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76 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
some. Thus many of the most famous Irish monasteries were linked through their founders with St Finnian, and through him with Cadoc and Gildas.
Other famous monasteries were Kildare, founded by St Brighid; Bangor in county Down founded by St Comghall; Glendalough in county Wicklow founded by St Kevin; Moville, in Down, founded by St Finnian, not he of Clonard fame; Inis Cathaigh or Scattery Island, near Kilrush, county Clare, founded by St Sennan; Inishmurray in Sligo Bay and Devenish Island on Lough Erne, founded by St. Molaise; and Lismore in county Waterford, founded by St Carrthach/Carthage.
It should not be forgotten though, that the location of all the aforementioned mon- asteries were previously sites of druidic learning, and in Walkers Memoir’s of the Irish Bards, published in 1786, Joseph Cooper Walker, when referencing this point observed: “all the eminent schools, delectably situated, which were established by the Christian clergy in the fifth century, were erected on the ruins of the old Ollamh colleges.”
As we now know, Ireland was at peace at this time, and as learning and civilization can- not thrive fully in lands torn asunder by war, as Europe was then, if a citizen of another country felt the calling to the religous life, or for that matter a life devoted to the peaceful study of letters, he or she, more than likely gravitated to Ireland. And so widespread did the fame of these monasteries and schools, latter day centres of excellence, become, that thousands of students flocked to them from Germany, Italy, France, and Britain, which was by this time re-named “England.”
When writing about the Ireland of those days, the 19th century French author, oriental- ist and antiquarian, Professor James Darmesteter stated:
“Ireland was the asylum of the higher learning which took refuge there from the uncul- tured states of Europe. The Renaissance began in Ireland 700 years before it was known in Italy. At one time Armagh, the ecclestiastical capital of Ireland, was the metropolis of civilisation.”
In his 1818 publication, The Ecclesiastical History of the Church of Christ, the renowned English scholar, Dr Isaac Milner, concurred with his French counterpart when he wrote:
“The Irish clergy were then the luminaries of the Western World. To them we are in- debted for the preservation of the Bible, the Fathers, and the classics. Then, a residence in Ireland, like a residence now at a university, was almost essential to establish a literary reputation.”
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