The Irish settlers in Penwith--Difference between Irish and
Cornish languages--The Irish saints of Penwith--Other
saints--Penzance--S. Ives--Restored brass--Wreck of Algerine
pirates in 1760--Description of Penwith--The pilchard
fishery--Song--Churches of the Land's End--S. Burian--S. Paul's
and Dolly Pentreath--The Cornish language--Cornish dialect--Old
churches and chapels--Madron--Prehistoric antiquities.
The Land's End is properly Penwith, either Pen-gwaed, the Bloody
Headland, or Pen-gwaedd, the Headland of Shouting. Probably it is the
former, for it was the last place of refuge of the Ibernian population,
and in the first years of the sixth century, even perhaps earlier, it
was occupied by Irish settlers, and that there was fighting is clearly
shown us in the legend of SS. Fingar and Piala. It must have been to
the original people of the peninsula what Mona was to the Welsh.
[Illustration: LAND'S END]
All we _know_ about this invasion is what is told us in the legend just
mentioned, and that states that Fingar, son of an Irish king, came to
Hayle, landed there with his party, and was fallen upon by Tewdrig, the
Cornish duke or king, who massacred some of the party. But the names of
the parishes tell us more than that. They show us that the Irish were
not defeated, that they made good their landing, and that they spread
and occupied the whole of Penwith and Carnmarth, that is to say, the
entire district of West Cornwall up to Camborne and the Lizard district.
The colonists cannot have been few, and they must have purposed
settling, for they brought women along with them; and that they were
successful is assured by the fact that those killed by Tewdrig are
recognised as martyrs. Had the Irish been driven away they would have
been regarded as pirates who had met their deserts.
Now this inroad of saints was but one out of a succession of
incursions, and the resistance of Tewdrig marks the revolt against
Irish domination which took place after the death of Dathi in 428, the
last Irish monarch who was able to exact tribute from Britain; though
Oiliol Molt may have attempted it, he was too much hampered by internal
wars to make Irish authority felt in Britain. Oiliol fell in 483.
The Irish saints came across in detachments. Senan, Erc (Erth), Setna
(Sithney), Brig (Breage), Just were some of the earliest. There was
trouble when Brig arrived, and she and her party fled from Tewdrig and
fortified themselves on Tregonning Hill, where their camp still
remains. But Kieran and his pupils, Medran (Madron) and Bruinech
(Buriena), were unmolested; so also was S. Ruan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account