Note 88 — THE BOOK OF THE DEAN OF LISMORE.

The word “naoimh,” here translated “saints,” is not necessarily associated with Christianity. The word “naomh,” holy, is one belonging originally to the Gaelic language, and not introduced, like many ecclesiastical terms, from the Latin and Greek. The phrase may be rendered “sacred Erin,” a character belonging to the island, in popular belief, even previous to the Christian period. It is a curious fact, that the feat of destroying all the vermin in Ireland was, in a later age, attributed to St. Patrick. It would appear that this was but a transference of a portion of the glory of Finn to the Christian Saint,—a remarkable instance among many of early Christianity borrowing, not very wisely, the laurels of heathenism.