[2063] See pp. 410 and 449, supra.
[2064] See Rhys’s Celtae and Galli, p. 60.
[2065] Keltic Researches, p. 9.
[2066] Cf. J. Rhys, Celtic Britain, 1904, p. 231.
[2067] B. G., i, 10, § 4; v, 39, § 1. Mr. Nicholson contends (Keltic Researches, pp. 9-13) that the Belgae also colonized Anglesey, where he finds various place-names of which Bol forms a part; South Wales, where St. David’s was formerly called Meneu; both banks of the estuary of the Forth, where he believes that he can find traces of the Irish stem Manann; and Galway, Mayo, and other remote parts of Ireland, where the name Mannin is of frequent occurrence. The Belgae, or rather the Menapii, would certainly seem to have been not less enterprising as colonists than Mr. Nicholson as an etymologist. Without straining the elasticity of the words Menapii and Belgae more than he has already done, he could easily, with a little diligence and a good gazetteer, find traces of them all over the world. Surely they must have settled in Bulgaria. But, seriously, I would ask the reader to consider whether it is likely that they would have taken the trouble to go all the way to Connemara when there was plenty of good land open to them in this country. And, considering that they introduced the use of coins into Britain, is it not significant that no British coins have been found in Ireland, and hardly any in Scotland or Wales?
Mr. Nicholson (Keltic Researches, pp. 11, 98-100) of course maintains that the Fir-Bolg of Ireland were Belgae, and that there is an etymological connexion between the two words. Professor Rhys, in a note to the second edition of his Celtic Britain (p. 280), which in the third is absent, affirmed that ‘one thing is certain: neither the people [Belgae] nor its name had anything whatever to do with the Irish Fir-bolg’. At all events, MacFirbis and other Irish writers regarded the Fir-Bolg as having been found in Ireland and conquered by the Celtic invaders (J. Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, p. 120; W. C. Borlase, Dolmens of Ireland, iii, 1027-8).
[2068] Keltic Researches, p. 151, n. 1.
[2069] Ib., p. 15.
[2070] Ib., p. 16.
[2071] Cf. B. G., i, 1, § 2, with ii, 1-4. See also J. Rhys, Celtae and Galli, 1905, p. 61.