SOURCE: "History or Fable?," in Early Irish History and Mythology, The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946, pp. 260-85.

In the following essay, O 'Rahilly traces the ways in which various Celtic gods, heroes, and myths have been treated as exaggerated but real figures and stories from ancient history.

1.—euhemerists and Others

To our forefathers of a few centuries ago the history of Ireland appeared to be known, at least in outline, continuously from a couple of thousand years B. C. down to their own time. Nowadays we are naturally more sceptical. Before we can give credence to precise statements regarding events in remote times, we have to assure ourselves that these statements are based on contemporary, or nearly contemporary, records.

The critical evaluation of the sources of our knowledge of pre-Christian Ireland is of recent growth. About the middle of the last century those two great contemporary scholars...