THIS collection brings together 34 of Liam de Paor's shorter writings (many from his Roots column and occasional pieces in The Irish Times in the 1970s and early 1980s), unpublished lectures and one gem (on the Derrynaflan Treasure) from a shortlived magazine rescued from bibliographical oblivion.
Only slightly edited for republication, the older articles have stood up remarkably well to advances in knowledge. De Paor sees himself in his modest preface as partaking of the diffidence about the Irish past that he and his contemporaries felt was a necessary antidote to nationalist or ethnicist fantasies - but he was a pioneer of much new thinking, and we can now see how influential his occasional writings were.
The range of subject matter is impressive and the linking theme of the selection is acculturation, or the impact of one culture upon another. This he examines in a number of ways. The origins of peoples and cultures uneasily labelled Celtic in mainland Europe, and their interaction with the Mediterranean and insular world, are explored in a number of pieces and related with great subtlety to modern attitudes - nowhere better than in "Central Europeans, Ancient and Modern which takes as its starting point the auditorium built by the Nazis within a prehistoric enclosure at Heidelberg. This, at one period at least, was occupied by people plausibly identified as Celtic.
From there he takes us on a whirlwind tour of the archaeology of the Celtic peoples in Europe; and he ends by telling us what is now a commonplace, that in Ireland classic archaeologically defined Celtic culture is only peripherally represented, and in confined areas at that.
In passing, he reminds us that romantic ancestor worship of the last two hundred years has tended to obscure rather than illuminate the past. This he might also have flagged in his preface as an important theme, because de Paor constantly warns us not to convert suppositions into facts.
His essay on the Elgin marbles and their fate starts dispassionately, but ends with a powerful plea for their return to Athens. In doing so, he explores the nature of museums and how they frequently express the values of colonialism - an issue he subtly illuminates by a consideration of the pastiche of their original architectural setting in which the Parthenon sculptures are displayed in London. He ponders aspects of the Anglo Norman conquest in essays on Domhnall Mor Ua Briain - who retarded their advance into Munster - and on their defeat in Co Clare in the 14th century. In both, he illuminates the tedious catalogue of military campaigns with a skilful commentary on dynastic relationships and the workings of Realpolitik. He relates warfare and politics to topography, to the surviving monuments and to patronage of the arts, and speculates on their long term cultural effects.
Several essays deal with the European and British origins of early Christianity in Ireland. (The christianisation of Ireland is clearly a prime example of acculturation.) He has a remarkably lucid account, in "Arles and Lerins", of the growth of these two great centres - the one a city, the other a monastic foundation. We are guided through the foundation of Arles by the Romans, the history of the city during the Empire, and its emergence as an episcopal see of great influence.
He takes us through the intensely complex religious and political history of the region after the barbarian invasions and finally, he reveals the context of the mission of Palladius, sent by the Pope as the first bishop to the Irish. De Paor repeatedly returns to the origins of writing in Ireland, and to the great books which were produced in its monasteries. He demystifies Irish Christian culture, without disparaging it.
IT is a mark of the fine quality of his writing that de Paor can convey an understanding of complex visual subjects - be they masons dressing of stone, enamelled jewellery, sophisticated sculptures - without the usual apparatus of photographs and diagrams and leaden "scientific" definitions. He seems incapable of writing an uninteresting sentence and he often produces arresting images for historical complexities: "Out of a ruck of tribes and petty local dynasties that succeeded the Roman Empire there ... emerged enduring nations. The process is almost uncanny to watch through the medium of historical and archaeological research; it is like the appearance of an image on film in a photographer's developing tank. Suddenly, out of the darkness, there come England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, kingdoms and principalities with their own identities, their own languages and their own self esteem."
A book of enduring value wise, learned and a pleasure to read.