Ireland: Its Ancient Civilisation and Social Customs. 47 



Italy. To this monastery the Irish monks brought from Bangor 

 a manuscript containing the Liturgy of the ancient Irish Church, 

 which has been translated in recent years. The ancient monastic 

 schools perpetuated the teaching of the older Bardic schools, with 

 this difference — that Christian ethics were taught instead of 

 Pagan. Some instances were given of how exceedingly careful 

 were some of the ancient Irish teachers of the strict observance 

 of Sunday, in which all manual labour was totally avoided. The 

 first great breach in the progress of civilisation in Ireland was 

 the invasion of the Danes. They arrived first in the year 795, 

 first coming as maurauders, and returning with their plunder. 

 They next came to remain and take possession of the country. 

 It was at this period the round towers were built, as places of 

 refuge, as the churches and monasteries were the first places 

 the Danish invaders attacked, being possessed of the greatest 

 wealth and the least power of resistance. The Danes largely 

 influenced Irish affairs ; they were great sailors and traders, as 

 well as pirates. The founded all the Irish towns, as Dublin, 

 Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Carlingford, and others. 

 The Irish were a pastoral people, livmg in the country, tending 

 their flocks and herds, so that the founding of trading stations 

 around the coast was a great innovation on the old system. 

 The Danes became Christianised, and though finally beaten at 

 Clontarf, they did not wholly leave Ireland, but many remained 

 and inter-married with the natives, so that the Irish to-day are 

 the descendants of the various races referred to, as well as of the 

 Anglo-Normans who came later. When the Normans came 

 they built strong castles to defend their territory. The Irish 

 preferred the wooded fastnesses of the country, and it was a long 

 time before they erected stone castles. The Anglo-Normans 

 brought over English monks, who built the Franciscan and 

 Cistercian monasteries and the Dominican friaries. The old 

 Celtic monasteries gradually disappeared, as Irishmen were 

 thought to be too favourable to the Irish cause and native 

 Princes, When the monasteries were suppressed by Henry 

 VIII. a great blow was given to learning and culture, as the 



