Ireland (6 page)

Legend tells us that Patrick, and those who were with him, built a great pile of wood on the Hill of Slane, which is visible from Tara. Patrick then lit this fire before the king lit his and it was seen by all at Tara. Laoghaire was furious and he gathered his soldiers and rode to the Hill of Slane, intent on killing whoever had defied him. The king and his soldiers galloped to the top of the hill only to be met by Patrick and his unarmed followers. They were unafraid, and their courage impressed the king. Instead of killing them all, Laoghaire demanded to know who they were and what they were doing.

Patrick began to preach the Christian message and this, too, impressed the king. It is said that Patrick used the shamrock to explain the mystery of three persons in one God to the king. As you know, the shamrock is one of the emblems of Ireland, and we wear shamrock on Saint Patrick’s Day to honour the man who first brought Christianity to Ireland, and who is also our patron saint.

Laoghaire did not kill Patrick or his followers, nor did he himself convert to Christianity. Instead, he gave Patrick permission to go about the country preaching Christianity and converting the people. Patrick did so, though it wasn’t easy. Not everyone was as understanding as Laoghaire and the druids especially did not wish to see their pagan religion replaced. If that happened, they would lose all their power and influence. Often on his travels, Patrick and his followers were in grave danger, and at times were imprisoned. However, such was Patrick’s courage and his faith, that he always persuaded those who persecuted him to let him live and continue his preaching and converting.

Because of his travels, many places in Ireland are associated with him and bear his name. Some of these are Croagh Patrick, where he is supposed to have stayed for forty days and nights, fasting and praying, and Downpatrick Head, both of which are in County Mayo. He is also supposed to have visited Saint Patrick’s Purgatory, which is on an island in Lough Derg, County Donegal, and Downpatrick in County Down, where he is allegedly buried. Some historians claim that Patrick went to France and died and was buried there.

Armagh is also closely associated with Patrick because he founded the most important Irish church there. It still remains the most important church in Ireland today. We don’t know exactly when Patrick died, but it is thought that he lived for thirty years after he came to Ireland and died on 17 March, which is now his feast day, in 462.

There are many legends associated with Saint Patrick. One of the most famous is that he banished the snakes from Ireland. The legend claims that one snake refused to be banished so Patrick made a box and ordered the snake into it. The snake claimed that the box was too small and an argument ensued between the two. Patrick persuaded the snake to prove that the box was too small by slithering into it. Having tricked the snake, Patrick closed the box, trapping it inside. He then threw the box into the sea, into which he had already driven all the other snakes. We don’t really believe this legend; yet there are no snakes in Ireland today.

What is true about Patrick is that he was one of the most important men ever to come to Ireland. Not only did he bring Christianity, but with that faith came writing and learning, and the start of what we call the Golden Age. While wars raged in Europe, and tribes called Angles and Saxons conquered England, Ireland became a land of ‘saints and scholars’.

B
efore Saint Patrick came to Ireland, the only form of writing in the country was a simple Celtic script known as ogham. This consisted of groups of marks, like dashes, with each group representing a letter of the alphabet. With this system of writing, simple words like a person’s name could be cut on the edge of a stone. But with the coming of Saint Patrick and Christianity, Latin, the language of the Romans, came to Ireland. The oldest pieces of writing in Latin to survive from that time are two letters written by Saint Patrick himself.

The coming of Saint Patrick utterly changed the way of life in Ireland over the next few hundred years. As Christianity spread throughout the country, a great many monasteries were founded. Some of the most important of these were at Clonard, County Meath; Clonfert, County Galway; Clonmacnoise, County Offaly; Durrow, County Laois; Glendalough, County Wicklow; and Derry, beside the River Foyle. At first, these monasteries were comprised of a wooden church along with accommodation for the monks. Later, these wooden buildings were replaced with stone buildings. There were also workshops and granaries and bakeries and kitchens and schools and rooms where monks wrote and copied manuscripts, and where they could study. There were also hospitals where the sick were cared for.

The monks who lived in the monasteries were engaged in numerous tasks. They made beautiful religious objects in gold and silver, set with jewels. These were chalices and patens and crosses, which were used in celebrating Mass. They also made reliquaries, which are boxes to hold relics of saints, and high crosses from carved stone. Two of the most beautiful objects dating from this time are the Ardagh and Derrynaflan chalices.

The monks also made elaborate boxes, called cumdachs, in which to store the books they wrote. Books were very important and valuable in those days, and were all written by hand. They were not written on paper but on vellum, which is made from the skins of animals, usually calves, sheep and goats. The inks were made from plants like saffron, turmeric and woad; from earth, like yellow ochre; and from charcoal or burned bones and even from insects. Urine and earwax were also used in making up the inks, which doesn’t sound very pleasant at all.

These books, or to give them their correct title, manuscripts (because they were written by hand), were in Latin. They were decorated with religious paintings and highly intricate drawings in vivid colours. When you looked at a page it seemed as if a light glowed behind it, and this is why they are described as ‘illuminated’. Did you know that the largest surviving collection of European manuscripts from those times comes from Ireland?

Two of the most famous of these illuminated manuscripts are The Book of Durrow and The Book of Kells, both of which are in Trinity College in Dublin. The Book of Durrow, containing the four gospels, was probably written in the late seventh or early eighth century, and is the oldest surviving Irish illuminated manuscript. The Book of Kells, which also contains the four gospels, was probably written sometime in the ninth century. Some historians believe it was written on the island of Iona, off the Scottish coast. It is regarded as one of the finest illuminated manuscripts in the world.

During the Golden Age, Latin was the written language. Later, many of the old stories and myths and legends of Ireland began to be written down in Gaelic for the first time and it then became a written, as well as a spoken, language. The oldest surviving manuscript in Gaelic is The Book of the Dun Cow, which was probably written in the eleventh century. It contains many of the old myths and legends, including the story of The Cattle Raid of Cooley.

There were no printing presses or computers back then, so manuscripts had to be copied word for word by hand using quills and ink. The monks who did this were called scribes and often the only light they had was from candles or oil lamps. Sometimes they worked for years writing or copying a single book, and no doubt their fingers were permanently stained with ink.

One man who was involved in copying manuscripts was Columcille, who is now a saint. Whenever he copied a manuscript, he kept the copy for himself. Once, Columcille copied a book belonging to Saint Finian and kept the copy for himself. Finian was angry at this and complained about it to the High King, Diarmuid, and asked him to decide who owned the copy.

Diarmuid gave a famous judgement, based on one of the Brehon Laws, which you remember were the laws in force in Ireland at that time. This law stated that a calf that wandered away from a farm always belonged to its mother. If the calf wandered onto another farm the farmer could not claim that it belonged to him. Now the High King declared: ‘To every cow its calf and to every book its copy.’ So Columcille couldn’t keep the copy of the book. Today we call this law copyright, and no one can copy a book without the permission of the person who owns the copyright.

Some of our most famous Irish saints also lived during those times. The best known of them are Saint Finian, Saint Kevin, Saint Columbanus, Saint Brendan, Saint Ciaran, Saint Columcille and Saint Brigid, who is almost as important a saint in Ireland today as Saint Patrick. She was born around 453 at Faughart, County Louth, the daughter of a local chieftain. When she grew up she decided to devote her life to God. She founded a convent and built her church beneath an oak tree. In Gaelic, this church was called
‘Cill Dara’
, the church of the oak, or as we know it today in English, Kildare.

Just as with Saint Patrick, there is a legend associated with Saint Brigid. It is said that when she wished to found her convent she asked the local king for land on which to build it. He said that he would give her as much land as her cloak would cover. This amount, of course, would be tiny. But legend says that Saint Brigid placed her cloak on the ground and that it spread out until it covered an enormous amount of land. The king was so impressed – or more likely terrified – at seeing this, that he granted Saint Brigid the land.

Her feast day is celebrated on 1 February and on that day many schoolchildren in Ireland make a Saint Brigid’s Cross from green rushes. Another legend tells us that Saint Brigid made the cross from rushes while she was trying to convert a dying pagan chieftain. It’s claimed that when she had made the cross and showed it to the chieftain he converted to Christianity.

But while many of these Irish saints remained in Ireland, others left to preach the gospel in Scotland and England and in France and Germany and elsewhere in Europe. It is claimed that Saint Brendan, who was known as The Navigator because he made so many sea voyages, actually sailed to America almost 1,000 years before Christopher Columbus. We don’t know if this is true, but Saint Brendan did sail to the islands of Scotland and to England preaching the gospel. Irish missionaries were so successful in England that for over 100 years the kings of Northumbria spoke Irish.

Saint Columcille was another man who travelled from Ireland to preach the gospel. He was born into an important family in Garten, County Donegal, in 521 and founded a great monastery at Derry. Later, when he travelled out of Ireland to preach the gospel, he did so for a different reason from other missionaries. You remember how Diarmuid gave his famous judgement, ‘to every book its copy?’ At first, Columcille did not accept this judgement, and he raised an army to fight Diarmuid. There was a great battle at Cúl Drebene in Sligo in which 2,000 men died. Columcille was so horrified at this slaughter, which he had caused, that he determined to travel away from Ireland and convert 2,000 pagans to Christianity. He sailed to the island of Iona off the Scottish coast and founded a famous monastery there.

Saint Columbanus, who was born in Leinster probably around 550, is another famous Irish missionary. He, along with twelve other monks, sailed to France where they founded a monastery. At a time when Europe was ravaged by wars between different tribes, this monastery was a haven of peace and learning. Columbanus also travelled through Switzerland and on to Italy where he founded another monastery at Bobbio. He died there in 615.

Other Irish missionaries went to Germany, which was a very dangerous place at this time. The Visigoths, the Vandals and another tribe of people, the Huns, were constantly fighting for supremacy. The Visigoths were successful, but they were then attacked around 750 by Arabs and Berbers who came from the east. Despite this constant warfare, the Irish missionaries founded monasteries there which also became centres of learning. It is claimed that these monasteries kept learning alive in Europe during the Dark Ages. Because of the influence of these Irish missionaries in Europe, many people from there came to Ireland to be educated at our monasteries and this too helped to keep learning alive outside Ireland.

But not all these holy Irishmen lived in large monasteries, or travelled abroad. Many became hermits, or lived in small groups in lonely, uninhabited places. One of the most famous of those places is the hermitage on Skellig Michael, which is little more than a large rock off the coast of Kerry. Here, with flat stones, the monks built huts, resembling beehives, and lived simple lives of poverty, fasting and prayer.

Of course, Ireland wasn’t totally at peace during those times, but compared to Britain and Europe, it was a haven of tranquillity. Wars were still fought between different kings as they sought power for themselves. Over the 400 or so years of the Golden Age, new families, or clans, emerged as the most powerful and important in the country. The most famous and powerful of these were the O’Neills of Ulster, the O’Briens of Munster and the O’Connors of Connacht, all of whom would play major parts in the future history of Ireland.

We said earlier that whoever ruled at Tara claimed to be High King of Ireland. Though he did have great power, he didn’t really control the whole country. As other families, or clans, became more powerful, the power and influence of the king of Tara waned. Eventually, the great fortress became uninhabited and reverted to the green grassy hill it once had been, just as had happened to Navan fort in Armagh. If history teaches us anything, it is that the powerful eventually fall, and even great empires crumble to dust and that nothing, not even a Golden Age, lasts forever.

After 400 or so years of the Golden Age, dark clouds began to gather over Ireland. A storm was approaching the shores, but this was not a storm of nature. This was a storm of men and it brought fierce, brutal warriors from Scandinavia to plunder the monasteries and to kill anyone who dared oppose them. These men were known as the Vikings, and were some of the most feared warriors ever to invade Ireland. Like the young boy, Patrick, they too were destined to change the course of Irish history: this time not with the gospel, but with killing and bloodshed.