How the Irish Saved Civilization:

The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe

By Thomas Cahill, 1995

♣

The first in the Hinges of History nonfiction series, Thomas Cahill’s book How The Irish Saved Civilization gathers facts and materials not taught in most classrooms. This historian presents them in a logical array that is easy to read, because it engages the reader in only about 240 pages with lively stories of the fascinating lives of historical characters. The illustrations and photo images are quite a nice addition. Understanding the timeline is aided by some background knowledge of Ancient History, but readers without that can easily reference Information Please or Britannica Online for some quick facts.

Controversy burns around the edges of this book. Irish-declaimers maintain that Cahill’s material is inaccurate and that the Irish could not save themselves, let alone the read or write – and certainly unable to produce literate and artistic works – surely not scriptural! A dead common notion and dead wrong.

As the Celts migrated westward from Europe to inhabit France, the Iberian Penninsula, and finally Ireland and Scotland, they became popular in gossip as those that strip naked for battle, save sandals and a neck choker, and whipped themselves into a frightening fury before a fight. They were typecast as being only this image.

Some believe the same misinformation today. The bad data has also bee laid on the Scots and most other ethnic group by the “majorities” of the world since Isaac and Ishmael. There must be template form-letter somewhere in which the next complaining group up at bat can fill in the ethnic group of their choice –

Career Political and Science Fiction author Frederick Pohl reminded the public of all this back in 1967 with his short story The Martians Are Coming (This was during the middle years of Star Trek: The Original Series, in which prejudice against blacks and Russians was a hot topic). In the Pohl story, Martians are discovered in a war on Mars with Earth, brought here, and slotted by reporters of every media giant into every old ethnic joke around. The joke pointed out as “formerly” about the Irish and now about Martians is the most highlighted and appalling at once. At story’s end, an African-American is glad that another race has emerged to take the prejudicial heat.

The contents of Mr. Cahill’s book contradicts stereotypes of malodorous, naked, drunken Celtic barbarians and malodorous, naked, drunken Catholic barbarians after conversion.