From The Story of the Irish Race, Seamus MacManus, page 343, "It is a well known fact" avers the Rev. D. O'Donahue in his learned work, "St. Brendan the Voyager," that Columbus while maturing his plans for his great expedition, visited Ireland as well as Iceland in quest of information bearing on his theories.
He was assisted in his researches by an Irish gentleman named Patrick Maguire, who accompanied on his great voyage of discovery. There are other Irish names on the roster of the ship's crew, preserved in the archives of Madrid; by Father Tornitori, an Italian priest, in the Seventeenth Century it is specially recorded that Patrick Maguire was the first to set foot on American soil.
He says that on the eventful morning of the landing the boats bearing Columbus and some of his crew were launched; but approaching the land, the water shallowed, and Patrick Maguire jumped out to lighten the boat, and then waded ashore."
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10-13-2003, 01:56 PM
B'Gorah, It's Columbus Day!
