86 
wrote before Ptolemy, who makes no mention of the Concani or 
Gangani, as settlers in Britain. Whitaker, * and Pinkerton + deny 
that such a tribe inhabited Spain; but are we to prefer their unsup- 
ported negative to the authority of ancient Spanish writers of high 
repute? ‘This may be digression ; but, so far as it goes, it strength- 
ens the invariable evidence of our annals, on the subject of a Scottish 
migration from Spain to Ireland. In the whole range of remote 
antiquity, no historical affirmation appears better attested; as I 
shall soon shew in another work, now in preparation for the press. 
The early inhabitants of Aran were, it is true, of the Belgic and 
Damnonian stock ; but, so late as the middle of the second century, 
Ptolemy’s time, it is by no means improbable, that a Scotiish clan 
had also settled there. The Scots had possession of Ireland many 
centuries before that period. 
Archbishop Usher affirms, that Mengus, the first Christian 
King of Desmond, or South Munster (comprising the county of Cork 
and certain adjacent parts of the counties of Kerry, Tipperary, 
and Waterford) had bestowed, at the request of St. Az/ée, the Isles 
of Aran on St. Enea, called also Endeus ; and it does not appear 
that the learned Primate’s opinion has been contradicted. One 
would, however, incline to think, that, on the expulsion of the 
old inheritors, in the third century, these islands had got into the 
possession of the Princes of Thomond, or North Munster, (anci- 
ently comprehending the counties of Clare and Limerick, with a 
considerable part of the county of Tipperary) rather than into that 
of the princes of South Munster. Locality, at least, would favour 
this conjecture. Both these princely stocks of South and North 
Munster (Mac Carthy and O’Brien) were of one lineage, their 
® History of the Britons, Dublin, 1773, p. 142. 
+ Inquiry into the Hist. of Scotland, v. 2. p. 5 and 212. 
