Book description
The second half of the seventh century was a time of great change in
Ireland, Scotland and northern Britain, and, as ninth Abbot of Iona and
leader of the monastic federation founded by Columba, Adomnán was fully
involved in the social and political upheavals taking place. He
negotiated the release of Irish hostages held in Northumbria and
accompanied them on their journey home to freedom. With great courage
and resourcefulness, he sought to change the prevailing warlike culture
of his day. His most outstanding achievement was the ‘promulgation' of
the Cáin Adomnáin, a revolutionary law designed to protect
non-combatants, especially women, during wartime - a law which in its
own day was as significant as the Geneva Conventions or the UN
Declaration of Human Rights, and which deserves to take its place
alongside those ground-breaking charters for human rights. An
outstanding ecclesiastical statesman, theologian and scholar, Adomnán
also wrote a biography of St Columba and a book of reference on ‘the
holy places'. Adomnán was, supremely, a great human being - fully
deserving of the title accorded to him by his contemporaries: ‘Adomnán,
the illustrious'.
Against the Tide is an accessible, popular account of Adomnán's life,
with an emphasis on the contemporary significance of his Law of
Innocents - a law which many justice and peace groups have recently invoked.
Warren Bardsley is an Associate member of the Iona Community, a retired
Methodist minister and a graduate of the Celtic Christianity programme
at the University of Wales, Lampeter.
