Jerry: "It's Salman, not Salmon."
;')
I believe that "The story is nearly mythical" s/b "The story is clearly mythical".
sidebar: Finn also appears as Cuchulain in the Ulster sagas, and in Scotland as Fingal. For that matter, the late Stan Rogers references Fingal in his song "Giant" (it's on his first album, "Fogarty's Cove").
Fingal's cave, made of the same basalt as that making up the Giant's Causeway:
http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/arb/scotland/fingals.html
[still off-topic]
The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúalnge)
http://departments.vassar.edu/~sttaylor/Cooley/
Also, parts of Fin MacCouly are near duplicates of parts of Homer's Odyssey. Not the thumb part, though. Indicates really, really old and possibly before writing when Homer was just spoken verse.
Actually, I've never heard Fionn MacCumhaill equated with Cuchulainn. Cuchulainn's father was said to be Lugh (sun god), while the name of Fionn's father can be inferred from Fionn's surname ;-)
As for Fingal of Scotland ... that I don't know, so I'll defer to you there :)