SNIPPET: Ireland is a wonderful, magical country, long steeped in myths and legends which stretch back almost to the dawn of time itself. It was the Celts who first settled Ireland in a major way, arriving one thousand years before the birth of Christ. They brought with them their poets and bards who wove spellbinding tales of their history, their gods and their heroes. These stories were handed down from generation to generation, mostly by word of mouth, altered and amended, sometimes to fit in with the Christian beliefs, sometimes on the whim of the traveling story-tellers, and were not put into written form until Christian monks, long intrigued by the stories they had heard, began to write them down, thus preserving the fascinating accounts forever. There was Cu Chulainn, also known as the Hound of Ulster and probably the mightiest warrior of them all. Even in death his enemies dared not go near him. There was the Tuatha De Danann, the magical tribe which arrived in Ireland sailing their ships high above the clouds. There was Aillen, the goblin with the burning breath; Balor, the malevolent god whose one eye destroyed all he gazed upon; Diarmuid, a god with whom every woman fell in love; Ogma, the god of eloquence and literature; the Daione Sidge, the fairy folk who dwell between Heaven and Hell and Finn MacCool, who sleeps somewhere in a cave, to be awakened only when Ireland has great need of him.