Excerpt from The Boyne Valley The dark days of paganism were marked by a culture and civilisation which, if not more advanced, was at least comparable with that of other countries Significant, indeed, was the manner in which the era of Christianity began to convert the Irish people to new beliefs. In the heart of paganism, within a few miles of Tara, St. Patrick began his work. This work, however, brought about the decay of Tara its great festivities and cultural activities gradually came to an end. Midway through the first millennium of Christianity, monasteries were established and saintly monks worked unceasingly to spread the Faith. The growth of Christianity was marked by troubled times when the monks were forced to go into hiding. For this purpose, as well as other uses, round towers were built to provide protection. Also prominent amongst the relics of early Christianity are several High Crosses of Celtic design, embellished with Biblical scenes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.