"Why Ireland was like a ‘Garden of Eden’ during the ..." Topic

…Middle Ages.

"In her article, ‘The Other Paradise: Perceptions of Ireland in the Middle Ages', Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel discovers that public reputation of the country was very high during the medieval period, with many writers offering glowing reviews of the island on Europe's western edge. It was even compared to the Garden of Eden, being another "land of milk and honey."

One of the earliest medieval writers about Ireland was the seventh-century scholar Isidore of Seville. In his encyclopaedic work Etymologiae he notes:

Ireland, also known as Hibernia, is an island next to Britannia, narrower in its expanse of land but more fertile in its site. It extends from southwest to north. Its near parts stretch towards Iberia (Hiberia) and the Cantabrian Ocean (i.e. the Bay of Biscay), whence it is called Hibernia; but it is called Scotia, because it has been colonized by tribes of the Scoti. There no snakes are found, birds are scarce, and there are no bees, so that if someone were to sprinkle dust or pebbles brought from there among beehives in some other place, the swarms would desert the honeycombs…."
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