Date: Wednesday, 30th July

 

Tutor: Maggie Knight BA Fine Art, MA History of Art, PhD History of Art.  Founded the Adult Education section at the V&A Museum. She ran her own  classes in art and cultural history in London and is now teaching for The Arts  Society and leading tours to Europe and America. 

 

Description: The land known to the Greek geographer Ptolemy as Iouernia was the home to  one of the most advanced cultures in the west.The farming communities developed early in the 4th millennium BC had evolved  specialist technologies in the following centuries making the island an important  part of the Atlantic maritime trade linking western Europe to the Mediterranean. 

 

It was along the trade routes that the first Celts came into Ireland and  subsequent waves of migration saw the domination of their social organisation,  arts, religions and language. Rome traded but never invaded, so the unique  culture developed independent of any Imperial influence.  

 

The first informal ‘universities’ in the west were founded there and when  Christianity arrived in the 5th century, it evolved as a blend of scholarship and  faith, and its art was Celtic.  

 

It was the monasteries of the Celtic Church which were responsible for the  preservation of European art and learning in the chaos following the fall of the  Roman Empire in the west.

 

Level of course: Details to follow

 

Student requirements: Details to follow

The schedule: Details to follow