ABSTRACT
The traditions of the Irish people are the oldest of any race in Europe north and west of the Alps, and they themselves are the longest settled on their own soil. When they learned to write they recorded the tradition that they originally came from northern Spain. The ancient Leabar Gabála (the Book of Invasions) tells how the three sons of Mileadh of Spain, namely, Heremon, Heber, and Ir, came to Erin about the time of Alexander the Great and conquered the land from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Of the races that were in possession before them, the Tuatha Dé Danann were a superior race, semidivine in their arts of magic and wizardry, the Firbolg were a race dark, short, and plebeian, the Fomorians were gloomy giants of the sea. From the three sons of Mileadh descended all the royal clans of later Ireland. To this day, wherever Irish is spoken, the story of ‘Meela Spaunya’ is remembered, and to be of the old Milesian race is an honourable distinction.
