imself into a salmon. Cesair died from a broken heart. Without a single man on the isle, the other women also perished.
The Partholanians were the second group of Celtic people who settled in Ireland, but they were the first to arrive after the biblical Flood. Not much was written about these people. Partholanians were said to have come to from the west, from the Land of the Dead. The Partholanians arrived 312 years after Cesair and her followers.
The Partholanians were named after their leader Partholan, son of Sera son of Sru, who was the king of Greece. Partholon fled from Greece, after murdering his own father and mother. Partholon had lost his left eye, when he attacked his parents. Accompanied with his wife Dealgnaid (Dalny) and a group of followers, they reached Ireland, after wandering for seven years.
They have encountered the Fomorians in their 3rd year in Ireland, where they fought a battle in Slemna of Mag Itha. The Fomorians, here, were described, as each Fomorian had only a single arm and single leg. The Partholanians managed to defeat Cichol, leader of the Fomorians, and drive the Fomorians from Ireland.
However, Partholon died, after 30 years living in Ireland. The rest of the Partholonians died 120 years later from pestilence. The only survivor of the plague was Tuan, a nephew of Partholon.
This Tuan was the son of Starn and grandson of Sera. Tuan witnessed the arrival of Nemed and his followers, known as the Nemedians, thirty years after the last Partholonian, not counting Tuan. Tuan kept himself hidden from the Nemedians. When Nemedians were gone from Ireland, Tuan still lived, for many generations.
Tuan survived because he was transformed into various animal shapes. First as a stag, then as a boar and later as an eagle. In each form, he witnessed successive early invaders of Ireland.
When he was transformed into a salmon, he was caught one-day, and eaten by the wife of Cairill, who immediately fell pregnant as the result of her meal. She gave birth to a son, who was named Tuan mac Cairill. It was this reborn Tuan, who was said to have the written a book about the early history of Ireland the Lebor Gabála.
The Fomorians were possibly nothing more than pirates or raiders, since they never settled in Ireland, and never considered to be Celtic people (Irish). The Fomorians were race of strange beings. The Fomorians were ugly, misshapen giants, who lived on Tory Island. They were cruel, violent and oppressive.
The Fomorians had fought the Partholanians, Nemedians and Tuatha Dé Dananns. For awhile the Fomorians ruled over the Nemedians and the Dananns, extracting tributes and taxes from them. These two groups suffered from the oppression and tyranny of the Fomorians.
Later Lugh Lamfada led the Danann to overthrow the Fomorian oppression. The Tuatha Dé Danann finally annihlated Fomorians. Balor was their last leader. Lugh would later kill Balor, the hero's grandfather.
The next group of people to arrive in Ireland, were the Nemedians. The Nemedians arrived 30 years after the extinction of the Partholanians. They probably come from the west in the Land of the Dead, or else from Spain. This group sailed for a year and half, wandering the sea with a fleet of 32 ships, carrying less than a thousand persons. Only one ship would survive the journey, including Nemed as their leader, and Nemed's four sons.
The Nemedians were the descendants of Nemed and his small group of survivors managed to gradually repopulate the isle. However, the Nemedians also had deadly encounters with the Fomorians, such as the Partholanians did earlier. Though the Nemedians were at first successful against the Fomorians, with four decisive victories, a pestilence decimated the population, until less than two thousand Nemedians survived.
The Nemedians had to suffer from Fomorian tyranny and oppression, paying heavy tributes to their overlords. Later three Nemedian chieftains led their people in revolt. They attack the Fomorian stronghold of Tory Island. Though the Nemedians managed to kill one of the Fomorian kings and captured one of the t