Between May and October of last year, the exhibition Words on the Wave: Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe was on display in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin. The Stiftsbibliothek of St Gall in Switzerland owns 17 early medieval Irish manuscripts and fragments, which were brought to Ireland and there paired with some 100 early medieval artefacts of the National Museum of Ireland. The exhibition was opened by the presidents of both Ireland and Switzerland, and captured the imagination of the entire country. It proved such a success that it was decided to design a comparable exhibition at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, where St Gall manuscripts will be paired with artefacts from the National Museum of Ireland. It will be on display in between 22 January and 23 May 2027.
To mark this occasion, an international conference will be held in Zürich, 3–6 March 2027 under the theme of ‘Irish encounters and Insular influences in the Lake Constance region and beyond – Adoptions, Adaptions, Rejections’. The question of Irish and Insular intellectual influence in early medieval Europe is a much-debated topic for at least the past 150, from Heinrich Zimmer’s 1891 The Irish Element in Mediaeval Culture to Sven Meeder’s recent The Irish Scholarly Presence at St. Gall: Networks of Knowledge in the Early Middle Ages. As Meeder’s book shows, the Lake Constance region holds a central place in this debate. The conference aims at understanding better the Irish experience and its reception in this region, but also of Insular intellectual and artistic influence — or its rejection — in early medieval Continental Europe more broadly. We particularly invite papers on all aspects that deal with the question of the reception of Insular culture in this region and beyond, through adoption or adaption of Irish / Insular practices, or demonstrable rejection thereof. The call is open to all relevant disciplines, including history, art history, philosophy, theology, philology, linguistics, and others. Please send your proposal by 15 July 2026 to iwarntje@tcd.ie