St Brendan has a lot to answer for if Irish Central is to be believed. It has a story about a possible Irish colony in South Carolina long before Columbus said: “I know lets go West and find the East”.
It’s entirely feasible of course as we have St Brendan setting out on nautical adventures in the 6th century and reputably sailing to the Americas. Brendan seems to have adopted the adage; “Anything the Vikings can do I can do better”. Brendan certainly ‘trumped’ (no pun) Columbus or even John Cabot who you could say invented the concept of the Super Trawler with his voyages to Newfoundland cod banks.
The Brendan voyages were not recorded until some centuries later but that’s not surprising as it was about the 10th or 11th century before Monks got into serious scriptorial works.
Anyway here the link to the Irish Central item:
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/irish-colony-south-carolina-christopher-columbus
Related link ‘Brendan the Navigator’:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan
Link to a section of the incomparable Brendan Suite with Liam O’Flynn (and the Irish National Youth Orchestra) on the pipes – the rest of the suite can be found on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z-3OKzUEDw
Image: Map of Brendan’s potential trips and ‘the boat’!
Bernard Moffatt
Assistant General Secretary Celtic League (3rd June 2020)