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Plans for a new Book of Kells

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — More than 100 poets and artists from Ireland and Scotland are to create a 21st century version of the famous Book of Kells as part of a £200,000 millennium project.

The ornate four gospels known as the Book of Kells is now kept in the Library of Dublin’s Trinity College and is one of Ireland’s major tourist attractions.

The book is believed to have been started by monks on Scotland’s island of Iona in the 8th century. After a Viking raid, it was brought to an Irish monastery in Kells, Co. Meath, where it was completed in the 9th century.

Written on thick vellum with elaborate Celtic art illustrations, the monks are thought to have taken 30 years to complete it. It is regarded by scholars as the most important of all medieval books.

The millennium version, to be called Leabhar Mor Ne Gaidhlig (the Great Book of Gaelic), will also be lavishly illustrated by artists and calligraphers from both countries.

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Before the final 100-page volume is bound, it will tour Britain and Ireland next year as an exhibition and it will then rotate on permanent display between Scotland and Ireland.

So far a £27,000 grant has been pledged by the Scottish Arts Council and sponsorship is being sought from industry, millennium bodies, national lotteries and Gaelic promotion bodies.

Malcolm Maclean, director of the Scottish Gaelic Arts Agency, said 50 leading poets from Ireland and Scotland will be asked to write new works for the book and to also to nominate their favorite poem in Gaelic for inclusion.

"The book will contain 100 poems, both contemporary and stretching back hundreds of years," Maclean said. "We plan to commission 50 visual artists from both countries to illustrate it."

A copy of the book and a CD of the poets reading their works will be given to all schools teaching through Gaelic.

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