Longford County Library, Heritage and Archives Services and County Longford Historical Society will jointly host a lecture and the opening of an exhibition on the Annals written in Saints’ Island Priory in Longford Library on Wednesday, 6 March. Prof. Pádraig Ó Riain, Emeritus Professor of Early and Medieval Irish in UCC will speak on ‘Saints’ Island and Abbeyderg Priories and their manuscripts’, with special emphasis on the Annals written on Saints’ Island covering the period 1392-1407.
Prof. Ó Riain will also open an exhibition on the subject, which includes images of the Annals, which are held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. County Longford historical Society bought the images from the library last year and the exhibition will allow local people to view this unique part of Longford’s cultural heritage. The Annals were written mostly by a priest named Augustine Magraidhin, who died in 1405 and contain important information on local events and those further afield.