The Celts

The early Irish church also developed its own form of tonsure in which the front of the head was shaven from ear to ear, and clung to an earlier method of fixing Easter long after this had been abandoned by Rome. These peculiarities gave rise to bitter controversy at home and in Britain, where the Synod of Whitby in 664 decided against the Irish. But no scholar nowadays, on the basis of these disputes, holds that the Irish church rejected Rome.

The sixth century is the great era of the new Irish monastic foundations. Many of the founders studied under St. Finnian at Clonard. His twelve disciples were affectionately known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and each became an outstanding monastic pioneer in his own right; among them were Colm Cille in Durrow, Derry and Iona, Ciaran in Clonmacnoise, Canice in Aghaboe, Mobhí in Devenish, Brendan in Clonfert. Once the movement had taken off, it was imitated by others who had not been alumni of Clonard: Comgall in Bangor, Kevin in Glendalough, Jarlath in Tuam, Finbar in Cork. Religious establishments for women were far less numerous: Killeavy near Newry founded by Moininne, Killeady in Co. Limerick by Ita and St. Brigidís double monastery for men and women at Kildare.

A sixth-century Irish monastery must not be pictured like one of the great medieval monasteries on the continent. It was much closer in appearance to the primitive settlements in the Nile Valley than to a fully developed Monte Cassino. A modern holiday camp like Butlinís would be closer to it in appearance than a modern Mount Melleray. But it was far from a holiday camp in spirit and the penances imposed for infringements had no equal in Western Europe.

The monks lived in small round cells constructed of wood or stone, like those which have survived on Skellig Rock, and the monastic enclosure also included a few communal buildings - the church, refectory, kitchen, library, scriptorium and workshops. The daily life consisted of recitation of the divine office, long fasts and other acts of self-denial, study and work in the fields.

Scholars trained in the Irish monastic schools show an extensive knowledge of Latin classical authors like Virgil and Horace and some slight acquaintance with Greek. But their chief study was the Bible. Many of them reached a very high standard as copyists and in the Book of Durrow (from the second half of the seventh century) and the Book of Kells (from shortly after 800) they attained a standard of calligraphy and miniature painting which has never been surpassed. Indeed their artistic achievements in this field are among the greatest glories of Gaelic Ireland.

Colm Cille has been called 'The First Exile' in the well-known poem by Robert Farren, but he went no further abroad than to an area which had been partly colonised from Antrim a century earlier and where the Gaelic language had taken root. From Iona Aidan travelled to Lindisfarne in the next generation to become the Apostle of Northern England. The motive uppermost in the minds of the Irish peregrini was self-sacrifice - to renounce home and family and seek a secluded spot away from the world. Yet the names of these Irish 'wanderers for Christ' of the sixth to ninth centuries are still remembered with affection across the European mainland: Columbanus in France and Italy, where he died at Bobbio in 615; Gall in Switzerland, after whom a city, a canton and a diocese have been named; Fiacre and Fursey in France; Feuillen in Belgium; Killian in Germany; Donato and Cataldo in Italy; Fergil in Austria.

Not so well remembered are the ninth century scholars who flocked to the centres of learning in the new Empire of Charlemagne: Dungal the educationalist and Dicuil the geographer; Eriugena the philosopher and Sedulius the poet. We sometimes think that Irelandís links with the continent came to an end with the Viking invasions. In fact, the Viking danger was no sooner past than Irish kings and churchmen began again to travel to Europe on pilgrimage and built up a new series of Irish monasteries in Germany and Austria, some of which lasted until the sixteenth century. If the earlier monks had gone as far north as Iceland, these later ones went as far east as Kiev - no small achievement for men who travelled overland on foot and crossed the sea by currach.

If Iona was the first stage in that journey which led to Iceland and the Ukraine, it was also the first monastery to be plundered by the long ships of the Vikings in 795. The Vikings will be the subject of a later chapter in this book. Here I want to comment only on the Gaelic response to their arrival. Irish churchmen gradually learned how to deal with the Norse invaders. Beside the church sites the round tower soon became a notable feature of the landscape - it was not only a bell-tower but a look-out and refuge for humans and valuables in time of attack. Stone churches built with mortar began to replace the earlier wooden structures. The greatest of the high crosses like Muiredach's at Monasterboice and the Cross of the Scriptures at Clonmacnoise made their appearance in the midst of the violence.

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From the Appletree Press title: The People of Ireland (currently out of print).
Also see A Little History of Ireland.