Thursdays 12:30-2:30 PM
October 2 through November 20, 2003
Thayer Dining Hall -Tindle Lounge
The pretentious name for this course is actually the title of a marvelous national bestseller by Thomas Cahill that will be the major reading assignment. This course will explore various aspects of early Irish history from the emergence of the early Celtic peoples in the 1st millennium BC through to the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. It will investigate the social structure, customs, and beliefs of the Irish people and the important role played by the Irish in the spread of Christianity, learning, and the arts during the early Middle Ages. This course will be primarily in lecture form with moderate reading requirements, but every effort will be made to provide frequent opportunities for class discussion and for short presentations by class members on relevant topics of their choosing.
The organization of the course will be approximately as follows: The emergence of the Celtic peoples in Ireland; Celtic-Irish social organization; The pre-Christian Irish belief system; The coming of Christianity to Ireland; Irish contributions to Western Civilization: (Religious, Intellectual, Literary, Artistic).
Class is limited to Irish study/travel participants only.
Anthony (Tim) Thacher retired in 1996 after a career in the investment management world in New York and later in Boston (where he grew up). He and his wife Barrie are now full time residents of Pomfret, Vermont where Barrie tends her garden and her zoo (one horse, two miniature donkeys, two furniture-shredding cats, and an indeterminable number of strange chickens). For exercise, Tim whacks tennis and golf balls, birdwatches, hunts mushrooms, helps out at the town library, teaches skiing in the Ski Runners program at Suicide Six, and tries to catch up on some of the reading he hasn't had time for since college (Harvard AB in English Literature and MBA). A strong interest in European history, a mother with ancestral roots in Wales, and two visits to Ireland have led to continuing study of and interest in the Celts as a people and a culture.
