This summer, I will be leading a historical tour of Ireland. The tour, which will include both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, will hit a lot of history, from an Iron Age ring fort to walking tours of Dublin, Belfast, and Derry touching on recent history in those cities. It will also include some sightseeing and fun sites, including the Guinness Storehouse and the Powerscourt Estate and Gardens in Dublin, the picturesque town of Westport, the Cliffs of Moher, Blarney Castle, and others. But the focus of the tour will be on Celtic Christianity

Celtic Christianity has been a popular topic, but unfortunately, there has been on the one hand an overly romanticized picture of the early Irish church, and on the other, a backlash that denies any real distinctives about Celtic Christianity. During the tour, we’ll be looking at the history and nature of Celtic Christianity while debunking some of the misconceptions about it along the way.

One thing that was certainly not a myth was the incredible art produced by early Irish Christians. We’ll be visiting Trinity College in Dublin to see the Book of Kells, the greatest of the Celtic illuminated manuscripts, as well as the National Museum in Dublin which houses many of the most important surviving artifacts of the early Irish church, including the Ardagh Chalice and a range of artifacts from the monastery of Glendalough.

Speaking of monasteries, one of the unique elements of Celtic Christianity was their approach to monasticism. Unlike on the continent, where the church was centered on bishops who ran things in their diocese, Irish Christianity was centered on monasteries. In fact, in Ireland bishops answered to abbots (the heads of monasteries) rather than the other way around. The reason for this probably has to do with the lack of real cities in Ireland and a social structure built around clans. Many monasteries were integrated into the clans, with clan leaders often doubling as leaders of the monasteries.

We’ll be visiting the monastic site in Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains National Park south of Dublin, the source of the artifacts at the National Museum. Glendalough was one of the most important monasteries in Ireland. It was founded by St. Kevin in the sixth century and developed into a “monastic city.”

Later in the tour, we’ll be heading to the Aran Islands, where we will look at the remains from another, more austere and primitive form of Irish monasticism. On Inishmore, Enda founded the first monastery in Ireland. His monastery was based on models coming from the Desert Fathers of Egypt. The monks lived alone in stone cells, ate together in silence, and lived by hard manual labor, which they combined with prayer and studying the Scriptures. Enda’s monastery was not only foundational for Celtic monasticism, but it also laid the foundation for Ireland to become the “Island of Saints and Scholars.”

We’ll also be exploring Ireland’s impressive contributions to learning, including their influence on writing. Among other things, we’ll note the importance of Ireland’s pre-Christian pagan religion in shaping the Irish Christian approach to scholarship.

We’ll be seeing other early Christian sites, including the Gallarus Oratory and the Rock of Cashel, but we will look at other elements of Ireland’s medieval history as well. In Dublin, we will visit the Dublinia, a living history museum dedicated to Viking and medieval Ireland. And while we’re in Northern Ireland we’ll visit the Giant’s Causeway and learn some Irish folklore.

I’ll be giving historical lectures on the bus as we travel, and we’ll have local guides and experts explaining the locations we visit. And our tour director will also be filling in a lot of information along the way.

For an itinerary and more information as well as directions on signing up, click here. Space is limited due to the size of the bus, so if you are interested or curious, I’d encourage you to look into it now.