My dear James, Re: “Was St Gall Irish?” There is a fundamental problem here and one that is most difficult to resolve. It is necessary to start at the beginning for that is the best place to start. We know that the Pretani were the first people of the British Isles to whom a definite name can be given; that they became known as Picts by the Romans in North Britain, where they spoke a British form of Celtic in historical times; that in Ireland they became known as Cruthin, where they spoke a Gaelic form of Celtic in historical times, but British loan words in Gaelic would suggest they originally spoke British also.

If the Cruthin existed, which the Irish Academic establishment admit, but only just, then where is the research to identify British from Gaelic glosses in Continental manuscripts originating from the Bangor Cruthin? There is none. So why not? Because of the Anti-British bias in Irish Academia. Where did this originate? Why, of course, with de Valera. Following independence in 1922, the British professional class were no longer welcome in the fledgling Irish state and, because of excavations involving the origins of the “Celts” in the Hallstatt area, high in the Austrian mountains, advertisements were placed in both German and Austrian newspapers for a Keeper of Irish Antiquities.

Dr Walther Bremer, formerly of Philipps University , Marburg, took up the position in 1925, but he took ill and died soon after he arrived in Dublin. His place was filled by Adolf Mahr, a thirty nine year old Austrian archaeologist at the Natural History and Prehistoric Museum in Vienna. He and his Dutch wife Maria van Bemmelen , with their two children, Hilde and Gustav, arrived in Ireland by German steamship landing in Cobh harbour, County Cork , on 15th September,1927. In the 1930's, therefore Dr Adolf Mahr was director of the National Museum of Ireland, and a friend of Eamon de Valera, who set him the task of forging the historic identity of the new Irish nation. But this ” father of Irish archaeology” was also the head of the Nazi Party in Ireland, decribing himself as “Dublin Nazi No 1”.

Under Mahr's influence the Celtic Myth was pursued by writers of popular history and Irish Nationalist political propaganda.The cell structure of Academic elitism protected those “Celtic scholars” who continued to disseminate notions of a Gaelic Aryan Race to which Ireland rightfully belonged. Shortly before the outbreak of War in 1939, Mahr left Ireland to prepare for the German invasion of his adopted country. During the War, he became head of the Nazi regime's propaganda radio service, which broadcast into neutral Ireland. He was later arrested and spent time in a British Prisoner-of- War camp. On his release he tried to return to Ireland, but to no avail. He is one of the most controversial figures in Twentieth Century Irish history and his influence remains with us today.

I think that, before we can progress with such questions as the origins of Columbanus and Gall, we must tackle the Cruthin Controversy. All Jonas says is that Columbanus was born inter primordia fidea of the inhabitants of the Lagenorum terra (modern Leinster). Traditionally Gall was born in northern Louth, which would make him of Cruthin stock. In the ninth century St Gallen possessed five hundred and thirty three volumes; and in the tenth century Bobbio contained seven hundred . These libraries were more than once pillaged by scholars, who entered as borrowers and left as thieves. Continental scholars are very wary in referring to the glosses on such manuscripts as are left to us and are generally satisfied to call them “Celtic”, yet they are often difficult to interpret except through known British words and orthography. Which is the reason why the Ullans Academy is so important in seeking the truth.