Exploring Ireland’s Paranormal Middle Eastern Roots #Folklore #Atlantis #Baal

As evidence, linguists have long noted the similarity of the Phoenician language to ancient Gaelic, the Celtic language of Scotland and Ireland. The 16th century Jesuit historian Michael Alford noted Ireland's pagan origins run parallel to that of the Eastern Mediterranean. He and other historians until today state that the pre-Christian Gaels worshipped a god to whom they offered burnt sacrifices and called Bel, which is strikingly similar to the god of the Phoenicians, the Canaanite Baal. Could today's Irish people be the descendants of anomalous entities who originated from North African and Middle Eastern folklore? Our adventure begins in 1955, when an Irish archaeologist, Dr. Sean O'Riordan, discovered the Bronze Age remains of a young prince during an excavation of the Mound of Hostages at Taura. Although the skeleton was carbon dated to around 1350 BC, it was not until 1956 that scientists reported that a set of beads the prince was still wearing were ancient Egyptian. How was this possible? How could an ancient Egyptian relic be buried in a grave reserved for Irish royalty, thousands of years before any known contact was made between Ireland and the Middle East? This is just one of several mysteries linking ancient Egypt and Ireland in ways historians have yet to fully understand, especially when it comes to the significance of Queen Scotia. An Egyptian princess who allegedly fled to Europe during a political upheaval in ancient Egypt. According to Irish folklore, Scotia died in an area now known as Scotia's Glen. Local lore says her grave is under a huge ancient stone inscribed with Egyptian holographs. It is said that the neighboring country of Scotland was named after her, and that she had come to Ireland to avenge the death of her husband, the King of Milesians, who had been wounded in a previous ambush in South Kerry. While many still believe these ancient Egyptian links lack any academic credibility, the historian Ralph Ellis argues that actual evidence can be found in the ancient text The History of Egypt, written in 300 BC by an Egyptian Greek historian. In this text, he says Scotia was actually Anne Chassinamon, the daughter of Nefertiti and the whom she married during the 18th dynasty of Egypt. Whether this is true or not, it is consistent with the theory that Ireland, more than anywhere else this north of Europe, had an intimately close link between Africa and the Middle East. In more recent times, the Irish National Museum announced in September of 2010 that a 1,200-year-old psalter found in the Irish peat bog was written in Egyptian papyrus and enclosed in a leather Egyptian binding. But going beyond historical events, what about genetic evidence? In 2015, researchers from Trinity College Dublin found evidence of a massive migration from the Middle East to Ireland after sequencing the genomes of ancient Irish humans. The genome of an early woman farmer who lived near Belfast in Northern Ireland 5,200 years ago showed that her ancestry originated in the Middle East. The woman even had black hair and dark eyes, features more common with North Africa than Western Europe. DNA analysis of this Neolithic woman reveals that she was most similar to modern people from Spain and Sardinia, but her ancestors ultimately came to Europe from the Middle East. Professor Brian Sykes of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University found that between 15 and 20% of Europeans have within the last 8,000 years inherited their DNA from the Bedouin of Saudi Arabia. Most fascinatingly, it is this genetic link between the Middle East and Ireland that potentially takes us down a twisted rabbit hole well past the realm of traditional science and into the arena of the supernatural, the evidence of the existence of ancient giants, and further proof of the location of the lost city of Atlantis. The Fomorians are a supernatural race in Irish mythology that are often portrayed as monstrous horned giants who come from beneath the earth and underneath the sea, raiding coastal communities and killing everything in their wake. In an earlier episode of the mysterious Middle East, we questioned whether these Fomorians were in fact the mysterious Sea Peoples, a seemingly anomalous race of humans who executed a series of devastating incursions against the coastal countries of Ancient Egypt, Syria and the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean before disappearing back into their seas. Their attacks were so destructive that it is believed entire cities and communities of peoples could have been wiped out of our history books. Like the Fomorians of Irish mythology, the Sea Peoples' MO was to scale highly destructive attacks against coastal communities, and like the Fomorians, their army is said to consist of actual giants. Although the etymology of their name is debated, it is generally agreed that the word Fomorian refers to the underworld and to supernatural giants. An alternative theory suggested by the Atlanticpedia website suggests that the term Fomorici means men of Morocco, while the Serbian organisation Cognitive Archaeology theorised that the Fomorian name sounds very close to the Slavic tribe of Pomerians, or Pomorians, meaning people living next to the sea. Even though it's a bit of a stretch, we can see how all three definitions can be directly associated with the peoples of the Maghreb region, that being Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, and that these three countries have a folklore associated with the supernatural giants. According to some fantastical literature, these creatures were the descendants of the prophet Noah, and consistent with the Christian belief, were part fallen angel, similar to the Nephilim giants. However, creatures like these also appear in North African Berber folklore, and the traditions of other African and Mediterranean communities. For example, in Greek mythology, the figure Antaeus was said to have been a Libyan giant, son of Poseidon and husband of the goddess Tingir, from whom the city of Tangier in Morocco is named after, with variations of the character appearing throughout Berber folklore, leading us to the topic of genetics. Researchers from Queen Mary University London, studying ancient Irish mythology, noted that a significant amount of people of Irish descent have a genetic abnormality caused by the pituitary gland, that may cause an unnatural growth, otherwise known as gigantism. The study published in the journal Human Mutation, identified an increased number of patients born with this anomaly, and demonstrates how a change in the gene, called AIP, was inherited from one single person, a common ancestor, who lived approximately 2,500 years ago, although another study said that this ancestor may have been from 4,000 years ago. So we are theorising, and it is only in theory, that this ancestor may have been of North African origin, and that the source for the Celtic mythology that speaks of real giants invading from somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. But where? Back in 2017, when the mysterious Middle East began uploading videos to YouTube, he spoke of the archaeological anomaly known as the Eye of the Sahara, located deep within Mauritania's desert, and how it is a candidate for the location of the lost city of Atlantis. More commonly known as the Rakat Structure, this anomaly, within weeks of this channel's upload, became the focus of the far bigger channel, Bright Insight. Consequently, the international media became aware of it, and began to promote this anomaly as the principal candidate for the lost city of Atlantis. But how does this relate to Ireland, and its historical relationship with Morocco, and the rest of the Maghreb region? The late astronomer Thomas Carl Dettry wrote that Morocco was a colony of Atlantis, and it is from there that Atlantean culture was exported to Ireland. Although this is clearly a fringe theory, it is consistent with the more mainstream idea that Northwest African people, at some point in history, interacted with the ancient Irish, be it through a supernatural means or not. More famously, Edgar Cayce, an American author, who claimed to be a clairvoyant, is one of the more fringe theorists who believed that some of the people of Atlantis were actual giants. If one believes that Atlantis actually existed, the Sea Peoples could have been Mauritanian, and by extension, Moroccan and Algerian giants, who invaded Ireland, and their genetic descendants are now the modern day Irish, hence why the frequent cases of pituitary gland mutations. According to Plato's account written around 360 BC, Atlantis was a major seafaring power, and a continent located in the Atlantic that was extremely large, larger than ancient Libya and Turkey put together. He states that by around 9600 BC, the island had conquered much of Western Europe and Africa, and enslaved its enemies. This date would make the city nearly as old as the end of the last ice age, and predates the earliest recorded city states. Now, even if we were to disregard all of the paranormal elements of this theory, including the lost city of Atlantis, and the existence of ancient giants, evidence of a link between North Africa and Ireland, and even the worship of the demonic Canaanite deity of Baal, can still be found. One of the most detailed theories linking the Maghreb to Ireland can be found in the research done by Bob Quinn. Quinn highlights that there are just way too many similarities between North African Berber culture, and even its later Arab influence, to that of Irish culture. Although Quinn does not believe in the existence of Atlantis as a real place, he suggests that Ireland's first inhabitants came by boat sometime after the end of the last ice age, probably from the south. As navigation gave rise to coastal settlements over long periods of time, overseas trade and culture exchanges continued until at least the 17th century. These connections can be seen in shipbuilding styles and sailing techniques, for example in similarities between the Galway Pukin and the Arab Dao. He further argues that Irish music has elements that sound uncannily close to Middle Eastern music, which to be honest, is undoubtedly true. Overall, Quinn argues that Irish language, music and art are related to ancient Iberian, Mediterranean and North African cultures, in particular the indigenous Berbers of North Africa. Furthermore, he states that the word Celtic itself was a Greek term, Keltoi, used to describe any quote-unquote barbarian, who was not Greek. Further connections to the Middle East can be found between ancient Lebanon, Tunisia and Ireland. In the 18th century, linguists noted a strong similarity between the Phoenician and the early Irish Celtic language. It is believed that the Phoenicians first travelled to Egypt, through to Carthage and Tunisia, then to Spain, then finally to Ireland and Britain, where they invaded and settled, hence again drawing a link for us between them and the sea peoples, and possibly the Formorian giants. As evidence, linguists have long noted the similarity of the Phoenician language to ancient Gaelic, the Celtic language of Scotland and Ireland. The 16th century Jesuit historian Michael Alford noted that Ireland's pagan origins run parallel to that of the Eastern Mediterranean. He and other historians, until today, state that the pre-Christian Gaels worshipped a god to whom they offered burn sacrifices and called Bel, which is strikingly similar to the god of the Phoenicians, the Canaanite Baal. In 1707, the Scottish writer Martin Martin wrote that another god of the Britons was Belus, or Belomus, which seems to have been the Assyrian god Bel, or Belus, and probably from this pagan deity comes the Scots term of Belton. While some 21st century historians now view this association between one of Ireland's indigenous gods and the Canaanite god as a form of colonial bigotry designed to demonise the pagan heritage of the Irish by the English, it should be noted that the worship of Bel is still celebrated today in Ireland in the holiday called Belt. Thanks to the Mysterious Middle East for giving us the opportunity at Hexer to narrate and bring this episode to light. If you want to see more of our content, click the link in the bio. We recently made a video on the SCP Foundation, and if you haven't already, consider subscribing to the Mysterious Middle East for more adventures into the arcane.