Novel Travels: How the Irish Saved Civilization

For anyone traveling to Ireland, How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill, is the perfect airplane read. It's a short history of Ireland--beginning, oddly enough, with the fall of Rome--and an introduction to Irish saints and artifacts. Cahill explains how Irish monks copied literature and helped spread it back through Western Europe during the Dark Ages. During the 4th Century, these monks did their copying in little huts which have remained watertight to this day and can be visited at the Gallarus Oratory (below), on the Dingle Peninsula.


Cahill discusses Saint Patrick, the Vikings, Saint Brigid, the Druids, Christianity, Columcille, and the Book of Kells. This book isn't a fictional walk through a city, but an easy read packed with information. For more on where to find some of the sites discussed in How the Irish Saved Civilization, see Rick Steves' website or read one of his Ireland guidebooks.