How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Sep 03, 2009 Joan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Did you know that Irish was the first vernacular literature to be written? That's one of the things I learned from this engagingly-written book, the story of literacy and Christianity beginning with the fall of Rome. The first section, on the Romans was not quite my "cup of tea", but once I got to the stories of Maeve and Cuchulain, St Patrick, Kevin of Glendolough, St Brigid, and Columcille, I was entranced. The last sections tell of the "white martyrs" who brought literacy and Christianity bac ...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Jenny rated it liked it

Shelves: have-it

Wow, this book was a doozy. It was a page turner, though at times I spaced out. I still got the gist of it, though I felt I missed a lot of it. Ok, so the Irish saved civilization by copying a lot of important documents and stories. It came down to that we might have eventually came across the Greek stories, but Latin almost certainly would have been lost. I like Latin, so that was a relief.
The biggest thing I got out of this book was that I need to read more than I already do. It referred to a ...more

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Oct 05, 2008 Kelly rated it did not like it

I really, really wanted to love this book. My uncle (McLaughlin) gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago and I finally got around to reading it. However, it was so academic that it was difficult to understand. I felt like I was reading for a class on the history of Ireland. I wanted something explained in an easy to follow fashion, and this was not.

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