It is remarkable that there is no mention of temples nor of churches dedicated to these Irish gods, nor do we find any of those inscriptions to them which are so common in Gaul, Belgium, Switzerland, and even Britain, but they appear from passages in Cormac's Glossary[18] to have had altars and images dedicated to them.
We are forced, then, to come to the conclusion that the pagan Irish once possessed a large pantheon, probably as highly organised as that of the Scandinavians, but owing to their earlier and completer conversion to Christianity only traces of it now remain.
[1] In modern times spelt Eíbhear [Ævir] and Eireamhóin [Æra-vone].
[2] It is just as likely that, as the only name of any people known to the early Irish antiquaries which bore some resemblance to their own was Scythia, they said that the Scoti came from thence.
[3] "The race of the warrior of Spain" continued until recent times to be a favourite bardic synonym for the Milesians. There is a noble war ode by one of the O'Dalys which I found preserved in the so-called "Book of the O'Byrnes," in Trinity College Library, in which he celebrates a victory of the O'Byrnes of Wicklow over the English about the year 1580 in these words:—
"Sgeul tásgmhar do ráinig fá chrióchaibh Fáil
Dá táinig lán-tuile i nGaoidhiltigh (?) Chláir.
Do chloinn áird áithiosaigh Mhile Easpáin
Toisg airmioch (?), ar lár an laoi ghil bháin."
It is to be observed that of the four great Irish stocks the descendants of Ith are often called the Clanna Breógain.
[4] Nennius, in the time of Charlemagne, quotes the Annals of the Scots, and the narrative of the peritissimi Scotorum as his authorities for deducing the Scots, i.e. Irish, from a family of Scythia, who fled out of Egypt with the children of Israel, which shows that the original narrative had assumed this Christian form in the eighth century. In the Book of Invasions—the earliest MS. of which is of the twelfth century—the Christian invention has made considerable strides, and we start from Magog, Japhet, and Noah, and from the Tower of Babel pass into Egypt. Nel or Niul is called from the Plain of Senaar to the Court of Pharaoh, and marries his daughter Scota, and their son is named Gaedhal. They have their own exodus, and arrive in Scythia after many adventures; thence into Spain, where Breogan built the tower from whose top Ireland was seen. It would seem from this that the later writer of the Book of Invasions enhanced the simpler account which the Irish had given Nennius three or four centuries before. Zimmer, however, thinks that Nennius quoted from a preceding Book of Invasions now lost.
[5] Dá chích Danainne.