Quote Originally Posted by Peter Crowe View Post
What I briefly remember about that period from the survey course 'Scottish History 1' (C. 800 CE to 1707 CE) at Glasgow University was that the evidence pointed to two way traffic in trade, human migration and cultural cross-pollination between the north-east of Ireland (primarily Antrim, but even as far west as Donegal) and the western sea board of Scotland especially from Galloway to Argyll from the earliest times.
Hi Peter, that's perhaps the most firmly accepted contemporary view. I thought I'd link to Ewan Campbell's piece I thought it was fairly amiable in it's conclusions, although it does touch on the touchy topic of medieval Irish "reverse engineering".
There's fairly persuasive evidence being unearthed by the Strathclyde archaeological teams since 1997 to strongly suggest that there was a much larger flow from Scotland into Ireland in the Iron Age than vice versa, with Argyllshire in particular being the jumping off point for Highland settlers who took their culture, including their architecture, into Iron Age Ireland. There were two Dal Riatas, with the Scottish one being the original and the Irish one a colony.
I don't have the insight to comment on that, except I'd like to see and read more of the findings as they develop.
Campbell's piece points to a flow of trade and ideas, rather than people. And, as he points out, if you replace "Scots" or "Irish" with the phrase "Gaelic speakers", all controversy simply vanishes.

If I was cranky earlier, I just get fed up with the same untrue guff being repeated over and over without any explanation, evidence or reference. I am happy to pursue any avenue of history that comes with an ample supply of evidence.