15 Comments

• Searlit | Jun 01, 2011, 05:01 PM EDT

  @ michealseamus, when did you go there? If you don't mind telling.

• rb11webb | Jun 01, 2011, 12:41 PM EDT

  During our being posted in Iceland for three years (with the U.S. Air Force) we came to know some of the Icelandic people, they told us that in the Icelandic Sagas it tell of Irish monks who were living in Iceland, when Eric the Red came there, it also speaks that they left and went West because the Vikings were to noisy and other reasons. Also due to the Icelandinc method of surnames it is very easy to trace their ancestry, the lady post mistress at Keflavik told my wife that she was a decendant of an Irish princess, who was taken from Ireland, she also told us that she (the princess) never spoke to her "husband" until she died, but she did speak and sing to her baby. So it is entirely possible that the stories are true

• helenmcgonigle | May 31, 2011, 03:20 PM EDT

  I happen to be in Connecticut and am intrigued by what some comments refer to as the megaliths here. I did find references to ancient Irish writings in caves as far south as West Virginia. It is believed Brendan landed in Newfoundland (the closest point geographically) and the expedition eventually made its way south. What is even more curious is the Brendan the Navigator would have departed North Kerry/Dingle Bay at a time with the O'Connor clan of North Kerry ruled that part of Ireland, which causes me to wonder if any of my ancestors shared the boat ride with him! The abbey built by the O'Connors of North Kerry, Lislaughtin, was initially built in honor of St Laightin (aka Lachteen) who was said to have brought Christianity to that region of Ireland. I am by no stretch of the imagination well versed in Irish history but this voyage, with a stop in Iceland, Greenland and then hitting Newfoundland seems entirely plausible. The History Channel video left out the discovery of the ancient writings in the caves of West Virginia dating to the time period of Brendan's voyages. It is correct that America already had its own indgenious population but few people here are aware that artifacts going back 16,000 years have been found outside of Pittsburgh PA at Meadowcroft Rock Shelter (now run by the Heinz Museum). That population is said to have left behind the ancient indian mounds in the Ohio river valley and some speculate they may well have migrated to Mexico to become the Mayans - but that is a whole other topic! Info on this is in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. My grandfather, Cornelius O'Connor, left North Kerry for Newfoundland in 1905 and he settled in Pittsburgh so this path is one that interests me! Helen McGonigle

• frankie1947 | May 31, 2011, 03:04 PM EDT

  Who ever did discovered America started a suffering of the Native Americans thats forsure, and the Native Americans are still today are treated very bad it makes no sence even in Australia the Native people are treated without repect . Europians have been uncompationet to meny people.

• michealseamus | May 31, 2011, 01:14 PM EDT

  I have lived in Connecticut. I have seen the megalithic stones and caves/houses in Connecticut first hand. I have visited Ireland and in my opinion they look the same. As we continue to research this theory, I think we will come to the conclusion the Irish tribe who St. Brendan was a part of made it to North America even before St. Brendan took his voyage.

• cillowen | May 30, 2011, 07:51 PM EDT

  wild imaginings are the precursor to setting out on nigh anything. It prods a body to find out.

• BishopSean | May 30, 2011, 03:00 PM EDT

  We're the real master race;-) But seriously, there was in Readers Digest years back a good article about a Yale scholar who wated to prove Native Americans had an alphabet and written language. He went to visit a rock somewhere on the coast of Massachussetts and found ancient inscriptions on a large rock. Subsequent studies determined writings were Phoenician sp?), Iberian and, if memory serves, some celtic language. It was thought that the inscriptions, which stated in the 3 languages "Welcome, Seamen!" had been inscribed perhaps 2 centuries BC. A similar inscription on a rock, in phoenician was found in Brazil and dated about same time. Blessings!

• bunkerhill | May 30, 2011, 01:46 PM EDT

  Evidence is now cropping up on both sides of the Atlantic that Brendan's voyage was fact. Our American history books are replete with stories of the mighty seafaring vikings discovering the American continent. Indeed my wife tells me her Irish father was disturbed to see in her childhood history book that the vikings were the first to sail on the Atlantic in the seventh century when he had come from Ireland, an island with an ancient history. Such was the power of the inbred royals across Europe, all inbred cousins, that they had to keep the master race myth alive. Icelanders long claimed they were half Irish which the royal elite scoffed at, calling them liars. It would have interfered in the past with the royal claim to North America. Thank God the native Americans have now put that claim to rest. The royals called the Icelanders liars, but now the true liars have been outed as DNA has proven the Icelanders are half Irish. Is it just a coincidence that all the islands from Ireland on thru Scotland are Gaelic speakers? According to Samuel Eliot Morrison, Columbus sailed the Portuguese trade route to Iceland bring Mediterrean goods and stopping in Galway, Ireland. All of that can be verified. Morrison write that is where Columbus found about North America. Incidentally, Columbus was supposed to be a redhead. Has anyone ever explored the similarity of the name Columbus to the ancient Irish names of Columba or Columbanus? The master race is an invention of the royal garbage that has ruled Europe from time immemorial. It is time to out this group and lay the master race to rest forever.

• Dompedro | May 30, 2011, 01:32 PM EDT

  TO Mickwall, yeah, there were reports of Celtic "style" markings in Virginia ... doesn't make them Celtic .. could probably find something on Google >>> and then there's the report in IC just a few days ago in a poorly written and attributed article about Irish markings on a boulder in Georgia (USA) -- cautions -- a month before the announcement that they were Irish, some other expert said that they were evidence that natives from Puerto Rico or Cuba had lived there and the discoverer somehow enhanced the photo of the symbols, one of which looks a lot like a crucifix inside a German cross

• haikued2 | May 30, 2011, 01:18 PM EDT

  Of course he did, and why not? BUT...discovery is a funny kind of thing...there have been humans here for over 14,000 years, so did their first ancestor discover America? Mute point. If you don't cause colonization, all your discovering is for naught.

• Mickwall | May 30, 2011, 11:44 AM EDT

  I read once that Celtic style markings had been found in a cave in Virginia and experts placed them at the time of Saint Brendan. Does anyone know more about this?

• SeamusMor | May 30, 2011, 11:37 AM EDT

  Those who say there is no evidence of St. Brendan's voyage to America missed the Aztec story handed down for centuries about the ancient visit and promised return of Quetzalcoatl,the "light skinned" God of creation. As a monk, Brendan would surely have told the people he encountered about the gospels and their promise that Jesus would return one day. The Mormons believe that Jesus brought His message personally to the native Americans after His resurection in the Middle East. One might look at both these myths as evidence that there was contact between European and American cultures before Columbus set sail for the new World. St. Brendan's account of his voyage lacks the lessons intended in works of fiction, there is no moral to his story. I think its true!

• Theresarose | May 30, 2011, 11:12 AM EDT

  I always found it interesting what similarity there is with the Irish game of hurling and the Native American game LaCross. The name natives gave was interperted by the French as The Cross....hmmmmm???

• mcdolan | May 30, 2011, 10:12 AM EDT

  You need to hire a proofreader to correct typos before they are uploaded! Yes, I do believe the Voyages of St Brendan the Navigator are based in fact. There was an international symposium held at Trinity College Dublin in the mid 1980s on this topic at which many scholarly papers were presented from different cultures around the world, recounting stories of his voyage written in various languages, including Arabic, centuries ago, plus more recent evidence (or at least findings)presented by representatives of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Connecticut. I do believe that the conference proceedings are stored in the Institute for Irish Studies in Dublin. Yes, Brendan's trip to the new world was several centuries before Leif Erickson who, it is believed, used the stories of Brendan to find his own way to what was to become America, several centuries again before Christopher Columbus.

• CitizenWhy | May 30, 2011, 10:08 AM EDT

  From the European perspective, discovering America means a European finds it and it gets permanently settled.