Penny asked: "So, were the Fomorians the same as the Firbolgs?" No. According to the "Book of Invasions” (Lebor Gabála Érenn), the Fomorians and Fir Bolg were separate peoples. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebor_Gab%C3%A1la_%C3%89renn. The book counts six "invasions" or settlements of Ireland, of which the last was by the Gaels or Milesians (sons of Milesius). The Fomorians were a supernatural race, like the Dannan, but monstrous -- bringers of chaos, blight and drought. The Fir Bolg (translation, "men of bags") ancestors had left Ireland for Greece but were enslaved, then they returned. Some scholars associate the Fir Bolg with the Celtic tribe known to the Romans as the Belgae. I'm not clear on The order of invasion by the Fomorians and Fir Bolg, but they were apparently both occupying Ireland when the Dannan arrived. On losing, the Fomorians were banished to the Aran Islands and the Fir Bolg to Tory Island. Some legends have the Milesians spotting Ireland from a tower at A Coruna, Spain. But this is impossible, due to the distance and the curvature of the earth; the tower would have to be 15,000+ feet high. Apropos of the "daughters of Noah", the first group to arrive in Ireland was said to be the people of Cessair (a grand-daughter of Noah) denied a place on the Ark. They were, except a lone male, wiped out by the Flood. Descent from Noah seems to be a unifying theme in medieval genealogies. They postulate that Noah was 10 generations removed from Adam and Eve and that only his family survived the cataclysm. Also, they don't seem to account for the times before the Bronze Age -- which, coincidentally, is when writing was invented. What we do know from paleontological evidence is that humans inhabited the British Isles before our human species existed and left 800,000 year-old footprints in Norfolk, as well as other evidence in Suffolk and Sussex dating back several hundred millennia; these were Neanderthals or other archaic humans. Modern humans were in the British Isles as early as 33 kya (1,000 year ago) but died out or were forced to leave when the glaciers came (23-14.7 kya). Only the southern tips of Ireland and England were ice-free, but the now-submerged Doggerland connected to the Continent and provided a resource-rich environment. More evidence of modern human settlement in England & Wales appears in the 13 to 11.8 kya time frame. It's fair to conclude that the British Isles have been continuously inhabited by various peoples since the Mesolithic Age, the past ~12,000 years or 350+ generations. In short, the myths may contain some grains of truth but seem mostly at odds with tangible evidence. -rt_/)