A fascinating account
of the suppression of Celtic Christianity
 THE GLOBALISATION OF GOD:
Celtic Christianity’s Nemesis
By Dara Molloy
ISBN: 0-9534792-7-7
Publisher: Aisling Publications
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“While Irish people are acutely aware of the difference
between political oppression and political freedom,
there is as yet little consciousness of the equivalent in church terms.
Political colonisation is a well-used phrase in relation to Irish history,
but ecclesiastical colonisation is a phrase
that has yet to emerge into regular usage.”
Reviewed by Sharon Greer
A few weeks before my spring visit to Ireland this year I went online to research writing workshops on Inis Mor, Aran Islands.
I was initially disappointed to discover only one offered in September but eventually delighted to locate a reference which led me to Dara Molloy’s guide book, Legends in the Landscape which became my mainstay throughout my time on the island.
I followed this guide, maybe not religiously, but certainly faithfully. And as each day passed I grew more and more conscientious about the fact that I still owed Dara money for his book.
He had kindly mailed it to me prior to my sojourn, so I diligently set out to find his residence in Mainistir and ended up climbing Jacob’s Ladder to reach his home.
I was warmly welcomed and after an hour or so of discussion on religion, I left with the assurance that a copy of Dara’s latest book, The Globalisation of God: Celtic Christianity’s Nemesis would reach my home in Canada before I did.
The cover of the book, depicting a cuckoo bird in a nest, can be disconcerting at first glance but is really quite fascinating when you understand its meaning.
It is a parasitic cuckoo chick in another bird’s nest. Cuckoos do not make their own nests but lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.
Once the cuckoo chick hatches it pushes all other eggs or chicks out of the nest, leaving all the food for itself. This analogy obviously compares the cuckoo’s actions to the way globalization operates.
As an atheist I have to confess that Molloy’s tome on Roman Christianity and its long tentacles both intrigued and fascinated me.
Spreading out over several centuries, the book covers a wide range of topics including polytheism, monotheism, Benedictine monasticism, and Celtic monasticism.
Offering plenty of historical background from before the time of Christ and onwards, Molloy concentrates his efforts on the breadth of Roman Christianity and its arrival in Ireland in the Fifth Century. His comparisons of the differences in viewpoints between the Roman and Celtic outlooks are quite informative.
As Celtic Christianity acted independently of Rome, was non-authoritarian, non-dogmatic and taught Pelagian (Pelagius was an ascetic born in AD354 who denied the doctrine of original sin later developed by Augustine of Hippo) theology, it was naturally not embraced or tolerated by the Church of Rome.
One of the most provocative insights of the book is Molloy’s comments on colonization.
“While Irish people are acutely aware of the difference between political oppression and political freedom, there is as yet little consciousness of the equivalent in church terms. Political colonisation is a well-used phrase in relation to Irish history, but ecclesiastical colonisation is a phrase that has yet to emerge into regular usage.”
Molloy’s book is a thoroughly absorbing, engrossing account of the suppression and absolute destruction of Celtic Christianity over an 800-year period.
Dara Molloy is a former Roman Catholic priest who went to Inis Mor in 1985 to be a hermit following in the footsteps of St. Enda, patriarch of Irish monasticism. He is a Celtic monk and priest who is married with four children.
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