Irish Druids and old Irish religions / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Irish Druids and old Irish religions / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    contain references of a mystical character, which might be styled Druidical. Most of the Irish literature, professedly treating of historical events, has been regarded as having covert allusions to ancient superstitions, the individuals mentioned being of a mythical character. A considerable number of such references are associated with Druids, whatever these were thought then to be. Miracles were abundant, as they have been in all periods of Irish history. The Deity, the angels, the spirits of the air or elsewhere, are ever at hand to work a marvel, though often for little apparent occasion. As the performances of Saints are precisely similar to those attributed to Druids, one is naturally puzzled to know where one party quits the field and the other comes on. A large number of these references belong to the Fenian days, when the Tuatha Druids practised their reported unholy rites. Thus, Teige was the father of the wife of the celebrated Fenian leader, Fionn MacCumhaill, or Fionn B’Baoisgne, slain at Ath-Brea, on the Boyne. But Matha MacUmoir was a Druid who confronted St. Patrick. St. Brigid was the daughter of the Druid Dubhthach. The Druid Caicher foretold that the race he loved would one day migrate to the West. In Ninine’s Prayer it is written— “We put trust in Saint Patrick, chief apostle of Ireland : He fought against hard-hearted Druids.” As told by T. O’Flanagan, 1808, King Thaddy, father of Ossian, was a Druid. lerne was called the Isle of learned Druids. Plutarch relates that Claudius, exploring, “ found on an island near Britain an order of Magi, reputed holy by the people.” Tradition says that Parthalon, from Greece, brought three Druids with him. These were P'ios, Lolus, and Fochmarc ; that is, observes O’Curry, “ if we