Bolus Head, Skelligs Rocks, and Bray Head passed, one comes to Valentia Island and the entrance to Dingle Bay. One of the most fondly recalled of all Irish legends is that of the landing of the Milesians, as they came up through the Biscayan Bay upon what they then knew as “Innis Ealga”—the Noble Isle. Then it was ruled by three brothers, princes of Tuatha de Danaan, after whose wives (who were also three sisters) the island was alternately called, Eire, Banva, and Fiola. By these names Ireland is still frequently known to the poets. Whatever difficulties or obstacles beset the Milesians in landing, they at once attributed to the “necromancy” of the Tuatha de Danaans. When the Milesians could not discover land where they thought to sight it, they simply agreed that the Tuatha de Danaans had, by their black arts, rendered it invisible. At length they descried the island, its tall blue hills touched by the last beams of the setting sun; and from the galleys there arose a shout of joy. Innisfail, the Isle of Destiny, was found!
The legend has furnished Moore the excuse for launching into melody again. He relates it as follows:
“They came from a land beyond the sea,
And now o’er the western main
Set sail, in their good ships, gallantly,
From the sunny land of Spain.
‘Oh, where is the isle we’ve seen in dreams,
Our destin’d home or grave?’
Thus sung they, as by the morning’s beams,
They swept the Atlantic wave.
“And lo, where afar o’er ocean shines
A sparkle of radiant green,
As though in that deep lay emerald mines,
Whose light through the wave was seen,
‘ ’Tis Innisfail—’tis Innisfail!’
Rings o’er the echoing sea,
While bending to heav’n the warriors hail
That home of the brave and free.”