ts from the country of
their origin. This isolation drives them into insular communion with
the country of their invasion. Thus, however often invaded and
"planted," Ireland has continued detached.

This detachment has been apparent ever since the earliest dawn of
Western civilisation. Right up to the Norman Conquest Ireland remained
apart and aloof from Central European influences. For long ages she had
been the rallying-place of the Celt as he was driven westward by the
Teuton and the Roman. Even after Great Britain had been absorbed by the
Roman Empire, Ireland still remained unconquered, the one home of
freedom in Western Europe. This independence of Rome continued far into
the Christian era. Ireland developed a separate Christianity of a
peculiarly elevated and noble type, full of missionary zeal and
inspired by high culture. That Christianity even swept eastward, and
for a time dominated Scotland and England from its homes in Iona and
Lindisfarne. This Irish Christianity brought upon itself the enmity of
Rome by continuing the Eastern tonsure and the Eastern ritual, and
finally, at the great Synod at Whitby in the year 664[7], Rome
conquered in the struggle for Britain, and the Irish religion was
driven back across the sea.

But Rome and European Christianity, as it was represented in the Roman
spirit, achieved a very slow victory over Ireland herself. The English
Pope Adrian gave to Henry II. a full permission to conquer Ireland for
the faith. But it was fated that Irish Catholicism should be built up
not by submission to the Catholic Kings of England, but by resistance
to the Protestant Kings from Henry VIII. onward. Thus it is that, even
in religion, in spite of the passionate loyalty of the modern Irishman
to the Roman See, Ireland still stands somewhat distinct and aloof from
the rest of Europe.

But if that be so in religion, still more is it so in customs and
manners. Take the analogy of a mould. The Celtic civilisation of
Ireland is like a mould, into which fresh metal has been always
pouring; white-hot, glowing metal from all over the world, from England
and Scotland, from France, from Rome, and even from far-off Spain. But
though the metal has always been changing, the mould still remains
unbroken, and as the metal has emerged in its fixed form it has always
taken the Celtic shape. So that to-day, in face of the Imperialistic
tendencies of the British Empire, Ireland remains more than ever
passionate