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IRELAND PREVIOUS TO THE INVASION BY THE 



ENGLISH. 



ANCIENT NAMKS OF IRELAND, AND DERIVATION OF THOSE NAMES. 



Ireland, the second of the nations which compose the British realm, 

 was known anciently by the names of lerne, Inverna, and Hibernia. 



The first of these names, lerne, is supposed to be of Phoenician deriva- 

 tion, and was, perhaps, pronounced Erin, which signifies the Country of 

 the West ; and of which Mr. Pinkerton — an authority on the subject of 

 British antiquities of high standing — considers Hibernia, as well as the 

 Gothic appellation, Ireland, to be mere modifications. As much, per- 

 haps, may be conjectured with respect to Inverna, which bears no very 

 distant aflSnity to lerne. With respect to the name Hibernia, however, 

 authors are not agreed as to its derivation. Some deduce it from Heber, 

 one of its most ancient kings, while others consider it a corruption of 

 Iberia, the classical name of Spain — the country from which Ireland, 

 according to some, was first colonized. 



colonization of IRELAND. OPINIONS OF WRITERS ON THE SUEJKCT. 



Respecting the people who first settled in Ireland as colonists, much 

 doubt exists, though various accounts are given. If fable is to be 

 quoted, three of Cain's daughters were the first who visited that island, 

 three hundred years before the deluge. 



From the same authority, Partholanus, a descendant of Magog, the son 

 of Japhet, is said to have landed on its shores with a thousand followers ; 

 and subsequent to him, and before the year of the world 2700, another 

 colony, headed by Nemedius, a descendant also of Magog, attempted 

 the same project with no great success ; a failure which the fabulists 

 attribute to the successive revolts of a body of the colonists called For- 

 norians, a race of giants, and descendants from Nimrod. 



Spenser, the celebrated poet, whose residence in Ireland at a time 

 when the national character was undivested of its peculiarities, and 

 which must have afforded him great advantages of observation, sup- 

 poses the Irish to have been of Scythian origin. He is also of opinion 

 that the western part of the island was occupied subsequently by a 

 body of Gauls, who had previously settled in Spain, and who had 



M . M.— No. 2. H 



