Early Christian Ireland
One feature not usually found outside Ireland is the round tower, such as that at Clonmacnoise in County Offaly. These were usually built within the monasteries that sprang up all over the island, as the country became the "land of saints and scholars". They were possibly defensive in nature, serving as lookout posts and a place of refuge during an attack (the door to such structures was usually quite high off the ground). Viking raids on Ireland's shores and monasteries were relatively common.
Eventually some Vikings settled permanently in Ireland, and the main cities were established by the Vikings. Although no buildings from that era are now intact, some street arrangements have their origins in the original Viking layouts. Remains of Viking dwellings have been discovered in many locations, but notably at Wood Quay in Dublin, King John's Castle in Limerick and near Waterford (where what is thought to be the original settlement at Waterford has been uncovered in 2004 during construction of the city's ring road).
Read more about this topic: Architecture Of The Republic Of Ireland
Famous quotes containing the words early, christian and/or ireland:
“Very early in our children’s lives we will be forced to realize that the “perfect” untroubled life we’d like for them is just a fantasy. In daily living, tears and fights and doing things we don’t want to do are all part of our human ways of developing into adults.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“Surely the one thing needful for a Christian and an Englishman to study is Christian and moral and political philosophy, and then we should see our way a little more clearly without falling into Judaism, or Toryism, or Jacobinism, or any other ism whatever.”
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842)
“Out of Ireland have we come,
Great hatred, little room
Maimed us at the start.
I carry from my mother’s womb
A fanatic’s heart.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)