County Antrim, Tuesday, 14th June, 2022…
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The history of Ireland can be perplexing.
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On the one hand, there are ample materials
stretching far back in time…
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And on the other,
it is clear that the materials, which
have been translated, have also been fiddled with.
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Nowhere is this more evident
than in the Lebor Gabala Erenn,
or ‘Book of the Takings of Ireland’,
where the early history of Ireland
is unceremoniously crow-barred
into a biblical narrative
by monkish clerics tasked with retelling the story.
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Where there really seven successive invasions
by seven different peoples
or is this just a convenient way
of aligning the narrative with the seven days of creation?
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One thing we can be sure of
but only because it is so difficult to hide…
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Before the takings,
there were original inhabitants on the land
who were, later known as Fomorians
and, demonised in the way that is usual
by the later usurpers of alien lands.
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Despite numerous defeats
by all the so called invading peoples
the Fomorians seem to have a remarkable
tenacity and longevity.
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It is almost as if they are wedded
to their land in some way…
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And they are still around to give battle,
as the narratives demand,
when the final wave of incursions is underway.
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It may just be that the Fomorians,
cast as malevolent, demonic, giants,
were merely the mythological
remnants of a traditional, ancient Irish, dream-time.
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And as for Craig…
He does not actually have a dolmen.
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He has, instead, the remnants of
a neolithic chambered passage tomb,
which has been made to look like a dolmen,
sometime during the nineteenth century.
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Well weird, huh?
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France & Vincent 
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