In Amhran na bhFiann, "some have come from a land beyond the waves," to whom and from where does it refer?

Question

Does this refer to invaders (vikings, etc) or compatriots (America, etc)?

Answer 1

It refers to the Fenians, US Civil war Vets who came over to Ireland to start a revolution, unfortunately like most yank soldiers they weren't very good and like most uprisings before Collins took charge the rebellion failed to aschieve anything except the inspiration of song blinding songs. The only thing that can be said for them is that at least they tried.

Answer 2

The question is, presumably, asked in a celtic tongue.

There was an interesting research program run on the similarities between the genetic material of the ancient Celts of Erin, and the tribes of Mesopotamia.

I don't have all of the details to hand, but as I recall one of the intruiging outcomes was the suggestion that there was, indeed, an apparent 'trail' of DNA from ancient Sumer to Erin, going through North Africa, across to the Iberian peninsula, linking Sumerians, Phoenicians, Basques, Catalans, Gascoignes, Bretons, Cornish ( my lot ), Welsh and, finally, the main part of the people we call the Irish.

Now, here's the kicker, most people would assume, as was the original premise of the research, that the 'direction' of the 'trail' was from the Middle East to Erin. Not so, it finally appeared that it was the other way round !

So......Atlantis, a very poorly understood conceptual can of worms, or Mu........or ............what ??

That the trial did not start in Erin is clear. But where then ? I think that the common projection thathuman life started in Africa and then spread out from there is a 'smoke and mirrors' thing, indeed one variant of Homo Whatever did originate there, but I suspect that there was an even more important event in what we call the Americas, and that the red-haired, fair-skinned, elusive strains of Homo Sapiens Sapiens probably have their roots in what we now know as Peru, the Aymara people to be specific.

Or maybe...........somewhere else ?????

Personally I have always had this nagging thing about the ancestors of the Phoenicians, quaintly referred to as 'The Sea People', gotta be something in that ?

Answer 3

Is it a reference to the sidhe dedannan?

Answer 4

Atlantis, I guess