Millennium-old monks’ manuscripts return to Ireland for exhibition

The National Museum of Ireland will display the books with more than 100 artefacts from its own collection. File Picture

More than 1,000 years ago, Irish monks took precious manuscripts to the European continent to protect them from Viking raids and to spread Christianity and scholarship – a glow of culture in what would be called the dark ages.

The monks did not know if the books, which included religious scriptures, linguistic analysis, scribbled jokes and a collection of tomes described as the internet of the ancient world, would survive, or ever return.