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Amergin

In this image we see the Milesian Amergin proclaiming the land of Ireland to belong to him and his kin, under the watchful eye of the three sisters of the Tuatha dé Danann, Ériu, Banba and Fodla.
It is said that when the Milesians, the ancestors of the present-day Irish, came to this country at this time. Amergin, their druid, was the first to set foot on our soil, but the land was already occupied by the mystical race of the Tuatha dé Danann. After coming to an agreement with the Tuatha kingship, they left the shores for a time, waiting beyond the ninth wave, but soon realised that the Tuatha dé Danann druids had conjured a storm, hoping that the Milesian’s boats would not survive the tempest. Amergin, however, used his powers to calm the waves and after arriving once more upon our shores he met Ériu, Banba and Fodla.
The sisters offered to help him by negating the powers of the Tuatha de Danann druids, and in return Ériu, Banba and Fodla each asked that their names be remembered when naming the country.
The Milesian conquest was complete, his people defeated the once powerful Tuatha dé Danann and so it was that the Country of Ireland, or Éire in Irish, was named after Ériu, though her sisters’ names are often used in literature to represent Ireland.
The song of Amergin, which he is said to have sung as he set his right foot on the land, is thought to be the oldest song in the Irish language.

Illustration from an original by Margaret McKenna