Manda's Bookshelf: How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
Manda’s Bookshelf - How the Irish Saved Civilization
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m Irish by heritage, and thus have at times an affinity for Ireland only slightly outweighed by my patriotism for the USA. So when a book comes out with a title like How the Irish Saved Civilization it gets my attention. Yes, I’m behind the curve a bit, this book has been out for a while, but its history. It wasn’t like the information was going to change in a few years months.
The first thing I noticed when I started reading was that, man alive, do I not remember most of my Roman/World History. And that’s a problem, because there’s a certain level of basic historical knowledge Cahill assumes the reader is working with. Yes, there are bibliographical notes, but only a few actual footnotes. I couldn’t be bothered to try and flip back and forth to figure out which piece of information had been cited and given further explanation.
The second thing that struck me as I read along was how much time Cahill spends explaining everything that leads up to How the Irish Saved Civilization, including quite a bit of time explaining the Irish/Celt psyche. Now, I love pop-psychology as much as the next… oh wait, that’s right. I don’t. Which was probably why I found myself wondering if Cahill would ever just get to the point. But no, he belabors it a bit more, and for good reason.
Not only did St. Patrick rid all Ireland of snakes (my personal favorite apocryphal tale) but once he started his missionary journey to Ireland, well, those pagan Celts didn’t stand a chance. Each monastery he founded became the foundation for the entire academic world in Ireland. While Europe was in turmoil, the Roman Empire in shambles as barbarian tribes swarmed all those civilized cities, Ireland alone stood -by sheer luck of geography - and managed to collect, copy, and disburse all those Latin classics that were being burned everywhere else. And as the monasteries grew, and quite frankly, the Celtic Church adopted more than a few of the pagan traditions to ease the transition, more and more of Ireland adopted Church ways which were far more peaceful than the past warrior-society that had constantly dominated the island.
And… that’s it. That’s how the Irish saved civilization. By preserving, copying, and disseminating countless texts, Christian, pagan, Celtic, Latin, the Irish managed to literally keep chunks of history alive that otherwise might have been lost to the barbarian hordes. It takes Cahill six chapters our of a seven chapter book to finally hit the reveal, which honestly, most of us kind of knew to begin with. Maybe not perhaps the depth to which the Irish played a part in preserving ancient manuscripts, but definitely the role the overall church played in copying scrolls and information.
I was actually hoping for a bit more out of this than I got. Being familiar with a lot of Irish history, there wasn’t much that was particularly new information. Some nice anecdotes, some interesting perspective, but as far as ground-breaking history? Not so much.
There were definitely pieces that could have been trimmed a bit but there were also nice moments where Cahill quoted Celtic lore and myth, as well as St. Patrick’s Breastplate, which is one of my favorite pieces of what I’ll call Christian poetry.
Manda’s Rating? Three solid Kermits. I was hoping this was going to be more of a 4 or 5, but I’ll manage lol.
Statler: Well, Waldorf, they finally made it to Broadway.
Waldorf: Yes, and I already bought tickets.
Statler: Are they good seats?
Waldorf: Sure are. They're on the next train out of town.
Until Next time!