With the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, it fell to us Irish, to our glory, to save Western Civilisation. It was Irish monks who copied and preserved almost all of Western classical poetry, history, oratory, philosophy and commentary. It was in the Ireland of St. Patrick and the Book of Kells that, safely distant in the West and away from the barbarian despoliation of the European continent, monks and scribes laboriously, lovingly even, preserved the West’s written treasury.

As Thomas Cahill records in How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe “when stability returned in Europe, these Irish scholars were instrumental in spreading learning, becoming not only the conservators of civilization, but also the shapers of the medieval mind, putting their unique stamp on Western culture.” Ireland became “Europe’s publisher” as warrior-monks followed Columcille’s example and began to colonise barbarised Europe.

Whereas once before in distant European history the Irish preserved documents to save Europe from barbarians, Ireland could now vote down a document and save Europe from the bureaucrats. Ireland, alone of all the nations of Europe, will hold a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty…