“Everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day,” some people say, and what better a day to commemorate the ancient history of Ireland than today?
Ireland, Eire, Hibernia — Ireland is known by many names. Sometimes Ireland is called "the Emerald Island" for the island's great green expanses. Some people call Ireland "the Island of Saints and Scholars" in honor of the country's great monastic tradition which helped preserve learning in Western Europe in the centuries after Rome's collapse. This was subject of a bestselling book by Thomas Cahill titled How the Irish Saved Civilization, opens a new window.
Ireland's cultural roots date back over five thousand years. Archeologists believe Newgrange (pictured here) to be older than the pyramids of Giza. Other stone megaliths can be found throughout the island. Even before the arrival of Celtic culture about 2500 years ago, the Irish were adept metalsmiths, making beautiful jewelry out of gold. We know very little about these most ancient inhabitants, but according to the Lebor Gabála Érenn ("The Book of the Invasions of Ireland" a summary of which can be found in Philip Freeman's Celtic Mythology, opens a new window), several waves of settlers had come to Ireland since the beginning of history, including the heroic Tuatha Dé Danann and the fierce Fomóiri with whom they did battle. The Gaelic speaking Sons of Mil were the were the last of these immigrants treated in the Lebor Gabála and whom the later kings of Irish traced their descent. It was these warriors who periodically raided Roman Britain, and it was in one of these raids the future saint Patrick was carried back to Ireland as a slave. Patrick escaped but returned years later as a bishop. Whether or not he really evicted all the snakes of Ireland is subject to debate among academics.
With the rise of monastic culture after St. Patrick's time, Ireland entered what some historians consider a "golden age", when scholarship, art, and commerce flourished around the island's growing network of monasteries. Within these monasteries, Irish scribes also created beautiful illuminated manuscripts, the most famous of which might be the Book of Kells (pictured below). Irish scholars mastered the Greek and Roman classics, and their knowledge was prized in the courts of the Carolingian monarchs on the continent.
If you are interested in learning more about the ancient history and prehistory of Ireland, check out the following titles:
Castles and Ancient Monuments of Ireland
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