According to legend it was St. Patrick who single-handedly brought Christianity to the Irish. This is, however, more legend than history. The first historic mention of Christianity in Ireland comes in 431 when Palladius was sent by Pope Celestine I to “the Irish believing in Christ.” This phrase shows that there were at least some Irish who were Christian by this time.
The first Irish churches were organized along British lines: small communities ruled over by their own bishop. During the sixth century, and perhaps earlier, there was a shift to monastic communities. By the seventh century the monastic system dominated Irish Christianity. Under this monastic system, the Irish churches gave primacy of authority to the abbot, not to the bishop. The abbot was usually the heir of the founding saint and succession from father to son was common. The abbots was often laymen or in minor orders.
Soon Irish monks were establishing monasteries outside of Ireland. One of the first of these for which we have historic records was the monastery of Iona founded by Colum Cille off the west coast of Scotland in 563. Some of the Iona monks sailed north to the Arctic ice-pack and established hermitages on the smaller North Sea islands and Iceland.
Christianity is a religion of the book and this means that the Irish Christians had to learn to read and write the book which formed the basis of their religion. By 600 the first Irish manuscripts emerge, and none of them were written in Continental hand. “Irish hand” was a very distinctive—and many would say beautiful—form of writing. There is a beauty and perfection in the script which dazzles the eye.
Columbanus, the first Irish missionary to the continent, wrote a letter to Pope Gregory the Great in 600 in which he severely chastised the pope for views which were not in accord with those of the Irish.
The Irish monasteries had developed some distinct architectural characteristics by the end of the eighth century. First there was an enclosing bank or vallum which was often a double enclosure. The inner bank enclosed the church and the cemetery while the outer bank defined the area where domestic and craft activities were carried out.
While most of the buildings constructed with the monastery were made out of wood, stone buildings with stone roofs are another characteristic of some of the monasteries.
Shown above is St. Kevin’s Church at Glendalough. It has a stone roof. St. Kevin was a hermit monk who moved to Glendalough in the sixth century.
Another distinctive characteristic of the Irish monasteries is the stone tower. While these are referred to as cloigtech (belfry) in the Irish texts, they were not actually bell towers as they were not equipped with bells, which appear to have been unknown in the monasteries until the twelfth century. The tower was tall and tapering with a conical cap. There were usually four windows at the top. One of the functions of the towers may have been to provide storage of valuables.
Shown above is the stone tower at Glendalough. This tower is about 30 meters (100 feet) high with an entrance about 3.5 meters (12 feet) from the ground. The tower had six timber floors, each connected by ladders. Each of the four stories above the entrance has a small window which provides light into the room. This tower is built of mica-slate interspersed with granite.
The archaeological evidence suggests that the stone towers were built between the ninth and the twelfth centuries. Since this is also the period of the Viking raids, a common misconception is that they were constructed in response to these raids. This is not substantiated by the archaeological evidence. Most were built in the Midlands—an area away from the coast and the Viking raids. Some archaeologists feel that the towers were a status symbol showing that the monastery was rich and powerful.
The Irish monasteries were communities which had economic functions as well as religious functions. Many of the members of the monasteries were laypeople.
The gate house into the monastic community at Glendalough is shown above. This house controlled entry into the monastery. The gate house at Glendalough is actually unique in Ireland. It was originally two-storied with a timber roof.
Cemeteries were an important part of the monasteries. Most frequently these are located to the south of the church and may have originated as an open area whose focal point was a cross-slab of the founder’s tomb. The cemetery at Glendalough is shown above.
Details of the stonework at Glendalough are shown above.