Ancient Munster: Where Cork City and County are now.

            Cork was once part of the Kingdom of Deas Mumhan, which has been called South Munster, and has been called Desmond by the English. It has been ruled by the MacCarthy Mor dynasty. Who can tell us about the Mum people.

            It seems fair to call the coming of the Normans an invasion. They certainly caused changes in Munster which were not pleasant to everyone. The MacCarthy clan and much culture were pushed westward into what is West Cork and County Kerry. The clan became centered on Dunloug Castle near Mizen Head. Some have said that their castle there dates to 1207 AD. There is more to be said about tht site and the O'Mahony. We may get to them later. For us right now the coming of the Normans is a fairly recent happening.

            But we can move on to even more recent times for another paragraph. The Hiberno-Norman family became the earls of Desmond, which sounds very English. Cork, city was given an English Royal charter in 1318 and became an outpost of England. But even a diminished Irish culture is still catchy and resistant. By about 1583 the city and the county was a mess. We might say destroyed and devastated Some said that they had been resettled by some of the worst England had to offer. But even many of their offspring became a useful part of a new Ireland.

            Ireland has suffered plenty of troubles. The troubles of Normans and English entering the land I think began in about 900 AD when defending against the  viking raids from the north so weakened the land that Norman and English saw it as a tasty morsel to be taken. The viking norsemen had taken most of the gold and the more transportable, but what Norman and English saw was the rich green land itself.

            I was wanting to get into truly ancient times, but getting through the early troubles is proving difficult. Desmond was Deas Mumhan, but we now continue to speak of English influence. So, a historic kingdom in south western Ireland has been called Desmond. It was founded in 1188 by Tadhg MacCarthaigh. He became king of Munster. That Desmond included all of what is now County Cork and most of Kerry. The division of Kerry from Cork took place with the Treaty of Glanmire when the land was divided between Desmond and Thomond. The sullivan and Donovan were important there, but that is another story,`

            I have been trying to get too much early Irish history into to few paragraphs and now I am moving into some prehistory of the island.

            Earlier there were the Earinn who held al of Munster, the better half of all of Eri. I am thinking that the Iverni of that fertile land were Earinn. Many of Munster once thought of themselves as people of the deer. who drank deer milk before the coming of cows. They were probably a people called Earinn or Eirenn or the like.

            I think the MacCarthy called themselves people of the deer, but the MacCarthy may have come with the cows.

            Well, there seems to be much more Irish prehistory than I can handle in one essay. For now I'll just leave you with some bits and piece of that history and hope it gives you a taste for more. More than one sort of Greek knew Mizen Head and so did a Phoenician or two. The Fomorians knew it and probably Balor and Lugh did too.

        There were deer in the south of Ireland over 30,000 years ago. There was plenty of time for people to learn to eat them with time left over to learn to milk them.

            Early Irish were also boatmen who navigated the sea. The were probably fishers of the sea, but I have seen no evidence of that.

            Munster had an increasing population by 8,000 BC. By 5,000 BC Aegean cow milk was probably replacing deer milk. Anyway some kind of cow milk was available on the island by then.

            The copper of Old Munster was supporting the making of bronze by 2,000 BC.

            Correct my errors and help with this work. I have heard that there are those who believe that I know so much about this far south of Ireland that I must have lived there from before 20,000 years ago to about 4,000 BC. Its not true and I could really use your help to find out more about Irish prehistory.

            Thank you for reading.

                                                                                            R. C. Sheehan

It's About Ireland to Before it Was

             Tir na nOg has been called shee. Some have called it Land of youth. More have called it Land of Our Youth or Our earlier Land, or  the Land We Came From, or Our Home Land. I have called it the shee land across the sea.

             We can call the above, About Ireland. I hope to add more about Ireland just below.

           

             Can "sidhe" and ''shee" be synonymous or nearly so?

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            Here, I will begin to write about the people of Ireland.

            One of these people are the Fomorians. They are probably one of the very first people in and around Ireland as the ice melted. They were probably a pre flood people of advanced culture. They were seamen, navigators, and perhaps sea raiders. Some of them were among the very first immigrants to the Emerald Island. There is strong evidence of Fomorians before 600 BC. I believe that they were there very long before that time.

            They have been described as bad, dark, Danann, good, light. It is said that Partholon won a battle against them. It seem that they lost few battles.

            Lugh was half Fomorian. Balor was a leader of Fomorians and built a fort for Bres. Indech mac de was king of Fomorians at the time.

            There is more to say about these sea  going people and I will try to add more about them right here.

            Another early people of Ireland may be call Fir Bolg, Fir Blog may be translatable as bag men. The Fir Bolg may have known Greece. Nemid is said to have "fathered" them. 

            These Bolg divided the Island into provinces, like counties. We can begin to know the names of these people as we speak of these provinces. For example, Gan takes North Munster, Sengann takes south Munster, Genann takes what becomes Connacht, Rudraige takes what becomes Ulster, Slanga takes Leinster. The first High Kings of Ireland were the five takers of provinces.

            Some have said that their father was related to Nemid. Their father may have been called Della.

            Of  the brothers Slaine may have rued in Leinster 1748 BC to 1703 BC. Ganann, son of Dela, and his brother Genann are said to have landed  at Iber Dubglaaise and to have split Munster between them.

            Gann and Genann were followed by Sengann, who was followed by Fiacha Cennfinnan. Sengann ruled from between about 1927 BC and 1507 BC to between 1921 BC and 1502 BC.

            I intend to write more about Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Danann, Milesians, and perhaps others right here, updating these notes.

            Some miscellany that it may be worth remembering are that Bress was a Danann king with Fomorian relatives. Prince Elatha of the Fomorians was the father of Bress.

            Bress or Bres was High King of Ireland either from 1897 BC to 1890 BC or from 1477 Bc to 1470 BC. He was proceeded by Eochaid and succeeded Nuada.

 

            They were in Ireland just before a people called the Danann.

            The Fir Bolg left captivity in Greece and headed west via Iberia and continued to their ancient land of Ireland. 

              I know I am rambling about early Irish history and will probably continue to do so. I could ramble into some curious and interesting doings and happenings.

                This may be a good place to begin to write about the Dan people. I'll call them Danann for now while I do some speculation.

                I am beginning to believe that Irish and Dan fought on the side of the Phoenician against the advance of Roman legions. It seems impossible not to believe that the Danann were so real and alive that many Bronze Age Irish were related to them. I would like to know if there is anyway the Judaic tribe of Dan can be related to the Irish Danaan. And I am even suspecting connections between the Danes of Denmark and the great blue Danube. Help me out if you can and will.

                I could use some company in trying to understand some of these relationships. It seems certain that Phoenician and Irish early became well known to one another.

                There is a lot to learn we could go on to see if there is more evidence of the Scythian being known to Scot and Irish; Could Scott and Irish be pre-Celtic relatives who retained a conscious from before and through the Iron Age. There is a lot to learn and lots of dates to firm up.

                I have lots of related areas I would like to know more about. Like how did the Iberian Peninsula come to be called the Iberian Peninsula and what could that have to do with Irish and Hebrew? 

                It will be interesting to get more clarifying info about early connections between Ireland and and Eastern Med cultures and beyond.

                Here I may try t4o put together a few bits of information connected to that which the early Irish had to say about the early Irish.  The Fomorian might prove interesting.

Here is a first attempt to list the groups of people who came to the Island.

Greeks were among the early comers and the came long before the Phoenicians were comers, but I do not know where to put them in the following list. I am not proud of this list, but I offer it as my first try at useful names and realistic order:

Fomorian

Nenidian

Fir 

Dannan

Milesian

            That's it my first list. I do want  Milesian to stay as my most recent comer and the Tuatha De Dannan to come just before them. But what should I do with people of Cessair, people of Partholon, and people of Nemed?

            

                                                                                    rcs

            

            

Mago Bill

Mago Bill as my great grandfather and Mago as a name in history and prehistory

 

 

 

                 My great grandfather was probably a Munsterman even though his parents brought him to the States as a toddler. Munster has long been the name of an area in the far south of Ireland.

     

                More exactly,Mago Bill is a name I have given to my great grandfather, M. William Sheehan. Sheehan is a fine and interesting surname, but Mago attracts me more.

 

                Spanish speaking friends tell me that in Spanish mago means magician and the like. Some also tell me that "the three kings'' or "three wise men" of Christmas are called magos and that each of them is a mago. This seems interesting to me but may have been of no interest at all to my great grandfather.

 

                However, I have been told that before Rome came of age and in the early days of Carthage, that Mago was an important family name among the Carthaginian Phoenicians. I see that Magos where friends and family of a famous guy by the name of Hannibal.

 

                Magos were well known traders, navigators, and military leaders of Carthage. Carthaginian traders and navigators came to Ireland for a variety of reasons. The main reason was probably tin. In the Bronze Age and beyond tin was important because without it there was little bronze. The Irish of the day were metal workers, craftsmen, and artists. They were also miners, alchemists, poets, and lovers.They seem also to have been impressionable for they heard the name Mago often from the visiting Carthaginians that a few infants were called Mago. From that time and centuries on, the name Mago was from time to time quite popular on the island.

 

                The name Mago and Mago Bill have, from time to time, influenced and inspired my research and writing of history. On this blog you may expect essays and post were so influence of Mago may be detected. You will see his influence to on my history blog and on my timeline blogs. d

 

                Thanks for your visit and thank you for reading this post so you have an idea of the source of the name for this blog which was a sort of flagship for these blogs.

                                                                        RCS