"The Baal-fire
feast, or meeting, was a great festival in Ireland, on
the 25th of December, and midsummer eve. Baal, or Bel, was a name
of the sun all over the east."
-
The Christian mythology unveiled, lectures by Logan Mitchell, p.80
"The Irish have
ever been worshippers of Fire and of Baal, and are so to
this day. This is owing to the Roman Catholics, who have
artfully yielded to the superstitions of the natives, in order to
gain and keep up an establishment, grafting Christianity
upon Pagan rites."
- Rev. Donald M'Queen, of Kilmuir, in the
Isle of Skye,
on
ancient customs preserved in that Island in
The
Gentleman's Magazine for February 1795:--