This bit is my speculation now; Sliabh An Iariann means in English Mountain of Iron, and there are ancient iron mines in the mountain; so putting two and two together I speculate that the cloud on the Iron mountain which the Tuatha De Dannan arrived in was in fact one one the most distingusable and memorable features of this new race of invaders and could be smoke from furnaces smelting iron ore, there also being coal on the iron mountain, that coupled with the stories that the Tuatha De Dannan had superior and lighter spears that the Fir Bolg I speculate that the Tuatha De Dannan were the first of the Iron Age people; and that the Fir Bolg were the early Bronze-Age people who preceeded them. The histories tell us that the Fir Bolg were defeated in a huge battle by the Tuatha De Dannan and were given the west of Ireland. Their King at that time was Aengus and he brought them to Inismore, the largest of the Aran Islands off the west coast. There, Aengus built a spectacular stone fort called Dun Aengus, which still exists.
So now we are back in the Bronze-Age around 500BC. The Fir Bolg have now become the Bronze-Age peoples, the Bronze-Age having started in 2000BC in Ireland. Before the Fir Bolg arrived in Ireland however history records, in the form of stories, that another race of people lived here called the Nemedians. The Nemedians arrived in Ireland in 2350BC, or, if you like, during the Stone-Age in Ireland. When the Nemedians arrived they found anothe race already living there called the Formorians. The Formorians were a pirate race from North Africa who had a fortress on Tory Island off the North West coast of Ireland, and from which they terrorised everyone around. Nemed son of Agnoman was their leader. His wife, Macha, died twelve days after Nemed arrived in Ireland and she was burried in Ard Macha, in English, Armagh, later to become famous as the Archdiocese founded by St Patrick in the mid 5th century. Nemed faught the Formorians at the Battle of Ros Fraechan and defeated them killing two of their kings Gann and Sengann. After Nemed died his people were oppressed by the Formorians who lived in Conands Tower on Tory Island. Two thirds of their children their wheat and milk had to be given to the Formorians every Samhain. After 207 years the Nemedians revolted led by Semul son of Iarbonel the Soothsayer, Erglan son of Beoan son of Starn, and Nemed’s son Fergus Red-Side. So now we are in the Stone-Age in Ireland 4350 years ago.
The Partholons lived in Ireland before the Nemedians, they arrived about 5000 years ago or 3000BC. Partholón was the son of Sera, son of Sru, a descendant of Magog. The stories related to the later monks recalled that the Partholons brought ploughs and oxen, dariy farming, husbandry, houses and ale and are said to have burried their dead in ‘long graves’ in ‘stone heaps’. This accords very well with prehistoric archeology which shows that the first farmers arrived in Ireland 5000 years ago or in 3000BC. In archeology they are called the Neolithic people, the cleared the mountain tops of oak forrest with stone tools and farmed the land building passage tombs for their dead. Examples of the Partholons or Neolithics handywork are the Ceide fields in North Mayo and the massive tomb at newgrange built 1000 years before the pyramids in Egypt.
The people before the Partholons were hunter-gatherer Mesolithic, or middle Stone-Age, people who occupied Ireland from the end of the Ice-Age 10,000 years ago until the arrival of the Partholons 5000 years ago. The Annals of the Four Masters records that the name of these first inhabitants of Ireland was the Cessair, after the leader who brought them to Ireland, a woman called Cessair.
All of this is just to show the continuity of Irish prehistory, Samhain was the beginning of the New Year and also celebrated a successful harvest. That idea could only have begun because of the Partholons, or Neolithics having introduced farming and a subsequent 3000 years of gratitude to some god or other or to nature for a generous harvest to see them through to the next year. With the arrival of Christianity they finally discovered the identity of that generous god. They would have been total ingrates not to even have attempted to thank someone, I think.
As for another aspect of the Catholic Churches’ role in this conflux of all things halloween;
For early Christians in the Church they often celebrated the anniversary of martyrs. As the number of martyrs increased a particular day was set aside as a anniversary for them - the Sunday after pentecost. Saints were grdually also given their own feast days and thay too were given a single day as an anniversary.
Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary.
Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November.
A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May.
Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church.
I trick-or-treated as a kid and somehow didn’t end up a satanist.