Under the City

 On Monday, we wished to visit the catacombs.  Probably appropriate on Hallowe'en.  But in all seriousness, our trip to Rome was to coincide with All Saints/All Souls, to which the Eve of All Hallows is intimately connected.  However, I could see at first hand how the American version of the festival has caught on in Rome. But that's for later in the day.

The first thing we tried to do was go to the Pantheon.  This worked and we saw the tombs of Raphael and the Italian kings.  The structure is impressive enough in its own right, as a former Roman temple in continuous use as a church and now, a national monument.  The distinctive feature is the open cupola.  So we took the time to admire the building before moving on to the Gesù for Mass.

When we had been in the Gesù the evening before, there was a statue of St Ignatius Loyola which we could no longer find.  There seemed to be a painting in its place.  When we got back home, we discovered the answer to this riddle.  At some time in the evening, the painting is lowered into a slot and reveals the statue.  This morning we attended Mass in a side chapel of the Gesù.  There was only a small congregation at it, but we had enough Latin to follow the Italian Mass and even get a lot of the brief sermon. 

At the end of Mass, we went to a café across the road and ordered three lattes.  Just remember, if you order 'un latte' in an Italian café, you are likely to be served milk, so the word you are looking for is caffelatte. However, more importantly, if you are standing at the bar, you get a cheaper rate than if you take a seat, so those three lattes, or caffelattes, cost me €3.30 (yes - €1.10 each).  In Dublin, I would be doing well to get one for that price.  Well, after the break, we went to the Piazza del Venezia.  

One of the most iconic of the modern monuments in Rome is the Altare della Patria, which is a huge neo-classical mock temple in the Piazza del Venezia.  It has the monument to King Victor Emmanuel II and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  I have been at a number of such tombs before, and I would say few are as exalted as that in Rome.  

After some time looking at this monument and the Imperial Forum right beside it, we moved on.  We climbed up to the church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli.  Then we walked.  Past the Colosseum and Forum.  Past the Circus Maximus, opposite which we stopped for a brief picnic.  Past the Baths of Caracalla.  Past the Via Appia.  We had two options in mind - the Catacombs of St Callixtus and the Catacombs of Domitilla.  We reached the Catacombs of Domitilla first and as they were open and it was possible to visit, that was our objective.  Websites are not always very clear.

Well, we were pleasantly surprised in the case of the Catacombs of Domitilla.  The Catacombs are under the Divine Word Missionaries, whose Mother House is in Germany.  As a result, we were given the option of doing the tour in English or German.  There was a tour guide, whom we reckoned to be a priest available to give us the tour in German immediately.  This man was passionate about the catacombs and this came across.  The Catacombs of Domitilla are the most extensive in Rome and our guide had walked every metre of them.  They were the gift of Domitilla who was the granddaughter of the Emperor Vespasian who was a convert to Christianity.  From a territorial point of view, though the locations of the catacombs are in the Italian Republic, once you descend down the steps, you are in the Vatican City State.

The catacomb area follows the model of a city.  Families are often interred together, but everyone had a separate grave.  A lot of the dead were children- there was a very high infant mortality rate.  People were smaller.  To reach the height of 165 cm (5 feet, 5 inches) was regarded as being gigantic.  Digging a grave is relatively easy; our guide told us, it only took him twenty minutes to do so with basic tools.  But he put the situation of the Christians in Rome in context.  At the height of the Roman Empire, there were a million and a half inhabitants in Rome.  When St Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans, he named about 56 people.  Even if these were representative of extended family groups (and many named were related), it would still mean the Christian population of Rome in the first century was a tiny minority.  Which is why Nero was able to target it with impunity. 

Christians gathered in these areas for worship right through the period of persecution, until the time of Constantine.  From this point of view, the decoration of the area is interesting and our guide could point out the earliest artistic representations of the apostles Ss Peter and Paul.  Certainly not a puritan or iconoclast community.  There were other images besides.  I supposed the most important insight was the fact that the presence of a well made it possible for the Christian community in Rome to communicate with each other and exchange information on a daily basis.  Our guide put this in the context of life in a German village, but his point was that the internet doesn't necessarily improve on that.

We emerged into the sunlight and went towards St Paul's Outside the Walls.  It's hard to believe there was a time you could navigate Rome with actual maps, before the advent of Google Maps.  However at one point, we did notice the Via delle Sette Chiese.  Well, the Seven Churches have changed somewhat, and this road links St Paul Outside the Walls and St Sebastian Outside the Walls.  But this was a good guide.  On the way, we got ice cream.  We also stopped in a small, very modern church which had a group of generally young nuns doing adoration.  This is one of the contrasts in Rome.  It is a secular city, but there is a religious presence at nearly every turn.  But when our politicians wax lyrically about Europe, they are not thinking about Rome, nor a lot of Southern and Eastern Europe.

We got to St Paul's Outside the Walls.  For several reasons, this church is imposing.  It's the second biggest church in Rome - St Peter's, of course, is larger.  It's built on the site of the beheading of St Paul and his tomb has a central position.  When you see the languages around the tomb, the inclusion of Russian is a reminder that this is a place of pilgrimage for the Orthodox as much as for Catholics.  I can't say what extent this registers which more traditionally inclined Protestants.  Another feature are the portraits of the popes in mosaic from St Peter up until Pope Francis.  They are all there with very little space for inclusion of more, leading some of those waiting for the apocalypse to conclude that there is not much time left.  We spent some time in and around the church and found to underscore the extraterritorial nature of the basilica, we could buy Vatican stamps in the shop.

We moved on and on the way back bought some freshly baked rolls with a slice of piazza.  We passed the pyramid of Cestius and gate of St Paul, before calling on Santa Sabina, which is the mother church of the Dominican Order.  It was still open, but the darkness created an atmosphere.  After this, we walked back to our appartment.  On the way, we witnessed more of the artificial Hallowe'en, with young women in costume.  It struck me that these had little problem dressing as either, but it they had to dress as a horror figure, they were going to be attractive witches and vampires.  

After the long walk of the day, we had little energy to do anything else on our return.

Angelus still a draw

It is possible to get almost any Mass or liturgy of your choice in Rome.  Extraordinary Form Mass, Eastern Rite Liturgies and Ordinary Form Masses in any significant Catholic language are all there.  However, commitment to any one variety of these on a daily basis will limit your experience of the city.  And Rome isn't just another city.  It is The City.

Our first call on the morning of 30 October was to the chapel on the Campo Santo Teutonico.  This is the German cemetery in Rome, which is right beside St Peter's Basilica.  The cemetery has been there since the time of Charlemagne, so "German" is applied broadly to the German-speaking world, which is Germany, Austria, German Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol, German-speaking regions in Belgium and Alsace, even including Flemings and Dutch.  It is the only land in the Vatican State not owned by the Vatican State (because it's owned by the Italian State) and it's administered by the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Germans and Flemings.  There are two German seminaries in Rome, the German-Hungarian College, which is an ecclesiastical equivalent of the École Nationale d'Administration in Strasbourg; and the Teutonic College, which is here.  On most days of the week, Mass is celebrated in German, but it is in Latin on Wednesdays and Italian on Saturdays.  To get there from our flat meant crossing an international border, with Italian police, Pontifical Gendarmes and Swiss Guard on duty.  For us, the sight of Swiss Guardsmen is welcome as most of them speak German, though I have to say most Italian and Vatican police speak English too.  To cross this border, you pass through a security check not unlike one at the airport.

We got into the chapel at the Campo Santo just as Mass began and as there were two German pilgrimage groups there, there was little space.  Mass was very ordered and dignified, but this is typical rather than atypical of German liturgy and it is not an ideological marker as it might be in the US or in Ireland.  On the other hand, Irish or US congregations would not see a very folksy celebrant as necessarily being a theological liberal, as German parishes might.  I know that US Conservative Catholic publications have predicted an imminent schism with the German Church, but this is far from being the full story.  I don't believe there is an enormous gap between parish life in the US or Germany or Ireland, but I do believe that radically different dynamics and different expectations exist within these churches.  In the German Church, this relates to the Kirchesteuer which supports a huge bureaucracy.  As Germans formally leave the Church, the tax base goes down.  The amount coming in has been rising, but eventually there will be a fall.  These people fear for the future in a manner that reminds me of the the stewart in Luke 16, 1-13, to dig they are not strong enough, to beg they are ashamed.   So they want to re-write their clients' accounts to save their necks.  Except they have made the wrong call.  Their pitch is to people with little use for the Church regardless of what changes are made, while alienating the most serious of Catholics and annoying everybody registered as a Catholic everytime they look at the 8-9% of their tax going to the Church.

Following the Mass, one of the priests of the Teutonic College gave an interesting talk on the history of the college and cemetery.  There has been a constant German presence in Rome since at least the 800s and this graveyard, small as it is, represents this.  Germans flocked here with pilgrims from all over Europe.  Even the Reformation put no dent in it.  But it seems that one of the proudest boasts was about the activities in the Teutonic College during the war.  About 6,000 people were sheltered there, especially during the Nazi occupation of Rome.  The driving force behind this was a priest resident at the college, but he was not a native German-speaker.  He was Irish.  The famous Mgr Hugh O'Flaherty who is commemorated in the cemetery and was the subject of a Gregory Peck film.  Following the talk we walked around the graveyard.

We wanted to visit St Peter's.  At this stage my advice to you is to try to arrive between 7 and 9 in the morning, but be that as it may.  As we left Campo Santo at around 11.30, crowds were already gathering for the Angelus.   Seeing the Pope wasn't an objective for us, but my advice to people who would like to see the Pope is this.  I would research the Papal schedule online in advance.  If there was a papal ceremony, for example a canonisation, during your visit, I would get tickets to this.  These are available from the papal household and if there is a face value, it is nominal.  If there isn't, general audiences take place every Wednesday and it is possible to see the Pope at these.  Again, tickets are available, but this is more a booking exercise.  If you are looking to see the Pope without any prior arrangement, you can show up at the Angelus at 12 noon on Sunday.  Many people did and we had to make our way to the left hand side of the steps of the basilica to find it was exit only.  We attended the Angelus and heard the Pope's voice (and saw his hand giving the blessing).  There were quite a number of people there.  He got a cheer.  

Getting out was difficult.  Now, one of our sons is a very fussy eater and from time to time, the only way we can get him to eat is to go to McDonalds.  I know that Italy is centre of some of the finest cuisine in the world, but this is of no avail.  Fortunately (or rather unfortunately), there is a McDonalds close to St Peter's Basilica.  The trouble is when we got there, it seemed as if most of the people at the Angelus beat us to it (we did recognise several faces).  Some seemed to have very complicated orders.  But we got served in the end.  Not that I partook.  Then we were free to walk around Rome.

So we turned toward the Castel Sant'Angelo and then crossed the Tiber.  We walked around the Piazza Navona, which was crowded on a warm day.  Later we found the Pantheon, but could not go in as it required booking in advance on weekends and on public holidays (1 November, for example, is an Italian public holiday).  Once again, the area was crowded.  We eventually found Er Faciolaro, which had been recommended to us, but it was a bit disappointing.  Later we reached the Trevi Fountain, which was equally crowded.  On our way to the Spanish Steps, we stopped in the church of Madonna del Pozzo (the Madonna of the Well) where visitors are invited to drink water from a miraculous well.

Following a glorious sunset viewed from the Spanish Steps, accompanied by Italian café music played by a Bavarian brass ensemble, we went back to the Piazza Navona and visited St Agnes, which is a glorious church.  After some more wandering, we reached the Gesú, the Jesuit mother church where we went to the tomb of St Ignatius Loyola.  This was impressive, until we got to some more impressive tombs over the following days.  Following that, we took some ice cream and then walked slowly towards our apartment.  Tired and planning the following day.

Return to the Eternal City

 I have been in Rome many times, but had not been there since 2005.  Having two sons made the very idea difficult, but eventually we wanted to take an alternative trip after so much time in Bavaria.  There were a number of reasons we determined on Rome.  The fact one son took on Classical Studies and both were doing art was among them, not to mention the history, culture and faith around the city.  What will follow is a diary of the journey, which will have many pertinent observations.

Due to booking.com we found an apartment we could rent for 8 days beginning on 29 November late in the evening.  I suppose I never realise that the Vatican City State took its name from a district in Rome around Vatican Hill which was more extensive than the territory ceded in the Lateran Treaty of 1929.  We were in that Vatican district and our flat was barely a quarter hour's walk from St Peter's Basilica.  We could see the dome from over the brow of the hill beneath which we were staying.

Getting from Fiumicino Airport to our place was easy and it occurred to me that the Italian public transport system was far superior to that of Ireland in both efficiency and expense.  We got a train from the airport to Trastevere and then changed for San Pietro which was just a stop away.  The apartment was a short walk, during which our host met us and brought us there

In previous visits to Rome, I tried my best to do as the Romans do, but I had never had to go to a supermarket.  Late on Saturday night, we at least needed breakfast for the following morning.  So I went.  I found some things and brought them back.  One thing that struck me as new, when the shop assistant noticed I looked at him blankly when he spoke Italian (and I am not ignorant of the language), he switched to English.  I never remember that as instant, but if proves if proof were necessary, that the power of the almighty dollar has made English an almost universal tongue. 

I was carrying a bag purchased in the National Gallery of Ireland, Frederic William Burton's The Meeting on the Turret Stairs, which is Ireland's favourite painting.  In Rome, this seemed commonplace. 

One thing which was not required was bottled water.  The quality of the tap water and its delivery is in itself a wonder.  There is obviously nothing wrong with the piped water system in the city and no one need trouble themselves about refilling their bottles from the public fountains while walking there as all the water can be considered pure.  That was the end of the few hours on our initial day there and we went to bed.

Navigating Bavaria

 The Bavarian Free State is about the same size as the 26 county independent Irish state.  Franconia is in the north, let us say in the position of Donegal, where Munich is about in the position Carlow would be in the Irish republic.  So it was our aim to make a journey by train of a similar distance of Donegal to Wexford, while stopping off at Nuremberg and Munich.  Positively, Germany does have the railway network to do this and if the rail prices  are comparatively high, there are still opportunities.  I have no hesitation recommending the Bayern Ticket.  If you are prepared to forego the IC (Inter City) and ICE (Inter City Express) trains which are fast and travel after 9 am, you can have unlimited on the Bavarian public transport system.  This includes municipal transport in Nuremberg and Munich.  An adult could do this for €25 in 2019 and to add extra people up to a party of six, it was only two euro each.  So for €31, four of us could board a train in Dettelbach to Nuremberg, disembark and take a short break in Nuremberg, board a train to Munich, use the bus and tram lines in Munich and then take a train from Munich to Ampfing, which is near to the Austrian border in the evening.  To drive from Dettelbach to Ampfing on the Autobahn, would be between three and four hours.  From the point of view of the Bayern Ticket, Salzburg is considered part of Bavaria as it is the Terminus for Deutsche Bahn.  On a couple of previous trips we used this option.

While in Munich, we went to the former royal palace, Schloss Nymphenburg.  We were under pressure for time, so we spent this in one of the divisions of the museum the "Mensch und Natur Museum".  This has a very interesting scientifically orientated exhibitions on the place of man in the world of nature.  This deals with human development, geology and climate, the plant and animal world.   This is an interractive museum that does its best to engage the interest of children in science, nature and geography.  I imagine it took a day to navigate.

After this, we took a tram back to the München Hauptbahnhof.  We spent some time walking around the city centre in Munich.  I don't know how often I see Irish pubs on the continent without looking for them and the one at the back of the cathedral in Munich is called Kilian's Irish Pub.  We also attended Mass in Old St Peter's Church in Munich - though in German this is done in a very traditional manner.  We went back to the Hauptbahnhof and took the train to Ampfing that evening.

Caves, Rococo architecture and heritage Towns

Outside Giengen, there is the Charlottenhöhle which one of the longest caves open to visitors in southern Germany.  It is named after Queen Charlotte of Württemberg, who was queen at the time the cave was opened in 1893.  The guided tour lasts about an hour and one sees the humour applied to the various stalactites and stalagmites.  The appearance of the limestone is striking as is the coldness of the cave.  This was 4 July last and it was warm outside.  The cave was a different story.

The Charlottenhöhle brings another type of visitor.  As we arrived, we saw a wedding party leave.  A formation in the cave is known as the cathedral and this has become popular for weddings.  Of course, it is necessary for the bride to dress warmly (in Germany, the witnesses are not so important as in Ireland, so there is less emphasis on the bridesmaid's dresses - indeed, I've seen church weddings where the witnesses are two men or two women; a best man or a bride's maid are dispensable).  However, I think it is fair to say that the many people who choose venues like the Charlottenhöhle as their wedding venue want to do something different.  The Charlottenhöhle also has an interpretative centre which gives information on the type of wildlife which made its home in this habitat.  The archaeological heritage of this area outside Giengen is also very rich with several layers, explained very well on some of the signage.

On leaving Giengen, we called at the Benedictine abbey of Neresheim.  This is one of the later works of the architect Balthasar Neumann, who brought Bohemian Rococo architecture to Franconia.  Neresheim had been in Bavaria until it was annexed by Baden-Württemberg in 1810.  Though the monastery was secularised in 1802, it was re-opened as a monastery in 1919 and is still both a working monastery and also a parish church.  Most connoisseurs of architecture reckon the Basilica of Vierzehnheiligen to be Neumann's best work.  However, I have heard it argued that Neresheim is his masterpiece.  If you stand in the abbey church, you can see why.  On a sunny day, it is blinding.

Crossing back into Bavaria, we came to the town of Nördlingen.  This is an old town which is one of the three remaining German towns with its walls intact.  We spent the evening wandering around Nördlingen just admiring the architecture, particularly the Protestant church in the town square.  This was done with an ice cream.  We also sawa some nesting cranes on a rooftop.  I am not going to comment on the claims of Nördlingen to be the finest intact old town in Germany, but it is certainly admirable.

Giengen's World of Wonder: Story of Determination

A couple of days later, we went to the town of Giengen which is across the border in the state of Baden-Württemberg and would be pretty non-descript internationally were it not for one thing.  In the 19th century, a young woman with polio trained to be a seamstress and began making clothes.  This was Margarete Steiff.  She may have done this all her life, until she tried her hand at soft toys as presents.  This gradually became successful, but it still was relatively small scale.  Her nephew Richard Steiff studied art in Stuttgart and designed what he named "Bear 55 PB", the first soft bear with moving limbs.  The bear caught the eye of an American buyer in Leipzig who ordered 3,000 and turned the small family firm in Giengen into a major multinational overnight.  When somebody in New York likened the Steiff bear with the then President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, continued success was guaranteed.  In 1907, one million "teddy" bears were made.  Margarete Steiff only lived another two years, but over a hundred years later the business still thrives and draws visitors into Giengen.

Margarete contracted polio as a baby and was permanently paralysed in her two legs.  She also found it difficult to move her right arm.  This made training to be a seamstress difficult.  Though her family were relatively prosperous, there were not many outlets for a young woman with such a disability.  Nonetheless, Margarete not only qualified as a seamstress, but also became an accomplished zither player.  She taught others to play and used the money to buy a sewing machine.  Though initially concentrating on fashionable clothes, the business soon focused on toys.  Eventually, they got the order which was a small enterprise's dream.

So, on 4 July, we visited the Steiff Museum in Giengen.  This is the history of the Steiff enterprise, together with a display of what the factory can make.  If there was a way to interest young children in museums, this is it.   We were behind a primary school group who were enchanted by the display.  The museum also does its best with people with special needs.  It is possible to take the tour in English as well as German, though I would advise anyone wishing to do so to ring ahead to confirm.  However, room after room brings the Steiff magic to life, beginning with a recreation of Margarete Steiff's workshop, taking a tour of the expansion of the business, while hallmarking these stages for interested adults to follow.  It is possible also to see soft toys being made and some of the workers are happy to show anyone who is interested how.  While children, even older children, are free to climb on the backs of large sized camels, elephants, horses and other animals.  The tour takes at least a couple of hours.

And if someone is sufficiently interested, it is also possible to visit the Steiff factory outlet.  There are some good deals, but it is worth remembering Steiff is not a cheap brand.  They do clothes for babies and younger children too.  But it would be very difficult not to be charmed by the Steiff experience.  

Europe's Most Irish City

I am quoting the Mayor of Würzburg, Christian Schuchard, in my post title from a speech he gave on the occasion of Michael D Higgins' visit to Würzburg last July as part of his state visit to Germany.  No need to guess why the President of Ireland was in Germany in July, accompanied by Tánaiste/Foreign Minister Simon Coveney.  But I will come to that later.  Würzburg is a city of around 125,000 people midway between Frankfurt and Nuremberg, is capital of the wine-producing region of Unter-Franken (Lower Franconia) and is built on the River Main.  It is a cathedral city; the town of Volkach which I use as my base in Bavaria is in the diocese of Würzburg, though it is in Land-Kreis of Kitzingen

On arriving in Germany for distinctly non-political and non-diplomatic reasons, I went with my family to Würzburg on 2 July to view the exhibition entitled "Elfenbein und Ewigkeit" (ivory and eternity)  in Julius-Maximillians-University of Würzburg library.  This was a collection of mediaeval manuscripts and their covers, most of which were priceless.  The pride of the collection was the Kilians-Evangelier, a book of the Gospels said to have been brought to Würzburg from Ireland by St Kilian in the seventh century.

The key to the connexion between Ireland and Würzburg is the seventh century missionary bishop and martyr St Kilian.  From what we know about Kilian, he was a monk from Mullagh in what is now Co Cavan who was consecrated as a bishop and went to Europe to preach with his companions the priest Kolonat (given as Colmáin in Irish) and the deacon Totnan (sometimes given as Tadc, in modern Irish Tadhg).  The three successfully preached Christianity to the Franconians and baptised them, whose duke Gosbert had been taken by Kilian personally.  The problem was that Gosbert was married to Gailana, who had been his brother's wife.  I am not clear if his brother was still alive or not, but the Levitical law, prohibiting marriage to a sister-in-law even if she was a widow, was upheld by the Church at that time.  As such, Kilian required Gosbert to separate from Gailana (he would not have regarded this as a valid marriage), Gosbert did this and Gailana was not happy.  So she had Kilian and his companions murdered.  According to tradition, this happened on 8 July 689.  This did not deter the Franks from Christianity; quite the contrary - while the former duchess and her collaborators came to a bad end.  Ss Kilian, Kolonat and Totnan are now venerated as Apostles of Franconia.  Indeed, so enthusiastic have they become that  8 July in Würzburg today is the centre point of a civic and religious festival which lasts at least two weeks.  The relics of the three saints are solemnly processed through the streets of Würzburg at which both Church and State are in attendance.  Insofar as Ireland is represented, the diocese of Kilmore, from which Kilian came, is present for the Church and the County of Wicklow, particularly the town of Bray, which Würzburg is twinned, is there for the State.  Both modest enough.  Except on occasions such as Michael D. Higgins visit on 5 July in 2019.

The link between Ireland and Würzburg did not come to an abrupt end after the three Irish missionaries were killed.  For centuries, it was a focal point for Irish pilgrims long before the advent of Ryanair.  There was a Schottenkloster in Würzburg from 1138, and one should not be deceived by the name.  The mediaeval Latin Scotus is most accurately translated as Gael and it was only in the Middle Ages that the Gaels from Ireland colonised Scotland via the Dál Riata kingdom and asserted their identity on the country.  So much so, that many forget the designation Scot was more appropriate to Ireland 1500 years ago.  The monastery was taken over by Scottish monks in 1497, barely a couple of generations before the reformation.  Anyway, the Prior of the Schottenkloster in Regensburg, St Macarius, came to Würzburg to establish a centre of learning.  He was also known for his piety and was said to have changed wine into water.  Given how much the Franconians pride themselves on their wine, I wonder how this anecdote survived (my memory of it was due to a TV series in the 1970s produced by the Radharc team and presented by the then Monsignor Tomás Ó Fiaich, who was a mediaeval historian before becoming Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, later a cardinal).  St Macarius is interred in the Marienkappelle in Würzburg's Marktplatz.

All this might have been a matter of ancient history were it not for a 19th century linguistic historian from Kronach in Upper Franconia named Johann Kaspar Zeuß (1806-1856). Zeuß was teaching in Bamberg (in the same region) and developed a fascination with Old Irish.  When Latin was taught in Irish monasteries of the Golden Age, manuscripts were annotated in explanatory notes in what we now call Old Irish, but this was a closed book until Professor Zeuß used the Latin to decipher the Old Irish.  The principal texts used were the Commentary on St Paul's Epistles in Würzburg; the Psalter in Milan; and the Commentary on Priscian's Latin Grammar in San Gallen (Switzerland).  In 1853, he published Grammatica Celtica which made Old Irish accessible and proved the Celtic languages were Indo-European.  Anyone who did honours Irish for the Leaving Certificate in the past will have come across him in Stair na Teanga Gaeilge. But my point is that Zeuß' work, largely in Würzburg, made the city the cradle of the Gaelic linguistic and literary revival of the following few decades and I don't have to elaborate on the political consequences.

Of course I was disappointed not to see the Pauline epistles in the exhibition, but these are for VIPs.  I am aware Seán Lemass was shown them during his visit while he was Taoiseach.  I would be surprised if his son-in-law and successor as Taoiseach, Charles Haughey and Cardinal Ó Fiaich were not shown them when they were in Würzburg for the 1300th anniversary of St Kilian's martyrdom in 1989.  Mary McAleese and Michael D Higgins have both seen the manuscript while in Würzburg as part of their state visits.  But we did see a fabulous collection of manuscripts and I could identify a distinct Irish hand in them.

The display was interactive and school children were invited to copy the script.  It was also possible to play a virtual reality game which took the participants right back to mediaeval Würzburg, which I thought a fascinating adaption of modern technology to bring mediaeval history to life, something any history teacher will tell you is no easy task.  We were told that on the following Friday, 5 July, the exhibition would be closed to the public with the librarian noting with pride that this was part of Michael D Higgins' state visit.  I didn't give my nationality, still less my opinion of Mr Higgins, but that's beside the point

I would return to Würzburg several times in the subsequent weeks; indeed I have been at events of this festival several times over a quarter of a century.  But this is virtually unknown in Ireland. It's significant enough to register at the highest levels of both Church and State here, as evidenced by the names I have quoted above.  But if you took a survey, few people in Ireland have even heard of Würzburg.  As can be seen above, the Würzburg enthusiasm for Ireland is great.  This is a place where any Irish person or body who would wish to pursue business, tourism, cultural, educational or religious links would find themselves pushing on an open door.  Whether it is as the Mayor says the most Irish city in Europe is not something I can answer, but it certainly is a contender.  It is up to the Irish people to make the most of this.