ALTHOUGH the title of this work indicates that Irish people discovered America previous to the ninth century, I will not attempt to show at what particular time that event took place. In such works as have come under my notice, relating to the early discoveries of America, I find no positive evidence that the Irish people ever discovered America in the sense in which the term is used, as applied to newly found lands.
I believe, however, that a perusal of the following pages will leave little doubt in peoples’ minds that a Celtic race once inhabited almost the entire .Western Hemisphere, and that a large part of the North American Continent was known to the Northmen by the name of Great Ireland. Whether these Celts originally came from Ireland, or the people of Ireland from America, no one can say with absolute certainty.
Some historians inform us that little was known of Ireland by the ancients, and that no definite accounts of that island were obtained until the time of the invasion of Britain by the Romans. It is probable that Ireland knew far more of the ancients than they knew of Ireland. According to the map of Ptolemy, the central portion of Ireland was inhabited in his day by the Scoti in the north by the Robogdii; the east by the Dania, Eblanii, Cauci Menapii and Coriundi: the south by the Brigantes, Vodii and Iberni; the west by the Luceni, Velaborii, Cangani, Autcri, Magnatæ and Haudinii,