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

The pre-Christian Irish prose epic Tain Bo Cuailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) was recorded in the eighth century, but the tale is probably much older, reflecting “a rough, strange [pagan] world” that is “both simple and full of barbarian splendor” and different from classical Greco-Roman literature (76). Though the epic’s characters are uncivilized, they exhibit a distinct Irish confidence.

The Irish are Celtic in ethnicity. Celtic peoples settled in ancient Iberia, Gaul, and Britain. When the Germanic Angles and Saxons arrived in Great Britain, they pushed the Celts into Wales and Cornwall. Around 350 BCE, the Celts arrived in Ireland. Most came from Iberia, while others arrived from Britain. In fact, the Irish language is most closely related to that of the Iberian Celts.

The Irish creation myth is pagan in origin, grounded in historical information, and includes later Christian influences. The sons of Mil arrive in Ireland after a great flood in Iberia. The Celts displace the indigenous tribe called Tuatha De Danaan, who morph into mythological creatures, including the leprechauns and fairies of later Irish legends. Literature shows that Ireland was “an illiterate, aristocratic, seminomadic, Iron Age warrior culture […]” (81).