Cu chulainn & Fionn mac Cumhaill both lived in Ulster Ireland, but they lived hundreds of years apart.  I found one Irish Fairytale that identified Cu Chulainn as the Scottish  giant that challenged Fionn to combat, but every other account of the legends of Cu Chulainn place him as the greatest of all Irish champions who lived well before Fionn mac Cumhaill.  MacPherson offers the following explanation in his introduction to Ossian.  "These fables, however ridiculous, had their abettors;  posterity either implicitly believed them, or through a vanity natural to mankind, pretended that they did.  They loved to place the founders of their families in days of fable, when poetry, without fear of contradiction, could give what characters she pleased of her heroes.  It is to this vanity that we owe the preservation of what remain of the Works of Ossian." 

The British Academy Literary Review cited that MacPherson's Fingal was not the Irish Fionn mac Cumhaill because the legends of both Cu chulainn & Fionn mac Cumhaill  were about warriors who fought with chariot, sword, and spear with no mention of  chain mail, bows & arrows, or fleets of warships.  They concluded this was evidence that MacPherson's Fingal used weaponry from a later period.  Recent archeological digs have found chain mail, bows & arrows, and galleys were used by the ancient Celts of Europe and have been dated in the 4th century B.C. so the Celts probably brought those weapons with them when they migrated to Ireland about 600 B.C.  Actually many Celtic legends speak of Celtic sea travel pre-dating both Cu chulainn & Fionn mac Cumhaill.  The Academy  was accurate in their assessment of the desparity in the modes of warfare given in the legends, but they assumed the Celts did not know of chain mail or bows & arrows because they weren't mentioned in those legends.  They didn't seem to consider the legend of Fionn & the Fenians raiding Roman Britain and carrying back fine Roman horses to Ireland (obviously by sea).  Another reason cited was that Fingal battled the Lochlainn whose fleet was commanded by Swaran (Swero was a 12th century King of Norway).  As recorded in Ossian the King of Morven whose mighty fleet "appeared as a forest of trees in the clouds".  Fingal, they deduced was unlike the earlier Celtic champions.  The 1871 Academy literary review concluded, "Nevertheless, it would be absurd to suppose that the poems in question, ancient as they undoubtedly are, can be received as genuine compositions of either Ossian or Finn.  All that can be positively asserted respecting their age is that they are certainly older than the year 1100."

So who was this great warrior Fingal about whom MacPherson gathered oral and Gaelic manuscripts throughout the Highlands of Scotland?  Were there any Celtic champions who lived in the 11th century who drove raiding Lochlainn from "Innesfail & Morven"?  Could the multi-generation gap between Cuchulainn and Fionn mac Cumhaill represent the greatest champion of Celtic history calling this new champion to defend Celtic honor?  And where are the lands mentioned in MacPherson's Ossian as being occupied by the Lochlainn? 

The lands of Ossian are rendered Innesfail and Morven.  Innesfail is Gaelic for "island of destiny" (a Gaelic reference to an ancient prophecy that the Gael would settle Eire or Ireland) and Morven or Morvern is Gaelic for "big gap" or "sea gap" and was the very center of ancient Dalriada, its capital Dunadd, and later became the lands of the MacIains of Ardnamurchan branch of Clan Donald.  One line from Ossian refers to "The streams of Cona answer to the voice of Ossian."  Cona is an acknowledged reference to the river Coe, of Glencoe and Ossian's cave is just outside Glencoe.  There is only one Celtic hero who led the native Celtic clans in a successful campaign to drive the Vikings from the lands of Morvern and then the Islands.  He lived in Morvern, and descended from Kings of Morvern who traced their ancestry back to the Ard Righ of Eire.  He possessed a fleet of 160 war ships that would have indeed appeared as a forrest of trees in the clouds.  His descendants ruled Morvern, Glencoe and the Isles and were referred to as Finghal  (Gaelic = fair Gael or Gàidhlig rather than  Gall Gael or foreign Gael) in their own recorded legends.  The founder of Clan Donald, as well as Clan Dougal was a Celtic hero by the name of Sòmhairlidh mac Gillebride mhic Gilledomnán, known today as Somerled.

The many similarities of Sòmhairlidh's life to the legend of  Fionn mac Cumhall are significant.  The rise of both  champions began with very similar accounts of the omen of the salmon of knowledge which led to their uniting the Celtic clans to defeat invaders.  MacPherson's Fingal sought to regain his rightful place to rule Morven & Innesfail.   Sòmhairlidh faught to reclaim his inherent right to rule Morvern & Innesgall.   The Leabher Dearg (Gaelic Red Book of Clanranald) according to W. F. Skene, Esq. F.S.A. Scot was undoubtedly an Ossianic manuscript referred to by James MacPherson.  Skene reported to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland that the Leabher Dearg refered to the Lords of the Isles as  Righ Fionghall and the Macdonalds as Clan Cholla.  "Mr. Skene then read a translation of a part of the manuscript giving a curious account of the expulsion of the Danes from the West coast of Scotland."

Modern critics have verified MacPherson's claim he gathered his source material from oral legends and Gaelic manuscripts from the Highlands of Scotland.  MacPherson's "error" seems to have been to equate Fingal with Fionn mac Cumhaill and Ossian with Oisin mac Fionn mhic Cumhaill.  Or was it an error?  By publishing a collection of Highland legends under the auspices they were ancient Irish legends MacPherson succeeded in preserving and publishing Highland legends that stirred Celtic blood all over the world and inspired countless numbers during an era when anything of Highland culture was illegal and enforced by the Daunting (mass expulsions) of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland.   MacPherson, himself gave us the key to understanding his method in the introduction of his work, They loved to place the founders of their families in days of fable, when poetry, without fear of contradiction, could give what characters she pleased of her heroes.   

Thank you James MacPherson for preserving our Clan Donald heritage.