WHO WAS OSSIAN?
      Ossian (0H-shee-en) or Oisin in the Gaelic, was a legendary Irish poet, supposedly the son of Finn mac Cumhail (fin mac cool), hero of a cycle of tales and poems that place his deeds of valour in the 3rd century AD. These traditional tales were preserved in Ireland and in the Scottish Highlands, with Ossian as the bard who sang of the exploits of Finn and his Fenian cohorts. Finn was the hero that James Macpherson called 'Fingal'. A later cycle of Ossianic poetry centred on Cuchulain (coo-hoolan), another traditional hero. Ossian is generally represented as an old, blind man who had outlived both his father and his son.