During the Dark Ages, Irish monks copied down all the books they could find. As libraries disappeared across Europe, Ireland’s monasteries preserved Western knowledge and literature. These monks eventually brought their transcribed manuscripts back to the rest of Europe and saved civilization from a period of decline that might have been fatal.

Irish journalist Ben Scallan from Gript Media says this history is part of why Ireland is a “jewel of Western civilization.” It is also why the country’s new “hate speech” bill is of enormous symbolic significance for the world. Ireland was once one of the most traditional and religious countries in Europe, but it is now a guinea pig for woke totalitarian policies. “If they do things like this here, they can really do it anywhere,” Scallan says.