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THE RED BOOK of Ossory is to go on public display for the first time in its 700-year history.
The manuscript was written in St Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny in the 14th Century, and it is being returned to that Cathedral to go on display.
The book’s homecoming is happening tomorrow and it will go on public display from Monday.
The Red Book has survived wars and plagues and will be part of a new year-long exhibition that offers a glimpse into the life of ordinary citizens through the lens of Bishop Richard de Ledrede.
He was Bishop of Ossory from 1317 until his death in 1360.
Among the things Bishop Ledrede is famed for includes banning clergy from playing football on the grounds of the cathedral and in 1324, he famously accused noblewoman Alice Kyteler of witchcraft and heresy.
The Representative Church Body Library, which provides a repository in which archives and manuscripts of the Church can be stored, will hand over custody of the book to St Canice’s Cathedral tomorrow.
Bishop Ledrede recorded everything he thought was important in medieval Ireland in The Red Book, including the first recorded recipe for Aqua Vitae, which was used for medicinal purposes as the Black Death ravaged Europe.
The ‘water of life’ is known as whiskey today.
It also includes early provisions of the Magna Carta and a letter from King Edward III expressing concern that noble Englishmen in Ireland had “gone native”.
The Very Reverend Stephen Farrell, Dean of Ossory, remarked that the 79-vellum page artefact will “spark imagination and connect local people with their history”.
The entrance fee to the exhibition is included in the entrance fee to the Cathedral.
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English in Ireland had ‘gone native’ the Irish won’t be native in another 700 years thats for certain
@Paddy C: 17..
The English had gone native!? They’d have no hope of getting into the orange order so.
@brendan hackett: this was pre reformation
@orb7eckn: Whoosh.
@brendan hackett: no such thing as a protestant 700 years ago.
@morgan crowe: Whoosh arís.
Love history. And yes, the English, actually more Anglo-Norman had gone partially native and adopted irish ways: divorcing easily, employing bards, harpers, and speaking irish. It was generally to forge alliances and keep their domains safe. The English King’s found it difficult to enforce their power. Hence why, two centuries later, Henry VIII had to begin a surrender and regrant. Which partially worked but ultimately failed. And why it was not till Cromwell and his Republican forces that the country was not entirely subdued.
Ultimately it was an Irish mosquito that put an end to Cromwell.
@F Fitzgerald: midges are not mosquitos. We were more scared by the bats that were flying over our heads. We were metal fans with long haïr.
They fly through thé midges and the insects glue to them. Bats are blind I think. We were scared they would glue to our haïr if we weren’t careful haha
There are no mosquitos in Ireland.
@offside again: Incorrect was bitten by Malahide mossie at Swords Estuary.Nasty, Beaumount prescribed Aspirin. The local authority had to spray area.
700 years ago there were no English. The languages spoken by the ruling class was French. The Norman’s originally vikings who settled in Normandy in France and who invaded and took control of Britain. The English language didn’t exist. The great vowel shift didn’t happen until 1400. The reason why English sounds so different today from German. The common people spoke old English basically German. The ruling class spoke French.
@Washpenrebel: Correct in most respects.
But the English language – the language employed by Chaucer – did exist. But was spoken by the ordinary folk of England not the (Norman established) nobility until Chaucer brought it into Court.
Agus anois is iad na nÉireannaigh atá iompaithe ina Sasanaigh! Mar a dúirt Spenser “the tongue being English the heart must needs be English?
They did go native. They became Irish just like the Normans. It’s to do with the spirit of the land. My own surname is far more comman by thousands in the USA and Australia.
@offside again: never heard of anyone with the surname again before
@Patrick K: It’s me again again.
@Patrick K: It starts with a Mc. STFU.!
bet you protested in Coolock earlier. Last thing we need in Ireland right now is people like you :-)
@offside again: ah don’t be upsetting yourself. Twas only a joke no need to get so offended ya little whinger. Go eat a snickers or something your a real diva when your hungry
@Patrick K: We don’t know each other, so you have no need to talk like that. That’s what’s wrong here.
@offside again: creep
@offside again: you started with the shyt talk about protests and people like me so don’t be telling me how I can or can’t talk. You got upset for nothing. I’m glad I don’t know you I know enough about you by your moaning and complaining to know what your like
@offside again: there isn’t an Irish surname that is more popular in Ireland than America.. whatever Irish surname, there’s more of them in the USA
Cue €25 entrance fee to get in to view said boom. Greedy natives.
@Lilly Lalogue: Nonsense Lilly. But never let the facts get in the way of a wild, misguided rant
What language is it written in?
@Nick Bowie: Latin I assume.
Now we face the new Plantation of Ireland sleazily crafted by our own government !
This will undoubtedly bring new misery for the Irish!
@Conor Sheehan: Oh dear that old trope. Do you understand how the plantation worked in the first place. Of course not. If you did you would realise how wrong you are.
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