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Host Community Information
Ireland's first inhabitants were Mesolithic (middle stone age) peoples who traveled to Ireland over land bridges from Britain and northern Europe. Stone Age relics suggest that Ireland is 8,000 years old.
These early settlers were the tribes of Firbolg and Tuatha De Dannann, when they were invaded by the Milesius of Spain around 1,000 B.C.
Contemporary Irish society descended from these tribes, known as the Celts. No significant minorities became part of this society. The oldest relics of the Celtic (Gaelic) language can be seen in the 5th-century Ogham stone inscriptions in county Kerry. Ireland was Christianized by St. Patrick at this same time.
Some claim that the mythical tribe of the Fomorians inhabited Ireland long before any other peoples. Many scholars agree that the first outside people to move to Ireland's interior were the Partholons, who are said to have struggled 300 years against the Fomors, and then died of an epidemic. Later came colonizers from Spain or Greece called the Fir Bolgs (Erainn). They were actually three tribes; men of Domnu, men of Gaillion, and men of Bolg. They inter-married with the Fomors and held the country until the arrival of the Tuatha De Danann.
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