During the seventh and eighth centuries this was one of the most frequented centres of learning. St. Kevin's house is seen on the left of the picture and the round tower in the middle. PREFACE "IRELAND'S STORY" has been written not as a record of the dead past, but as a beacon for the living future. It is inspired by a belief in the Irish race, now spread far beyond its island home, through many lands, beneath many skies. The Irish race has a great part to play in the history of the future; and present and future can be understood only by a knowledge of the past. The story of Ireland may be viewed in many ways. First, as a part of universal history: its ancient traditions are rich and full of clues to the races of the early world; its archaic treasures are abundant; its old stone monuments wonderfully preserved. In illumining the shadowy dawn of early Europe, and especially of those northern lands whose children now lead the world, no country can aid us so much as Ireland. Then we must reckon Ireland's early heroic poems and tales, ampler than those of any European land, save only Greece and Italy, and giving us the truest and richest picture of the archaic life of Europe, still untouched by Greece and Rome. The great personages of the Irish epics stand out as clear as the heroic figures who fought around Troy, or the inspired leaders of Attica and Sparta and the City of the Seven Hills. Next comes Ireland's part in the Drama of Faith. Ireland may well be called the new Ark of the Covenant; for in the little western isle was stored up the treasure of the Gospel, brought thither first by Patrick. |