|
Only a few early manuscripts from ancient Ireland survive and they are among our most valued antiquaries. The Book of Kells dating from the eighth to ninth centuries is a Latin copy of the four gospels. The original Book of Kells is kept at Trinity College Dublin where a different page is displayed each day for the public. About ten per cent of the original is thought to have been lost over the centuries. Its association is with the monastery of Colm Cille at Kells, County Meath, founded in 807 A.D. following Viking raids on Iona. Indeed the Book may have been compiled on the island and brought to Ireland. It is considered the high point of Celtic monastic art. The Book of Durrow [650 A.D.] is an even earlier illuminated manuscript of the Gospels and is associated with the Columban monastery of Durrow in County Offaly. Less ornate than the Book of Kells, it too is held by Trinity College Dublin. The Book of Dun Cow [Leabhar na Huidhre] contains an early version of the Cattle Raid of Cooley and several other well-known stories. Lost for several centuries it turned up unexpectedly in a Dublin bookshop in 1837. It was bought in 1844 by the Royal Irish Academy. The Book of Armagh 807-808 A.D. is also known as Liber Armachanus [and an Canóin Phádraig] and is a Latin manuscript that includes a complete text of the New Testament, copies of several biographies of Saint Patrick and also his Confessio. Several scribes cooperated in its compilation. It too is now at Trinity College Dublin. The parish of Ballymoyer was held by the MacMoyer family from about the middle of the fourteenth century, in return for the safekeeping of the Book of Armagh. Though compiled about three and a half centuries after Patrick, the Book is still the best source we have of his life. The MacMoyer family held the Book in safety until 1681 when both the family and the Book – and indeed the head of his Church – were betrayed by the infamous Florence MacMoyer, Franciscan friar and family member and his cousin Friar John MacMoyer. Florence sold the Book for £5 and used part of the proceeds to travel to Tyburn in London to give false evidence against the Archbishop of Armagh, Oliver Plunkett. The Archbishop was deemed guilty, hanged, drawn and quartered. His preserved head is still on display in Drogheda Cathedral. MacMoyer’s betrayal was thus exacerbated in Irish memory by his use of the invaluable Book of Armagh against our national saint.
|
History 
