● The National Museum in Kildare Street, Dublin, displays some of the most important examples of this work – the Ardagh Chalice, the Cross of Cong (Mayo) and the Bell of St Patrick and its shrine.
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A crozier The Ardagh Chalice Derrynaflan Hoard
The Tara Brooch Filigree on the side of the Ardagh Chalice 5 To Europe
Irish monks became great Latin scholars. Some Irish monks went abroad to found monasteries. ● St Colmcille went to Scotland to found the monastery of Iona. St Columbanus and his followers travelled to the Continent and founded many monasteries in France, Switzerland and Italy.
● The Irish monks produced manuscripts in the Irish style and converted non- Christian tribes to Christianity. Historians look on this time as a ‘Golden Age’ in Irish learning.
● Irish missionaries ‘helped to make [the Continent] ready for the flowering of learning which was to follow in ninth-century Gaul [France].’ (Hughes)
6 St Patrick’s Day and the Irish diaspora
By the 20th century, St Patrick and the coming of Christianity became part of Irish national identity (a sense of being Irish).
St Patrick’s Day on 17 March is a national holiday. Irish people in Ireland and abroad celebrate this day. St Patrick, and stories associated with him, have become part of Irish national identity. The national holiday is now a major tourist attraction, as cities and towns in Ireland hold parades to celebrate St Patrick. Abroad, in cities such as New York and London, St Patrick’s Day brings the Irish diaspora (Irish people abroad) together.