There are many spirited and possibly
inventive discourses dealing with the first Irish man or woman to touch
our shores. As just noted, St. Brendan the Navigator is frequently
mentioned. Timothy Severin, author of� The Brendan
Voyage and a Lecturer at the AIHS, makes a compelling case.
Less adventuresome historians sometimes fall
back on reports of an Irish crewman accompanying Columbus; a Patrick
Maguire is named in one account and a William Ayers (or Eris) of Belfast
in another.�
Griffin's Book of Irish Americans mentions other early Irish settlers including one� Edward Nugent who according to a report in 1586� may have been one of the first to kill a Native American, and two Irishmen named Darbie Glaven and Dennis Carrell who served Captain John White in Virginia in 1587.
According to Griffin the latter "... were put ashore on St. John (Virgin Islands) to collect supplies and fill water barrels. For some unrecorded reason they were left behind when the ships sailed and were never heard of again."
As we shall see on the following pages, Irish immigrants on the American landscape soon became the rule rather than the exception.
