How the Irish Saved Civilization

Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization describes some significant historical events. Ireland was a chaotic, pagan region that was never part of the Roman Empire. During the fifth century, St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, which made the Irish people less warlike and more literate. Scholars at Irish monasteries eagerly acquired, studied, and copied Greek and Roman literature, helping preserve it after Western Rome collapsed. Subsequently, Irish missionaries spread Christianity and classical knowledge to England and the continent.

The book has some inaccuracies, such as omitting the presence of Christianity in Ireland before St. Patrick’s missionary work. Cahill unfairly dismisses the Arian heresy as a “debased, simpleminded form of Christianity” and understates the significance of the classic literature preserved by the Islamic world.

In much of the book, Cahill attempts to evoke the moods of the times. For example, an epic poem, which he quotes extensively, reveals the temperament of pagan Ireland. That whole approach left me skeptical, and I found the many excerpts from poems, Christian hymns, Patrick’s writings, Plato, and others to be distracting. Though the book is accessible, I’d prefer a more traditional, and less poetic, historical account.