During the last five years, Ireland has probably had more visitors from overseas than at any time in her history, and we who are Irish (like most citizens of small countries, we tend to be self-conscious) often wonder what impression they take away with them. Do they just see Ireland as a land of steaks and bacon and eggs, with slow trains and reckless car-drivers, or have they tried to find out what is going on, and indeed whether anything noteworthy is going on? Do they wonder whether this ancient but youthful country, which in the political sense came of age only a few years ago, is living a life and producing a culture of its own, is, in brief, making a contribution to Christian civilisation?