Ledwich writes to criticise the derivation of the name Ireland from Ierne in English histories from Giraldus and Camden forward. He draws attention to the disputed identity (if any) of the famous Orpheus and nominates Julius Caesar as the first to call Ireland Hibernia - from the weather. Of Ussher he writes that he ‘exaltingly remarks on this verse of Orpheus (cited by Camden) that the Roman people were not able to produce so antient a witness of their name. Before our primate indulged this overflowing of patriotism, it would have been proper to determine the age and country of Orpheus. There is scarcely a writer of antiquity on whom so many suppositious works have been fathered as on this famed Thracian lyrist. Fabricius enumerates between thirty and forty, and particularly notices fifteen authors, who published their performances under his name. Cicero quotes Aristotle, who declares there was no such poet as Orpheus; on this decision the compositions passing under his name have been acknowledged fictitious. Who, then, was the author of the Argonautes, wherein Ireland was mentioned?’ Here he ridicules the idea of an overland journey carrying ships, ‘then plunging with so slight a ship into the Atlantic Ocean, and passing by Ireland, situated in it.’ (p.14.) He continues:

At present I see no reason to believe with Camden that Iar-in or Erin at first denoted the western situation of Ireland: for who gave it the name of Iar [referring to the west]? The Celtes, a swarm of roaming savages, of whom iittle is recorded, and that little proclaims their ignorance and barbarism. If, as Hipparchus very justly remarks, geography cannot be understood with a knowledge of the celestial bodies, and of eclipses, whereby the cardinal points are to be ascertained; if Homer intimates nothing of climate and eclipses, and if astronomy at a late period was introduced into Greece from Egypt by Plato, Eudoxus and others, can the simplest credulity conceive the wandering Celtes, [15] (who have left not one memorial of their acquaintance with any art or science) were more advanced in knowledge than the Greeks, who were able to determine the cardinal points.

Ware would never have given us his guesses (or divinationes), as he rightly styles them, had Camden been solid and convincing on this subject. Bochart's sacred geography had just appeared when he writ: its boldness, novelty, and the uncommon erudition everywhere visible, made it universally read and admired. This author derived Hibernia from the Phenician compound Ibernae, or the remotest region. Wrapped in oriental learning, he adopted the dreams of the Jewish Targums, Josephus, and the Rabins, who confidently supply the obscurity of scripture by distinctly parcelling Europe among the posterity of the grand Patriarch, though in reality they knew no more of the matter than those who lived before the Catalysm. An excellent judge [Richardson, Diss. on the Languages of the East] declares, Bochart was not competent to the task he had undertaken. With so slender a stock as fifty Phenician words, almost everything was to be supplied by fancy; and yet on this foundation has been built the systems of Sammes, Stukeley, and other whimsical writers on the Phenician antiquities. Ware seemed to like the derivation of ibernia from Iberia, because a Spanish colony, he says, settled here; however, he adds, I will affirm nothing, it being a most difficult thing to assign a satisfactory reason for the name. A position thus tactfully relinquished is not worth farther inquiry; besides Mr Macpherson has very ably examined and confuted the arguments adduced for a Hispanic extraction of the Irish.’ (p.15.)

Goes on to praise Diodorus Siculus [reign of Augustus], who ‘tells us in the preface of his first book, that great errors had arisen for want of profound examination of places: that to observe these he had travelled over a great part of Europe and Asia, and spent thirty years in compiling his work. Though not free from mistakes, it yet abounds in curious and valuable information. The remote northern nations, says he, who border upon Scythia, are ferocious, devouring men, as is reported, as do the Britons who inhabit Iris. Here is a passage, which has been unaccountably passed over by antiquaries, though it gives the primal name of Ireland two thousand years ago. The Greek and Roman writers, who frequently are tame copiers of each other, used Hibernia Jouernia, but Diodorus Siculus who had penetrated far into the north of Europe, there first heard and has happily preferred the genuine name of our isle - Ir-i, or as know written ‘Er-i, the great isle. The ancient Irish alphabet had but four vowels; E was not one of them [O'Brien's Irish Dictionary]. This compound, like many others, was at first appellative and then became a proper name: a practice common in every country, and particularly exemplified in these islands by the learned Lhuyd.

The proof of this is novel and cannot be resisted. No evidence can be expected from the north when enveloped in gross ignorance and barbarism but as soon as enlightened by letters, every page of its ancient chronicles depose for the veracity of Diodorus.’

[Here lists names for Ireland such as Ira-land (King Alfred), Yr-lande (Danes in Chronicles), Ir-land (Adam Bremensis), Irenses (Odericus), Iros (Œlnoth), Ir-land, and Ira-Letur (Icelander Landamabac)]

Thus plainly from the original Celtic Ir-in came Ira, Iros, Irenses, and Yr-lande of the Icelanders, Danes, Anglo-Saxons and Germans, and the Iris of Diodorus Siculus, and by a transposition of - in - into - ne - the Irene of the other Greeks, [for .]

This primitive name was in full view of all our antiquaries, and probably for that reason flighted: the spacious field of etymology and conjecture were preferred, as they hoped to display their ingenuity, and acquire literary honour; but they did not perceive, that my such exertions they were hazarding theire own reputation, and depriving their country of the laurel of unrivalled antiquity.

Patrium tamen obruit olim Gloria paucorum, & laudis titulique cupido. Juvenal. [Signed:]
Edward Ledwich, (p.16.)