OPINION (AN COLÚN): Cycling through a corridor of green and song

On Saturday Rosalind and myself cycled from Pullough to Tullamore, following the Grand Canal. This route has been recently resurfaced and is a joy to cycle. We were amazed to see only a couple other people using the trail, because we thought that with the easing of the restrictions there would be a lot more.
My upper left arm ached as we cycled. This was because I had received my Covid vaccination at my local GP's the day before. In a room of seven people we were injected with the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine. Another four weeks and I can get my second jab.
How much protection does one get with just one jab of Pfizer? The literature varies on this, stating anything from 50% to 90% protection.
Apart from a sore arm and a headache most people are fine after the injection. However, I have heard of people who have been pretty sick afterwards and felt somewhat whacked for a day or two.
I couldn't sleep on my left arm for a couple of days and then I was right as rain.
When I got the inoculation I felt a little emotional – a slight lump in the throat – which took me by surprise. I suppose it's not surprising considering everything that society has been through over the last 14 months.
As we cycled along the Grand Canal Way there was much to admire, including myriad cowslips, bluebells, Victorian canal locks and restored lock-keeper cottages, a bounteous bird life, a green corridor of trees and bushes, expansive bogland stretching away to the dark purple form of the Slieve Blooms on the horizon, and the beautiful, green Offaly pastureland. The main impression for the cyclist was being surrounded for much of the way on all sides by lush green and fantastic birdsong, of being charmed by the countryside of Offaly as we pedalled through a corridor of green and song.
On the left we could see Rahan monastic site and ruins. Back in 2008 Taoiseach Brian Cowen launched a conservation plan for this site, an event which was attended by four Cistercian monks who sang plainchant at the beginning of the launch. Brian apologised for being a bit late on the occasion, joking that his behaviour had disimproved since his schooldays in Cistercian College Roscrea when he would never have dared to have been late! He spoke about the beauty of the 800 year old church of St Carthage at Rahan and what a vital role Irish monks played in preserving European culture during the Dark Ages.
In 1995 Thomas Cahill published a very popular book called “How the Irish saved Civilisation: The untold story of Ireland's heroic role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe.” Cahill argued the case that the Irish played a critical role in preserving Western Civilisation from destruction by the barbarian tribes (which included the Huns, Visigoths, Franks, Angles and Saxons). His book has since divided readers. Many point out that he overstated the case. Others say that he may indeed have got some facts wrong, or sometimes went a bit over the top, but he did a considerable service by shining a bright light on Ireland's important role in the post-Roman era. I think it's true that he sometimes does overstate the case, but he's right in taking great pride in Ireland's wonderful contribution. It might be fashionable nowadays to sneer at the title of “The Land of Saints and Scholars”, but there is a considerable amount of truth in the title. When the barbarians were doing very little, if anything, for the advancement of civilisation, there was a light of knowledge and decency shining in Ireland and thanks to the hard work of countless Irish monks much classical literature was saved from destruction.
Some critical readers of the book point out the Western World isn't the whole of civilization. For example, there was much to admire about China during the period from Rome's fall to the rise of medieval Europe. Also, it wasn't just the marvellous Irish monks who preserved the literature of the ancient world. There were many scholars hard at work in the Eastern Roman Empire, which remained in existence until 1453. In Constantinople they had great reverence for the literature of ancient Greece.
Cahill claims the Irish monks were more liberal in what they copied than elsewhere; that the Irish monks were more openminded. He also claims that the "literature of ancient Greece was well enough preserved at Byzantium, but Latin literature would almost certainly surely have been lost without the Irish." Again, he might be overstating things in both of these claims, but it's open to debate and it's hard to find copperfastened answers. Certainly, a lot of Latin literature would have been lost if it hadn't been for the Irish. I think it's true to say also that the early Irish monks would have had a less censorious attitude to life than those who came after them. They wouldn't have had any problem with the works of Sappho, for example, which they would have considered to be cultural artefacts. Sappho's poems were preserved, some state, until nearly 1000 AD when the church destroyed whatever it could find. In 1073, it's claimed, her writings were publicly burned in Rome and Constantinople by order of Pope Gregory VIII.
Cahill points out that the Irish monks taught about God's love for all creatures and people despite their foibles, they developed universities and brought limited literacy to lay people, and Irish missionaries brought their tolerant Christian beliefs and love of writing across Europe. There is much to be proud of in all of that.
At the 2008 launch Brian Cowen said Rahan monastic site is a wonderful example of a monument which is an important element of both our national and European heritage. “It is of immense local importance to the archaeological and architectural heritage of this historic county.” He added that he was greatly encouraged by the level of community enthusiasm for heritage projects in Offaly.
The monastic site at Rahan has been a place of Christian worship for over 1,500 years. The church at the centre of the large circular enclosure at the site dates back to the 12th Century. This church contains impressive Romanesque doorway and windows, a very fine 12th century Chancel arch, and carvings surrounding the 15th century window. The capitals are carved with heads illustrating contemporary chieftains of the area with beards and curling moustaches. A Romanesque window is decorated with mythical beasts, human heads and possibly an exhibitionist figure.
As well as saving much Latin literature the early Irish monks also wrote beautiful nature poetry, such as this short lyric, which probably dates from the 9th Century, and whose author is, as always with these early Irish poems, unknown: “Blackbird from the willow sings / Lovely beak a clear call rings: / Tuneful gold on solid black / Twines the tune and braids it back.”