THE IRISH AND SCOTS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 261, 3 May 1878, Page 7

THE IRISH AND SCOTS.

In the days of St. Columbkill the' names Scotia and Hibcrnia were interchangeable. Ireland was Scotia ; what we call Scotland was Alba or_ Albania ; "land of ravens," St. Columba styles it ; the fact is, and it is one that few ordinary well-read Englishmen are aware of, that the conquering Scots, who long before the fifth century had been streaming into Argylc, who defeated and assailed the Picts and others, and settled their own royal race ujjon the throne of the now united Scotland, were Irish ; the most restless spirits amons? the races by which Ireland was peopled. But whatever they were and wherever they came from, these people had somehow developed a very considerable degree of civilization. A writer who is no Celt-worshipper tells us in his " History of Scotland, ' that to understand the ascendancy thus acquired by the Scotic Kings, we must realize to ourselves " what is not to be done at once —the high standard of civilization which separated the Scots of Ireland from the other nations inhabiting the British Isles. It was yet a waxing civilization, bringing with it continual increase of political influence. They were civilized, and the only, civilized people of the time in those parts; the Picts had nob even the germ or literature ; the Saxons were always spoken of as barbarians. It will be new to many readers to learn that Scot, in all the older books, is Irishman, that jjcrfereidiiui inycniiim Scotorum means ' the hot-nealed zealous temper, first of the Irish missionaries, then of the great Irish wandering scholars Avho have left their mark in so many parts of Europe ; and also, because so few, even of those who recognize Ireland's title to early literary culture, arc prepared to admit that she possessed a material civilization also. Chronioum Scatarum,' is a record of the doings, not of Scotchmen, but of Irishmen, and chiefly of Irishmen in their motherland. lie sculptured stone's in Scotland are Irish and nothing else. The word acotia has been- a great misleader. ' It is difficult to say when Albany— the Caledonia of the Romans —first got to be called Scotland. The change seems to have been gradual. Ireland got broken up. The term Scotia gradually loosened its hold of the old country, and, attaching ' itself entirely, to the new, gave it the name by which it is now known in history Mananus Scotus, writing in Germany, speaks of the death of Kins? ' Duncan m (the modern) Scotia ; himself and his" companion monks he simply calls Scoth, whether of old or new Scotland he does not !i ay l c. i ™ or , cl 1S as amb iguous as Horace tells us Tcucerwas assured that Salamis should be.— 27^ Za»y>.