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Ireland: Savior Of Civilization?, Patrick J. Burke

Constructing the Past

One of the most important aspects of early medieval Ireland is the advent of Christianity on the island, accompanied by education and literacy. As an island removed from the Roman Empire, Ireland developed uniquely from the rest of western continental and insular Europe. Amongst those developments was that Ireland did not have a literary tradition, or more specifically a Latin literary tradition, until Christianity was introduced to the Irish. Once introduced to the island through Christianity, however, the early Irish mastered the language with astonishing pace.