Woods, Anthony

 Anthony Woods is the author of Atlantis Ireland, published under the auspices of the unaccredited Keystone University^(a) in Dublin, with Woods listed as CEO^(b). To be blunt, for me as an Irishman, in spite of such an interesting title, I was greatly disappointed. In fact, I was by turn uncertain whether I should laugh or cry.

Woods engages in a generous level of speculation, which was certainly attention seeking. He selectively uses some mythological stories as if history whenever it suits his purpose ^[p.71]. The content is irritatingly repetitious throughout, references should have been numbered, which along with a few typos, all cry out for an editor.

His core contention is that Stone Age Ireland was a cultural hyperdiffusionist centre. He claims that megalith building, language and religion, all spread globally from Ireland, also known as Atlantis!

Among his many outlandish claims are that:

1.The ancient Irish language is the oldest in the world and is the most extensive with almost a million words ^[p.142], which is completely wrong by about a factor of six!

2.Irish megaliths are the most spectacular – obviously Woods has never heard of Brittany!

3.Megalith construction spread from Ireland to the world. However respected archaeologists such Aubrey Burl, Mike Parker Pearson and Robert Hensey ^[1766.6] burst that particular bubble with the their shared view that megalith building originated in France.

According to Woods, “the high concentration of megaliths on the west cost of Britain and France proves that Ireland was the fountainhead, the source of the megalithic mother culture.” The ‘logic’ here eludes me!

4.For some reason Woods thinks islands are ideal for evolution(p139), and that Cro-Magnon Man evolved in Ireland^[p.103]!

5.Although Ireland was the island of Atlantis, the city of Atlantis (Cerne) was in Mauritania and is known today as the Richat Structure!

6.The Celts didn’t come to Ireland, they came from Ireland!^[p.99]

7.Woods makes the modest claim that the Irish visited America thousands of years before Columbus. Which may or may not be true, but what has that to do with Atlantis? ^[p.93]

In all, this book is not just an Hibernocentric rant. Woods also offers a lengthy diatribe against British imperialism and Vatican political interference, which, although probably justifiable, has also nothing to do with Atlantis

He introduces a range of subjects such as giants, Machu Picchu, Gobekli Tepe and the Garden of Eden, all with Woods’ imagined connection with ancient Ireland!

Apart all the nonsense about ancient Ireland, he barely touches on Plato’s dialogues, except to rubbish his narrative with “It’s clear that Plato’s legend is useful but unreliable, that it combined two separate related places, a lot of exaggeration and several historical errors.”^[p.13] and twice patronisingly refers to Plato’s account as “useful but unreliable.”^[p.50]

Woods did quote from Ulf  Erlingsson, who made a more valliant attempt to link Ireland with Atlantis some years. Erlingsson matched the dimensions of 2000 x 3000 stadia (340 x 227 miles) given by Plato with the diagonal dimensions of Ireland ^[319.16]. Unfortunately, Erlingsson got it very wrong and Woods copied his error. Plato’s figures were the dimensions of the Plain of Atlantis, while the Central Plain of Ireland is just a fraction of its size^(c), being very roughly 150 x 100 miles in extent. Now, who’s unreliable?

At which point, I could take no more and gave up.

^(a) https://www.keystone.ie     

^(b) https://ie.linkedin.com/in/anthonymwoods

^(c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Ireland