Above : St. Columbanus

The introduction of Christianity had a profound influence on the Gaelic language. The culture of the new religion, accompanied by the increased use of writing, created a new technical vocabulary. New words had to be created for the new worship and its ritual, its clergy, and its churches, and these were, of necessity, borrowed from the Latin language. From Latin also were taken nearly all the words relating to everything connected with writing and reading. Nearly all the Gaelic words for ecclesiastical and literary matters are, therefore, derived directly from Latin.

The native language was employed by the early Christian writers in Ireland to a much greater extent than the vernacular of other countries was used by their missionaries. This fact testifies to its high state of development.

This was an epoch, also, of striking importance in Irish art. That the Pagan Irish had attained to a high standard of artistic skill is fully proved by the many bronze and gold ornaments which have been preserved. The designs of the Pagan or ” Heroic ” period, as it is called, differ considerably, however, from those later designs which are now distinctively called ” Irish Art.” The early designs are arrangements of curves, spirals, lozenges, concentric circles, etc., such as are found in most other early civilisations. There was one pattern, however, which was distinctly characteristic of Pagan Irish art. This was the ” diverging spiral” or ” trumpet ” pattern. At the Christian Era of Ireland there was introduced a new style of art which had travelled across Europe from the East. This was the ” interlaced ” pattern of bands and ribbons, twisted and knotted in great variety. No trace of this pattern is found in the pre-Christian art of Ireland. But in Ireland this pattern was now cultivated and developed and brought to its highest perfection. Combining with it the Pagan designs, and in particular the ” trumpet” pattern, the Irish artists made the intricate interlaced work so distinctly their own that now it is peculiarly known as the ” Irish ” style of decoration. This is the style found in the early illuminated manuscripts.

We have seen how the Irish missionaries had revived religion and learning in great stretches of territory in Britain and in Europe. With them they had brought their Gaelic literature and Irish art, the memorials of which are found in libraries and museums from Stockholm and Petrograd to Rome and Vienna. But in other and wider spheres of scholarship the Irish on the Continent also shone. The learning of Columbanus was universally recognised : Virgilius was a celebrated geometer : Sedulius or Siadhal established a new form of Latin poetry in the fifth century : St. Ultan was employed to teach church music to the nuns in Flanders : Clement and Albinus were placed by Charlemagne at the head of two great seminaries. And these were only the earliest of the Irish scholars on the Continent.