19 



the same. Aventinus calls the Scots a clan or tribe of the 

 Saxon nation, as were the Picts.' 



^Vith respect to the arrival of the Normans in Ireland before the 

 ninth century, our great antiquarians, Camden, Usher, AVare, Saxo 

 Gramniaticus, Cluverius, Pinkerton, S^c. are silent ; and we may 

 consider their silence a positive argument in opposition to that 

 opinion. Our native historians, if of any weight, introduce them, 

 some, A. D. 795 ;«• O'Flaherty 798; Keating in 820. Accord- 

 ing to the Saxon annals the first Danish ships that sought out 

 the English nation arrived there from the country of Herathi, 

 part of Jutland, a. d. 787.''^- Soon after, our best historians in- 

 troduce them into Ireland under Turgesius, and into Normandy 

 under Rodolphus ; and, if authors had authorized the fact, they 

 would not have failed to notice their arrival at an earlier date. 



With respect to the Teutonic corruption, I am persuaded that 

 a philologer, who would be at the trouble of comparing O'Brien's 

 Irish Dictionary with the Gothic of Olaus Varelius, which should 

 rather be found blended with the Irish of those supposed early 

 colonies than the more modern Teutonic, would be convinced 

 that the Irish tongue contains but a few Gothic words. And 

 it appeared to myself an extraordinary fact, considering the 

 mixture of Gothic in the Italian, French, Spanish, English 

 and Manks languages,*"- which the dominion of the Goths 



D 2 



H. Tom. 1. p. 376. Selon les annales d'ltlande, les pirates Normands, parjrent pour la pre- 

 miere fois dans cette isle en 795. 



Hist, d' Irlande par I' Abbe Geoghcgan. 

 ♦5. Histor. Collect, p. 299. 



46. The incorporation of the Icelandic with the Gallic constitutes the only difl'erence be- 

 tween the present ManUs and the present Irish. 



