This is the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe.

Every year millions celebrate St Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization.

Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars" - and preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians.

Thomas Cahill tells how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place.

Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization - copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost - they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task.

As Cahill illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated.

How The Irish Saved Civilization reconstructs an era few know about but which is central to understanding our past and our cultural heritage. It conveys its knowledge with a winking wit that aptly captures the sensibility of the unsung Irish who relaunched civilization.

How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill is a first edition published in 1995 by Hodder and Stoughton, London.

Subtitled The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, it is a 246-page 15.5x23.5cm soft cover in as-new condition.

There is a series of photographs, artwork, poems and maps.

Pickup is North Shore, Auckland, close to harbour bridge.

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BC3075Bk