fine for the moment. Iâll leave the big books âtil later.â
âRight yâare then, sir. Very good decision yâmade there or Iâll be talkinâ at yâ âtil the fairies pop out with the starsâ¦Not that Iâd mind, mind yâ, because yâseem like a decent enough fella anâ itâd be a pleasureâ¦â
âThanks, thatâs very nice of you, soâ¦any time youâre readyâ¦â
âAh, I see yâre a man who gets tâthâpoint, so tâspeak. Tâthâ nub oâ things, and I like that. Canât stand people prattlinâ on about nothinâ anâ never getting startedâ¦so much time aâwastinâ, donâcha think? So much paddywackery in a lot of the Irish blarneyâ¦â
âYes, I do. So letâs not waste time. Letâs get to the nub and hear your fast version.â
âAh yesâa man after me own heart yâare, sir. So all right, then. This is how it goesâ¦thousanâ plus years in a nutshell, so to speak. Although, I must admit, I never really understood that nutshell thing. Dâyâthink maybeâ¦â
âWhenever youâre readyâ¦â
âAch, yâre a real cracker, sir. Okay, here goes. It seems that after all the great times of legends and the mighty magical worlds that wrapped our little Ireland in shrouds of mist and mysteriesâ¦should I tell yâmore about that timeâ¦before the coming of the Celtsâ¦Iâve got some wonderful tales of far off down all the yearsâ¦tales of our ancient rulers, the Tuatha Dé Dannan, who were defeated by Milesian invaders around 250 BC and went to hide underground and became our fairy people. And all the great stories of that time like Táin Bó CuailngeâThe Cattle Raid of Cooley âor lots of others and Finn MacCool, our great warrior hero, and the Druidsâ¦â
âLetâs maybe come back to all that fairy stuff laterâ¦â
âAh, sirâbe careful now. You donât mess about with the fairiesâyou never know when theyâre listening and theyâre devilish clever, and cruel when they get upset. Oh yes indeedâ¦â
âOkay, point taken, but letâs start with the coming of the Celts. When was that?â
âWell, they sorta crept in like from around 600 BC . Not like later fast invasionsâthe âcasserole of the cultures,â as they like to call these times. Slowly they got rid of the ancient Stone Ageâtype tribes, and after St. Patrick arrived in AD 432, they kind of merged their old Celtic and Druid pagan ways with the new Christianity coming over from Rome. âCourse by that time, there wasnât much of Rome left. The barbarians were flooding inâincluding a few of the old Asian Celtic tribes, and youâd be right in thinkinâ where the heck was Jesus when he was needed, especially as Constantine had made the Roman Empire Christian! Bit of a letdown there, Iâm thinkinâ. Anyway, so the Celts settled down nicely as Christians and built churches and monastaries despite what happened later on, they gave the Irishâusâa deep love of language and poetry and mysticism and music and all that good stuffâ¦â
âSo what happened later on?â
âIâm cominâ tâthat. Donât rush the storyteller once heâs off and runninââ¦â
âSorry.â
âRight. Well. Anyway, so what happened was that the damned Scandinavian Vikings at the end of the eighth century came roarinâ in. Sailinâ by with their huge boats, pillaginâ and plunderinâ and messinâ up the whole Celtic world here. They were a restless bunch to start withâmakinâ off with our women and all the rich stuff from the monasteriesâeven burning the books our monks had copied from libraries brought over here from Rome, which was in a real