Irish annalists make a certain Milesius and others leaders of the Gaelic colonies by which Ireland was peopled. These colonies came from the East, and having rested in Spain, they sailed thence directly to Ireland. There are many historical romances extant regarding these colonies of Gaels and their wanderings and final settlement in Ireland. “The Chronicles of Eri” is among the most interesting. Dr Keating, in his legendary history of Ireland, gives the descent of the Gael from Gathelus, or Gaidheal Glas, as follows:—Gathelus, who started westward from Egypt, was the son of Niul, son of Fenius Farsa, son of Baath, son of Magog, son of Japhet, son of Noah! The force of reason could no further go. Niul was a man of much learning and wisdom, and was married to a daughter of Pharaoh, called Scoto. She was the mother of Gathelus, who, it is said, was an intimate friend of Moses. When the great exodus of Israel from Egypt took place Gathelus was in his eightieth year. After various adventures his descendants arrived in Spain, where they remained for some time masters of the country. Milidh or Milesius was an eminent warrior; greatly distinguished himself before leaving Egypt in a war with the Ethiopians; fought in Scythia, and became one of the kings of the descendants of Gathelus in Spain. He also was married to a Scota, a daughter of Pharaoh. His sons, in the year 500 before Christ, sailed to Ireland with a fleet of thirty vessels. They soon conquered the Tuatha de Danaan, and divided Ireland into two parts. Ebir was made king of the southern part of the island, and Eremon of the northern part.
The descendants of Gathelus in all their wanderings are supposed to have carried with them Jacob’s Stone, the famous Lia Fail, or stone of destiny, stolen from Scone by that royal robber of Scotch antiquities, Edward I., now in the coronation chair [in Westminster] Abbey. It is alleged that it was removed from Ireland to Scotland in 503 A.D. by Murtogh MacEarc that his brother Fergus Mor might be crowned on it. Science makes havoc at times with tradition. After examining the Lia Fail, Professor Geikie, according to Dr Skene, declares that it is merely a block of Perthshire sandstone. At the same time, it must be a stone of great antiquity, and lies at last in a safe and honourable resting-place, at whose shrine, and before the mightiest and most beloved Monarch that ever sat on an earthly throne, Celt and Saxon, Dane and Norman, bend the knee in loyal unity. There is an interesting prophecy of a very ancient origin connected with the Lia Fail. O’Hartigan, an Irish poet, who died in 975, speaks of it in the following couplet—
An cloch a ta fam dha shail,
Uaithe raidhtear Inis Fail.
The stone beneath my two heels,
From it, is said, the Isle of Fail.
Hector Boece, the Scottish historian, gives the following Latin couplet:—
Ni fallat fatum, Scoti, qnocunque locatum,
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem;
Of which Keating gives the following Gaelic:—