Geoffrey Ashe and Columbus?

History lesson alert!!! Geoffrey Ashe, British cultural historian and author, had a theory that it was indeed the Irish who discovered America and not Columbus. This article was from the 60's and goes on to talk about his plans to build the same type of ship that the Irish would have used several hundred years before Columbus and test his theory. He has based his theory on the Voyage of Saint Brendan. Brendan was an Irish saint in the sixth century who lands on several different islands in the area of the Americas. I can't find evidence if they actually built the ship or not but the theory is very interesting. Also, FYI, Mr Ashe has also written non-fiction books based on King Arthur. He claims that King Arthur was a man called Riothamus who lived in 470 AD. That's a lot of info and I didn't tell you the half of it. Look it up, you won't be sorry. Interesting stuff.