Evening star., 1936-03-14
THREE GOOD NOVELS HIGH LIGHT WEEKS BOOK LIST
IRISH FIRST .VOYAGERS HERE?
Growing Body of Crumstanta Evidence Interests Thos
Who Find Possibility of Truth in Traditions Connecting
Emerald Island With Early Days of This Continent.

inaccessible their retreats from the
mainland, the more sanity were held
to be those who dwelt in them.
Many Of these adventures must
have lost their lives, which they in
trusted to cookie shells of wattled twigs,
and as no tidings were ever heard of
them the belief could easily have
arisen that they must have reached
the far-off shores of the Isle of the
Blessed, from which there was no
return.
Punishment was sometimes inflicted
by setting a guilty person adrift in a
light skiff or wicker boat with one
paddle or in leathern box without
any paddle at all, with vessel Of
meat and water and sometimes with
a club for keeping off the beasts of the
sea. Many even imposed such an or
deal on themselves as a penance. This
punishment is described in the ancient
laws of Ireland: He Ohe criminaD
must go unarmed to the shore, having
nothing but small and vile garment.
He must bind his feet with an iron
4CJGC! dI1O 414l1E Vic 4COSCL ACJ 4AlOO Vic
sea. He must then enter corracle
whose wicker framework is covered
with hide only one fold deep and. with
out food, sail or rudder, commit him.
self to the mercy of the elements"
OF THE many-penitent monks,
erring cloister brothers and crim-
inals under sentence OF death-who
thus were launched on the stormy At
lantic waters it is highly probable that
few survived. Their adventures
were recorded in a series of ancient
Irish writings, the Immrami or Cir
cumnavigations. A good many OF
these still are extant IN European
libraries.
They served to spread the legend
of a beautiful land across the sea,
Just as had the Voyage Of st. Bren-
dan" The temptation to set out for
it and escape the troubles at home
must have been great for a sea-faring
race, in spite of the evident perils.
There can no longer be any ques-
ton that the Irish preceded the
Norsemen in the discovery and col.
onization of Iceland. The Morse sagas
relate that their earliest voyagerS
found there a white people called
papae, or priests; that these left
the place because they did not wish
to remain there with pagans, and
that they left behind them Irish
books and bells. Remains of the
ancient Irish settlements still are
found on the island.
Another bit of evidence sometimes
adduced is shaky-an alleged resem-
blance between Algonquin. the In
dian language of most Of the At.
lantic Coast. and ancient Irish. Rev.
DR.. Geary now is studying this Ian.
guage. not with any belief that IL
actually does bear traces Of Irish
but because of its place in compare
tive philology.
There are, he says, certain reser1-
blanceS which are doubtless pure CO.
incidences. For instance. a common
Irish sentence structure is as follows:
"Sure and it's myself that knows"
'tSure and it's the good book that
says it,"
Massasoit or Powhatan would have
used almost these identical forms Of
expression.
1T is to be feared" says DR.. Dunn,
"that the case for the Irish discover
ers has been discredited by some Of the
extravagant claims advanced in their
favor by overzealous partisans. From
time to time we read in the newspa-
pers of the discovery of Celtic re-
mains in the New World Wherever
towers are found, as in Colorado and
New Mexico, showing the slightest re-
semblance to the round towers of Ire.
land. the discoverers at once Jump to
the conclusion that they must be due
to Irish builders. Some writer's have
held that the white ESkimos are de.
Scendants of the early Irish settlers.
The civilization that existed in Mex
leo from the seventh century onward
has been said to have been founded
on the laws and customs of the an
cient Irish. Some have even gone so
far as to assert that Quetsalcohuatl,
the more or less mythical Mexican
hero-god or reformer, was one Of the
Irish legislators, or even st. Bren.
dan himself"