A book in the best tradition of popular history -- the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe. Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars" -- and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians. In this entertaining and compelling narrative, Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved front the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization -- copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost -- they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task. As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated. In the tradition of Barbara Tuchmail's "A Distant Mirror, How The Irish Saved Civilization" reconstructs an era that few know about but which is central to understanding our past and our cultural heritage. But it conveys its knowledge with a winking wit that aptly captures the sensibility of the unsung Irish who relaunched civilization.

Reviews

With the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, Ireland, according to the author, ``had one moment of unblemished glory''-when Irish monks copied almost all of Western classical poetry, history, oratory, philosophy and commentary. But this book is more than the story of monks preserving manuscripts; it is an irreverent look back at how Ireland came to be. Celts who had traversed Europe, Irish warriors and their women were primitive and blatantly sexual. Next came a taming of the land with the help of St. Patrick, who hated slavery and loved scholarship. Patrick was followed by St. Columcille, a great lover of books who became embroiled in a war and, as penance, exiled himself to the island of Iona, off Scotland. It was here that Ireland became ``Europe's publisher,'' as other warrior-monks followed Columcille's example and began to colonize barbarized Europe. They put Ireland in the vanguard of intellectual leadership, a position the Irish would not surrender until the Viking invasion of the 11th century. Cahill (A Literary Guide to Ireland) has written a scholarly, yet cheeky, book that will have strong appeal to Celtophiles. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Mar.)

"Charming and poetic...an entirely engaging, delectable voyage into th edistant past, a small treasure." --"The New York Times

""A lovely and engrossing tale . . . Graceful and instructive." --Richard Eder, "Los Angeles Times"

"Cahill's lively prose breathes life into a 1,600-year-old history." --"The Boston Globe"

Ireland's shining moment in European history was in the Dark Ages, when it did yeoman labor for future generations. Preserving literacy, Latin, and Christianity while Western Europe was isolated and barbarian, Irish monks also returned Christianity to Europe with ideas like confession that are part of the modern Catholic Church. Cahill is director of religious publishing at Doubleday, and this is his second book on Ireland. His narrative-highly literate and affectionate, if somewhat rambling and indulgent-links literature, philosophy, history, and lots of legends as he describes the fall of Roman civilization and the lives of saints Patrick and Columba, especially how they established the monasteries critical to the preservation effort. As a freewheeling, witty popular history of Irish Christianity in the Dark Ages, this will amuse and enlighten your Irish kin, and the book is recommended for that audience. The title notwithstanding, there is no untold story here.-Robert C. Moore, DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. Information Svcs., N. Billerica, Mass.