This module deals with what has traditionally been known as Ireland’s 'Golden Age'. Having begun with a brief introduction to prehistoric Ireland, it covers in more detail the period from the arrival of Christianity in the fifth century to the eve of the first Viking attacks at the end of the eighth.

 

The focus is wide-ranging, from early Irish politics and the emergence of a high-kingship to St Patrick and the impact of Christianisation, from Brehon law and the bonds of society to the study of landscape and settlement and early Irish farming, and from Hiberno-Latin and Gaelic literature to the visual art that culminated in the creation of the greatest masterpiece of the Golden Age, the Book of Kells.