The Irish standard., 1894-04-07
An Able Exposition of the Undying
Intellectual Glory Of An
cient ireland.
ITS FAMOUS FREE SCHOOLS.
No Nation of Modern Europe SO
Rich in Literature as the
Sea-Girt Isle.

| ton: n
Nothing could be further from the
! truth, said the learned doctor, than the
unfounded impression studiously dis
seminated by Ireland's enemies that the
Norman knights and clergy who invaded
the country in the twelfth century
brought her the first elements of the arts
and sciences
OF all the wrongs done to the Irish the
most refined was to obliterate from their
minds all the "reminiscences of their past
intellectual glories, and especially, OF
those three famous centuries when they
were the schoolmasters of Europe To
understand thus phase of their history one
must recall what was taking place on the
continent. Barbarian nations from the
north and east flooded with their hordes
the fairest provinces OF the Roman Em-
pire and deluged with blood those lands
now called France, Italy, England, Spain,
Switzerland and Austria. The light Of
civilization which had been fed for 9
thousand years by Thousand streams Of
Greek and Roman culture went out. The
social, political and intellectual con
quests of Graeco- Roman humanity were
abolished, and horrid barbarism estab-
lished in their place. So great was the
ruin that the writer's OF the age were
struck dumb. They found no words to
express the utter collapse of the ancient
civilization. Practically, we are reduced
for our knowledge of it to the evidence
of our eyes-that is, to the colossal
wreckage of antiquity which offsnds the
sight of every European traveller. Moth
ing disappeared more completely than
the great schools Of antiquity. The libra
ries were burned or scattered, the teach
ers reduced to slavery or forced to wan
der over the face of the earth. The VIC
tory of ignorance and brutality was alb
solutely complete upon the continent.
1t was then that the great schools OF
Ireland arose. If the man who opens q
school among the pioneers of the wilder
ness is worthy of eternal gratitude, what
should be the guerdon of those holy men
who built countless schools in every
lovely valley and on every rounded hill
top Of Ireland, who dotted the islands of
it's lakes with schools and wove prec-
ious girdle of abbeys and monasteries
around the picturesque seacoast of the
entire island, spots which were like so
many beacons of welcome and consola-
tion to the thousands of souls who fed
westward from the wars and disorders OF
the continent? The ancient Irish were
a people extremely refined in many re.
spects; with barbaric and warlike tastes
indeed, but gifted, generous, ardent and
inclined to the mystic and spiritual ideas
Of creation. The highest cast among
them was that of the literary men, the
Druids, bards, and the like. They were
the equals of the great nobility, and even
exercised sort Of supreme jurisdiction
over their public and private conduct.
They were sort of balance wheel in the
loose and imperfect Irish constitution.
When the race was converted, the poll
tical framework remained unchanged,
only that Christian Bishops, priests and
monks slipped into the places and privi-
leges vacated by the bsrds and Druids,
and the system of education, from being
pagan, national and inkular, became
christian in spirit, ecclesiastical in man
agemeut and Roman or universal
throughout the united action Of the La.
tin tongue and of continental literature
and studies.
The lecture went on to say that he
could not enumerate all the remarkable
schools. There is not county in Ireland
over which are not strewn the ruins OF
schools, lay and ecclesiastical, in which
were taught from the fifth to the ak
teenth centuries the elements Of divine
and human sciences. and that supreme
knowledge OF all, the art Of self mastery
and self-discipline. The schools Of Kill
dare, Eeg. Erin, Wexford Bay, Noendrum,
Moville, Abbey Grey, Inch, Mahee are
8 celebrated as those Of Olonfert, Emily,
Kilbannon and Ross. However, il order
70 give moro detailed idea the lecturer
singled out q few q these schools 6
which he rave 8 summary deecrip ion.