Christianity, with its origins in Palestine, spread into Ireland in the 400s. The first missionary was Palladius, who came in 431. He was followed a few years later by St Patrick. Patrick had previously been in Ireland working as a slave, but had escaped to Gaul where he became a Christian Priest. He heard the people of Ireland calling him to come back, so he did, which was either in 432 or in the 460s. His mission was very successful and he set up churches across north and eastern Ireland and even preached to the king who ruled Tara.
The spark that had been lit by Patrick and his contemporaries took hold, and Ireland developed a network of thousands of churches. In the 500s, some Christians sought a life of solitude from everyday life and this led to the setting up of monasteries. These were initially small sites in remote locations consisting of small church and individual huts for the monks. (Map of monasteries). However, the monasteries soon attracted the patronage of the rich and powerful and they grew in influence until they were eventually as poweful as the individual tuaths (petty kingdoms). Many of the monasteries produced famous hand-written illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells which can be seen at Trinity College, Dublin. Thus Ireland became a land of saints and scholars. Their influence spread outside Ireland. St Colum Cille and his followers brought Christianity to Scotland in 563 and northern England by 627. St Columbanus travelled through modern-day Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy setting up churches.
The people in Ireland were still the same Celts that had lived there before, only they were now largely Christian. In pre-Christian times, Ireland had been divided into over 100 small kingdoms, or tuaths. As time went on a small number of kings emerged as the most powerful and gained the allegiance of surrounding kings. The area ruled by one of these powerful kings was a province. By the 700s it was no longer common to call the rulers of tuaths kings. Instead, they were increasingly referred to as lords. In 650 there were 6 provinces in Ireland: Airgialla (Oriel), Connacht, Laigin (Leinster), Munster, Uí Néill and Ulaid (Ulster). The period 400-800 was characterised by the expansion of Airgialla, then the Uí Néill and finally Connacht. Meanwhile, England had been taken over by the Anglo-Saxons from Denmark.
Society was heavily tiered. The King of a Province had a large number of lords under him. These lords in turn gave animals to commoners, who repaid him with food produce. Near the bottom of the ladder were the landless men who were hired by commoners or the monasteries and finally the slaves. Slavery was common in Ireland, as was polygamy. This early Christian era is often regarded as being a "golden age", disturbed only by inter-Provincial wars. However this relative stability was soon to be shattered by the arrival of bands of marauding Vikings.
