SEARC'S WEB GUIDE - Seathrún Céitín (1570-1649)

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Searc's Web Guide to 17th Century Ireland - Seathrún Céitín (1570-1649)

Seathrún Céitín was born near Cahir, County Tipperary. In 1586 he went to France where he studied for fifteen years and obtained a Doctor of Divinity from Toulouse University. In 1610 he returned to Ireland as Parish Priest of Turbid, County Tipperary. Sir George Carew, President of Munster, ordered Céitín's arrest for having insulted Lady Mocler when he preached a sermon on 'conjugal fidelity'.
Céitín escaped but was forced to go into hiding for the duration of Carew's Presidency. During this time he gathered material for his two volume Irish language history of Ireland Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (1629) which he is said to have written while in hiding in the woods at Aherlow. The first volume relates the history of Ireland from Adam to the arrival of Saint Patrick in the 5th century while the second volume concludes with the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1171.
Carew was removed from the Presidency of Munster in 1644 and Céitín was appointed Coadjutor of Turbid. Little else is known of Céitín's life until he was imprisoned and executed in Clonmel by Cromwellians in 1649. This extract is from John O'Mahony's 1857 translation of Céitín's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn.©

The first name given to Ireland was 'Inis-na-Ffidbadh', the Isle of Woods and the person that gave it this name was a champion of the people in Nin (ie: Ninus, the son of Belos), the son of Pél who was sent by him to explore Ireland, and who, on his arrival found the country one unbroken forest, except Magh-n-elta, The Plain of the Flocks alone [from the Hill of Howth to Tallaght in what is now the County of Dublin].
The second name was Crioch na-ffuinedach, the Remote Country, from its being at the end of the three parts of the world then known. The third name was Inis-Elga, the Noble Island. It was during the time of the Fer Bolgs that it was usual to all to call it by this name. The fourth name was Eiri... It is the common opinion of our historians that it received the name from a queen of the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns whose name was Eri... The fifth name of Ireland was Fodla so called from Fodla who was also a queen of the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns. The sixth name it received was Banba, from another queen of the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns.
The seventh name is Inis-Fail. It was the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns that gave it this name from a stone they brought to Ireland called the Lia Fail, otherwise the Stone of Destiny. This is the Saxum Fatale, stone of fate, of which Hector Boethuis speaks in his history of Scotland. This was an enchanted stone; for whenever the men of Ireland were assembled at the great council of Tara to elect a King over them, it used to give forth a loud cry beneath the person whose right it was to obtain the sovereign power...
The eighth name was Muich-Inis, the Isle of the Mist or Fog. This name was given it by the sons of Mileadh before they succeeded on making their landing on its shores, for when they had reached Loch Garman [Wexford] the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns came against them with their Druids and practised magic enchantment upon them so that the invaders could only perceive the island before them in the likeness of a mist or dense fog.
The ninth name was Scotia. It was given to it by the sons of Mileadh in honour of their mother whose name was Scota, daughter of Pharaoh Hectonibus; or they called it Scotia because they were themselves of the Kiné Scuit, the progeny of Scot from Scythia. The tenth name was Hibernia. It was the sons of Mileadh that gave it this name also. Some, however, say that Ireland received the name from a river of Spain which was called Iberus (Ebno); others say that it was so named from Eber, son of Mileadh but the Holy Cormac Mac Culinain is of the opinion that it received the name from the word iber - western.
The eleventh name was Juvernia, according to Ptolemy or Juverna according to Solinus or Ierna according to Claudian; and Vernia according to Eustasthuis but I think that there is no meaning in the distinctions made by the authors. The forms they give seem mere variations of the word Hibernia...
The twelfth name was Irin according to Diodorus Siculus. The thirteenth name was Irlanda, so called in my opinion from Ir, son of Mileadh, because Ir was the first of Mileadh's son who was buried beneath Irish earth... we give more creedance to this because the Book of Armagh tells that Ireo, the grave of Ir, was one of the names of the island.
The fourteenth name of Ireland was Ogygia, according to Plutarch. Ogygia signifies the very ancient Isle. This is the name that is most applicable to Ireland because it is a very long time since it was first inhabited and because its historians have a perfect and authentic knowledge of its ancient history, consecutively, from its earliest times down to the present. © Searc's Web Guide 1997-2008

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