Ireland's influence in Europe has deep roots

When I was a boy, we were all taught that the Irish saved civilisation. It was a history everyone learned, a story set after the Roman Empire fell in 476AD when the last western emperor was deposed. Europe slipped into the Dark Ages. Learning was lost. Christianity itself retreated. And then, the Irish monks headed off into Europe and re-Christianised it, bringing wisdom and knowledge wherever they went.

You know the big names: Columbanus, Aidan, Killian, Colmcille or Columba as he is often known, Fergal, and Gall. In their lives, there were many tales of derring do, many feats which were beyond easy explanation, and many monasteries and manuscripts established across Europe, a tribute to their skills as builders and writers. For a long time this period was known as Ireland’s Golden Age.

We were taught about it because those exploits were the proud boast of post-independence Ireland. In a country which was learning that being free of Britain wasn’t enough on its own to guarantee success or a place in the world, the work of those monks was a source of pride. Their lives and work were intended as an inspiration.

Children were supposed to learn the lesson that while we might have become peripheral, once upon a time we Irish rescued Europe from paganism, brought reading back to the continent, saved civilisation itself. Who knows, was the implication, we might end up doing it again.

That seems a long time ago now. When we hit the big time with the Celtic Tiger, we didn’t need medieval monks anymore to make us feel good about ourselves. The bursting of that Tiger bubble should have brought some humility. And maybe it did. But the last few decades have also brought with them a major questioning of whether the whole idea of Christian Ireland was in any sense a good thing. So at the least some of the history of Ireland’s monks has been contested, and some would additionally say what they did was exaggerated.

There has also been a historical fashion to challenge the idea that the era after the Roman Empire was a ‘dark age’ at all. Some historians might even tell you that the Roman Empire didn’t really fall, and that it continued in the east and most people in western Europe carried on being ‘Romans’ for centuries after 476AD. What all that proves is that history will tell you not just about the past, but a great deal about what is happening today.

In any event, and for whatever reason, what Columbanus and his fellow missionary monks did around the continent of Europe has been rather less talked about in recent times. Or at least that was so until recently.

That makes it all the more interesting that the National Museum of Ireland has launched a new exhibition: 'Words on the Wave: Ireland and St Gallen in Early Medieval Europe'.

St Gallen or St Gall was a companion of Columbanus, and was one of the Irish monks who left Ireland in the 6th century. He is recognised to this day in the city of St Gallen in Switzerland, which itself is a UNESCO world heritage site. The monastery which St Gall established in Allemania was on an important pilgrim route to Rome and became in time a very important abbey and library.

Many of the manuscripts on display in the exhibition come on special loan from that library, the Stiftsbibliothek as it’s known in Switzerland. It is home to one of the world’s most significant collections of early medieval manuscripts, and it is considered very rare for such an institution to loan such a large collection of items in one go. Amongst them is a very rare late 8th century book, and an exhibit from around 700AD, which contains the earliest known written reference to St Brigid. These are real and rare treasures.

Some of the manuscripts were likely written by Irish monks in St Gallen. Many others are thought to have been written in Irish monasteries, and then travelled with monks such as Gall and Columbanus. That means that some of these manuscripts are returning to Ireland for the first time in over a thousand years.

The exhibition also contains a wide range of artefacts from this era from the National Museum’s own collections. This includes the Lough Kinale Shrine, Ireland’s oldest book shrine, which will be on display for the first time after it was discovered in a lake in Longford.

Reflecting the spirit of today, the emphasis in the exhibition will be on connectedness, and how societies were more connected by ideas and by people all those years ago than is often assumed. You can see easily enough the point being made about our own times.

The exhibition will tell a story about Ireland and Europe in those far off times. All the items were designed in a world in which most people did not read, so it will be easy to follow with just the eye. The style is a mix of Irish, Norse, Roman and Greek.

For those who like to read, it will be full of detail for those interested in really digging into it. It isn’t all heavy duty stuff either: you will get an insight into the life of the monks, their arguments, their grievances, their inability to get much done on days when they were hungover, as they worked in Latin and in Old Irish. For some of them, especially in the later part of the period, they wrote and worked under the shadow of the Vikings, knowing well that the effects of a visit from them would make a hangover seem like small beer.

It sounds like a marvellous day out. Why not make it a trip on the train, with a coffee and lunch somewhere nice, and then a leisurely visit, with plenty to talk about on the return journey? It might not be as fraught and challenging as the journeys those medieval Irish monks took, but it could be a bit of a pilgrim journey for a group of old friends, still up for an adventure together. 'Words on the Wave: Ireland and St Gallen in Early Medieval Europe' is free to visit in the museum’s Kildare Street location in Dublin until October.