Exhibition talk: “Connecting Medieval Europe”.

Exhibition Talk with Dermot Mulligan.

“Connecting Medieval Europe – St Willibrord, Patron Saint of Luxembourg, First Apostle of the Netherlands and his County Carlow Connection.”

St Willibrord, Patron Saint of Luxembourg and the First Apostle of the Netherlands, is one of the most important Saints in Europe, particularly in the early medieval period immediately after the traumatic fallout from the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Great devotions are still held in his honour, particularly an annual UNESCO World Heritage Status ‘hopping procession’ in Echternach, Luxembourg. St Willibrord spent twelve years in Co. Carlow being trained as a monk and in AD690 he led a successful mission to the continent. Over time his Carlow connection had been practically forgotten, but Carlow County Council, through Carlow County Museum, utilising the research of Emeritus Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Department of History, NUI Galway, has re-established this link.

The Museum coordinates an international multi-agency project to rediscover this Anglo-Saxon Saint and his enormous European legacy. Over the last twenty-four years, much has happened in both Co. Carlow and Echternach to highlight this connection including state visits, exhibitions, conservation works, research, publications, lectures. In 2017, sixty Carlovians became the first known Irish group to partake in the centuries old Hopping Procession.

Scholars state that there are few individuals whose career illustrates the cultural diplomacy, religious and political ties which existed between Ireland, Britain and the continent in the early Middle Ages as much as Willibrord’s.

About the speaker:

Carlow native Dermot Mulligan has been Museum Curator of Carlow County Museum since 2002. He coordinated the development of the new Carlow County Museum premises on College Street, Carlow Town, which opened in April 2012. In 2003, Dermot was ‘designated’ by the National Museum of Ireland to collect archaeological objects on its behalf for county Carlow. He was co-coordinator of the award winning ‘Carlow Trails of the Saints’ project first launched in 2010. He coordinates the international multi agency project “Rediscovering St. Willibrord, Patron Saint of Luxembourg and his County Carlow Connection”.