A Gift Of The Nile - Egypt and the making of Monastic Ireland
About
Alf Monaghan’s illustrated talk looks at the history of early Irish Christianity from a different perspective - a Mediterranean perspective. It provides a tantalizing glimpse under the veil of history. It asks many questions and confounds some of the accepted theories about the history of early Christianity in Ireland. It traces links with ancient
Egypt, connects Irish monasticism with the Desert Fathers and the early Irish Church with the Egyptian Coptic Church. Recent Irish discoveries such as the Faddan More Psalter - Egyptian papyrus found in an ancient book of psalms from a Tipperary bog - are clues pointing to a more substantial Eastern Mediterranean influence, than has been acknowledged to date.
ALF MONAGHAN
Alf, from Carrick-on-Shannon, has spent most of his life abroad. For many years he worked as an Economic Adviser to governments and development agencies in; Northern Europe, Central America, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, South and West Africa. His time in Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan and Egypt, triggered a deeper interest in the origins of belief and religion.
