Salon.com Audio | Thomas Cahill

Search About Salon Table Talk Newsletters Advertise in Salon Investor Relations


	Search All of Salon.com Only Audio The Web with Directory Hot Topics Mr. Lif Cary Tennis Audio Edgar Allen Poe Aimee Mann Michael Chabon M.L. King, jr. BOMB Magazine Audio Neil Gaiman Audio by Genre Music Reviews Biography Fiction Nonfiction Poetry Self-help Articles by date All of Salon.com By department



	Arts & Entertainment - The Movie Page Books Business Comics Health Mothers Who Think News People Politics Sex Technology - Free Software Project Audio - Salon Radio Letters Columnists Table Talk Salon Plus Salon Shop Salon Radio Corrections



	Table Talk [Free, spirited Salon forums] The evolution of Bob Dylan. Cover me: Your favorite version of your favorite song. Posts of the week The Well [Pioneering members-only discussions] Motorbike medicine: Caring for yourself on- and off-road Sound Off E-mail Salon Send us a Letter to the Editor Today's letters


	Downloads Get Salon.com on your PDA Salon.com headlines from My Netscape More ways to get Salon

Thomas Cahill
How the Irish Saved Civilization

From the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagne -- the "dark ages" -- learning, scholarship, and culture disappeared from the European continent. The great heritage of Western civilization -- from the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian works -- would have been utterly lost were it not for the holy men and women of the unconquered Ireland.

Print story

E-mail story

Backflip this story to find it again

In "How the Irish Saved Civilzation"[BDD Audio], a delightful and illuminating look into a crucial but little-known "hinge" of history, Thomas Cahill takes us to the "island of saints and scholars," the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells. Here, far from the barbarian despoliation of the continent, monks and scribes laboriously, lovingly, even playfully preserved the West's written treasury. With the return of stability in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning. Thus the Irish not only were concervators of civilization, but became shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on Western culture.

Performed by Donal Donnelly, this entertaining and compelling narrative is brought to you by BDD Audio.

How the Irish Saved Civilization

Download: MP3 [3.5 MB]

Stream: Real Media

Duration: 7:36

Click to buy

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sound Off
Send us a Letter to the Editor

Salon.com >> Audio

	Don't get sunburned! Cover up with a Salon T-shirt this summer. More great offers in Salon Plus






	Need Help? Need help playing MP3 and RealAudio files? Check out our Audio How-To Page! - - - - - - - - - - - -

	Current Stories T-Love: "Long Way Back" Female rapper T-Love revisits hip-hop's golden era with playful, politically progressive lyrics over tight beats and jazzy riffs. By Celeste Dawn Mitchell Watchers: "To the Rooftops" This Chicago art-punk quintet supplies a sophisticated blend of funk rhythms, synthesized strings and crunchy guitar slices. By Rob Young Antipop Consortium vs. Matthew Shipp Two outstanding releases in the avant-jazz Blue Series, plus the solo debut by APC rapper Beans, take hip-hop/jazz fusion to new places. By Ehren Gresehover Califone: "Quicksand/ Cradlesnakes" Early American folk and blues merge intriguingly with off-kilter electronic sounds. By Thomas Bartlett

Need help playing audio files? Visit our Audio How-to Page

If you are ONLY seeing this and the footer of the page, we believe you are running a Norton/Symantec product which is causing this to happen. Please go to this help page and allow our URL (salon.com)