It is an admitted fact that wherever Christianity has spread. there developed along with it a civilizing culture and a learning that brightened and comforted the lives of men. And if Irishmen are noted for their Catholicity. then they have an equal claim to fame in the intellectual world. For long before the great universities of continental Europe had begun. the Emerald Isle had achieved an outstanding record for scholarship. In fact. the continental universities owed their foundations in no small degree to Irish learning and professors who emigrated from Ireland. The classic tradition which had become moribund elsewhere was preserved and enhanced under the influence of him who toiled only with the cross and for the cross. Ireland became the leader in the intellectual world.
Identified stereotypes
Irishmen are noted for their Catholicity and intellectualism.