Ireland and the Birth of Europe, an exhibition I co-curated for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs with Dr Damian Bracken of University College Cork, was launched by Tánaiste Micheál Martin TD in Cork on 28 April.

The exhibition is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs cultural programme to mark fifty years of Ireland’s EU membership (EU50). But in planning this exhibition, we wanted to Ireland’s role in the shaping of European identities in the longue durée.

This beautifully illustrated exhibition reaches back 1500 years to explore Ireland’s early contributions to the development of the idea of Europe. Our starting point was French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman’s remark, made in 1950, that Columbanus should be considered the patron saint of all those who wished to build a united Europe. He made those comments just weeks after his famous Declaration that set in motion the process of European integration.

The richness of Irish influence on Continental education and learning in the medieval period is stunning and the exhibition is full of wonderful examples. It includes reproductions of illuminated manuscripts and artefacts produced in Ireland, or under Irish influence on the Continent. Many of them are preserved in Continental libraries that have their origins in monasteries founded by Irish scholars.

The exhibition will tour the world via the Embassy network, with showings in Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Morocco, the USA, and more. It will tour Irish venues too over the coming months; get details of the Irish tour here.

The exhibition was beautifully designed by Ruza Leko at Studio Suss. Tá leagan Gaeilge ar fáil freisin.