireland, but they are the ones to have influenced us most. Greeks, Phoenicians and others wrote of the Island earlier.
There is more related to this on other posts right here.
I will try to list the peoples populating the Island as it is told by the Irish and those who became Irish. I'll try to begin to include early dating of happenings that have been called pre-historic.
Milesians:
Milesians were probably in Ireland as early as 2,000 BC and they be the most recent of early arrivers. By 16oo BC to about 1290 BC they were still arriving. They might be called Greeks. 1,700 BC the Milesian brothers Eber and Eremon defeated the Danaan in the Battle of Taillet.
The most recent of what I will call prehistoric arrivals to what was to become the Irish Island and called Ireland, I will call Milesians. I believe that many of the early stories of them can be truly called histories.
They have long been called Milesions in what what has been called the mythology of the land. They can be called an Iron Age people, but I am not sure that the first of them to come were so.
I believe that an early home of the the Milesians was the Anatolian island of Miletus. That island and its main city, also called Miletus has been called a famous font of Hellenic philosophy. It was occupied by settlers from Crete around 1,600 BC. Crete was the seat of a high pre-Hellenic civilization. By about 600 BC Miletus had become a maritime empire. It was about 1,300 BC that the late Bronze Age was coming to an end. It is at about this same time that Egypt came under under Egyptian control again. I suspect that by this time many Mediterania peoples had heard of the Island which would come to be called Ireland. I also suspect that by about this time the people of a small Greek island near he coast of present Turkey came to know of the island that would come to be called Ireland
It is said that the first Milesians to appear on the shores on the shores of the western isle, beyond the Pillars of Hercules(once call Atlas?), were defeated by the last of the Tuatha de Danann nobility.
The names of the Milesian leaders of this early coming are said to be MacCuil, MacCecht, and MacGrein. Not much later other Milesians came and stayed. Their names sound like they were Scots.
So, it may be that early Irish came from early Greek colonies one of them being the island of Miletus from close to what is now the coast of Turkey. The people of that island included famous philosophers as well as sailors and ocean navigators.
By learning of Breoghan we may interesting details of the Milesians. His tower of Brigantia may have some reality which offers us interesting Milesian details. His history may suffer some early Christian interpretations, but their writings may often be useful,
Fomorian
Prince Elatha of the Fomorians was the father of Bress who became a Danann king. Fomorians were also also a real people and seem to have included real life sailors and navigators.I am not sure that the used the sail. They did seem to know much of the North Atlantic at an early date.
Banba and Fintar were Fomorians.
Dan or Danann
The winning of a place of the Milesians on the Island may have been the beginning of the name Ireland. These Milesians,I believe, chose to call the Island Ere which led to it being called Ireland. The people prior to Milesians, the the people I choose to call the Dan, have been called the Tuatha de Danann.
Some Miscellany of the Danann:
The Danann conquered the Fomorians,
They have been called people of Danu. Danu was the daughter of the Indian progenitor god Daksha.
Names of the Danann Include: Include the high craft masters:Goibniu. Creidhne, and Luchta. The Dagda, Lugh (half Dan).Morrigan. Ethal Anbuail a Tuatha di Danan.
Sidhe descended from the Dannan.
Bress is a Danann king with Fomorian relatives. He is called a high king of Ireland and the time of his reign may have been as early as from 1897 BC to 1990 BC or from 1477 BC to 1470 BC, or not. He was preceded by Eochaid mac Eirc and succeeded by Nuada.
Like the Milesians the Danann were real people and neither Gods nor fantasies. It seems that they may well be associated with the passage tombs.
The Danann may also be associated with with Sidhe and Sidhe with Sheehan. Danann became associated with Aos si and the os si seem much like Sidhe. So Sheehan and Aos si seem associated.
It seems very likely That the Danann reached Ireland from the eastern Mediterranean. Perhaps from Greek colonies in Syria or Turkey.
Dagda, the Dagda, it is said, was a High King of the Tuatha de Danann after his predecessor Nuada was injured in battle. During reign of the Dagda there may have be a solar related incident of considerable magnitude. The harp was known in Ireland during the time of the Dagda. The Dagda fathered Bodb Dearg, Cermait, Midir, Aine, and Brigit. He was the brother or father of Oghma. He reigned long over the Danann and was seen as a father figure and good god of that people.
Aos Si are what the Bronze Age Danann became after the were overcome by an "inferior" Iron age people.
Bolg or Fir Bolg
The Bolg were in Ireland at 1935 BC and 1934 BC.
1200 BC their is large immigration to Ireland. Perhaps Greek. 800 BC to 700 BC more Iron Age "Greeks" came to Ireland. Fir means people. A system of communication in Ireland, and a type of tree. Bolg refers to a prehistoric area of Belgium, belly, stomach,abdomen, and bag. The Bolg people were, in one ordering, the fourth group of people to settle in Ireland.
Fir Bolg persons: Aengus mac Umer, Fiacha Cennfinnia, Fedbgert, Eochaid Mac Eire,
Order of arrival
One ordering is: i
Cessair
Fir Bolg
Fomorian
Danann
Milesians
Another is:
Cessair
Portholoin. Tuan?
Nemed equals? Bolg and Danann
Fomorian
Bolg. Did Domnann Gailoin come with the Bolg.
Danann overcame Bolg and friends
Milesians
Gather more information including dates.
Nemid,Nemtona, Nimeth
Nemed, Nemenians: According to the Labor Gabala *11th C.), Nemed was leader of the third people after Muintir /cessair and Muintir Portholon. His people has be referred to as Nemidians. They are described as coming 30 years after the after the Partholoin people died out. Namibians died out became extinct or left Ireland. The word Nemed came to mean Privileged or holy in Irish..Nemedians, These Nemedians may have come from the borders of the Black Sea and may have gone west across Europe. However much of such migration has been by river and sea. It is said that they were told to continue across two seas until they came to the Wooded Isle. the Wooded Isle was ''surely" Ireland. They were said to have been told to make the voyage in 30 skins. Skins were popular water going vessels of that time. They were quite simple, but capable of sea voyages. I suspect that these 11th C. monks passed on some useful truths.
The Nemed sailed from the Caspian Sea in 44 ships. They arrived in Ireland 30 years after the Partholoin. Descendants of Nemed are said to have both Bolg and Danann. Nemed are thought to have been both privileged and holy, and perhaps noble. Nemetona was a German goddess who across Europe had sacred groves and woods as holy places of worship.
Nemed is said to arrived in Ireland With his wife Macha, his four sons, their wives, and 20 other Nemedians. More of a party then a migration. People were scarce for long after the flood. The Nemedians fought the Fomorians until the Fomorians won.
Nemedians are said to have been in the land until into the Iron Age.
Partholoin
Partholoin left Ireland after very many of then had died from Plague. The left Ireland mostly uninhabited it is said. It stayed that way until the arrival of Nemed. The Partholoin may have arrived shortly after after the Ice Age.
Cessair and Fintan have been said to have arrived in Inis Fail in 2361 BC.
Portholon: The People died out?
A second order of coming
Portholon 1st
Cessair 2nd
Fomorian
Nemed 3rd
A third order of coming
Cessair
Porthilon
Nemed