I was paraphrasing one of my arch 'baddies' , a former CEO of Ford Motor Co. Who said something like "I know half my advertising is wasted, but noone can tell me which half".

I know a great deal is rubish because I have evidence (or the archaeos do or the historians) to prove that, but that only accounts for a small percentage of it. Add to that the propoganda element and you probably get to 40-50%.

So, if you know half of it is definitely rubish then it is likely that half of the reemainder could be too. But which half?

The propoganda does not just come from competing religions either, especially here in Ireland. All the regionalKings had family trees drawn up to show that they were related to Finn McCool or Maeves son or Oissin or somebody. I am not claiming to know a definite figure for the volume of 'noise', just stating my gut feeling and using a little common sense.

It also doesn't mean that I think 70% of the 'facts' in folklore are crap, but probably 75% of each fact, if you see what I mean.

In other words, do not discount any of them, but take them all with a pinch of salt.

Remember, the roots of the derogatory saying 'an old wives tale' comes from the fact that the 'old wife' was probably the village witch or the matriarch of a society and therefor very revered at one point.

A lot of folklore probably has to be looked at from an Aesop's Fables approach too. facts and messages woven into a story that can be easily remembered and enjoyed. Add to that a Bards pleasure at embellishing a tale, saga or song and you again have added noise.

The truth is in there somewhere, but in most cases you can't say where.