|
As mo bhocsa r-phoist
----------
New Website on Historic and Prehistoric Links between Ireland, Scotland and Galicia From James DuranAdd contact Date Tue 13:32 HTMLText <- <<- -> []
Dear Friends,
I just wanted to let you all know about a project that has just gotten started here in Galicia, in northwest Spain. A friend of mine, Martín Fernandez Maceiras, has just created a website:
<www.progael.com>
A number of us, with expertise in various academic fields, are giving him a helping hand. The project has started off with a bang, with articles in the newspapers and radio and TV interviews.
The website is devoted to the historic and prehistoric links between Galicia, Ireland and Scotland. Fortunately, we are starting at a good time, since the "Celtic from the West" paradigm has shaken up the world of Celtic studies in the last few years.
Fresh linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence has established the importance of links between not just between Galicia and the Celtic lands to the north, but from the whole western coast of Spain and Portugal from Huelva (Tartessos) northward.
It is now clear that the oldest Celtic inscriptions in Europe date from around 700 BC, and that they occur in abundance in southwestern Spain -- around Huelva (Tartessos). Forget hordes of Celtic warriors streaming out of Switzerland and southern Germany all over western Europe in the Hallstatt and La Tene periods -- it never happened! It's a Wagnerian fantasy.
And yes, through all its layers of mythology, Leabhar Gabhála na hÉireann (The Book of the Invasions of Ireland), contains a hard core of truth about the origins of the Gaels. All the evidence points to a major invasion of Ireland from western Spain -- probably Galicia, and to an earlier origin of the Goidelic Celts in the eastern Mediterranean, around the Balkans. Both movements -- westward and northward -- could have been made in the early Bronze Age.
Anyway, the website will be devoted to all the evidence that comes to light connecting Galicia with its northern neighbours -- from the earliest times through the medieval Christian period.
Please spread the news to your friends, and get involved. If you like our work, we're very happy to receive donations, since we operate on a shoestring budget. We've had 32,000 "hits" on our website in our first two weeks, with no negative comments. So interest out there in cyberspace is phenomenal. This would be a nice way for people with a sincere interest in early Celtic prehistory and in the history of Galicia to link up with one another.
We hope to hear from you, and we hope that you like the website.
Thanks,
Jim Duran/Séamas Ó Direáin
_________________ 賢いふくろぐま Seans Eile - free software to help you practice your Irish Scéala na Wombait - Muddle-headed Memes and Musings
|