The aborigines in Ireland are said to have had long-shaped heads, dark hair and eyes and sallow complexion. however, the island was invaded and conquered about 350 B.C. by the Gaels, a Celtic race from the Netherlands and northwest Germany. The newcomers took over the country, exterminated the greater part of the older population and drove the remnants into the western hills. The Gaels were a highly civilized people for the times in which they arrived in Ireland. They are described as tall men with broad heads, grey eyes and brown hair. The Celts were an ancient Indo-European race who reached the British Isles from various areas in Europe.

Christianity came early to Ireland and was of a purer type than that introduced later in Great Britain by the Roman Catholic Church. St. Patrick, the "apostle of Ireland" arrived and began the conversion of the pagan Gaels or Celts in A.D. 432. Two centuries later, gentle, devout monks from Ireland brought their more Christ-like religion to Scotland.

In those ancient times, Ireland was called Scotia and its people the Scots. About the year 500 there began a great emigration of these original Scots from the area of north Ireland or Ulster, across the narrow waters to the western area of the