DUBLIN, Ireland: More than a millennium after they were carried abroad for safekeeping, a collection of early Irish monastic manuscripts is returning to Ireland for a landmark exhibition at the National Museum in Dublin.

Seventeen manuscripts from the Abbey of Saint Gall in Switzerland will be on display from May 30 to October 24 in Words on the Wave: Ireland and St Gallen in Early Medieval Europe. The exhibition will trace the journeys of Irish monks who left home during the early Middle Ages to escape Viking raids and to spread Christianity, scholarship and Irish learning across Europe.

Curator Matthew Seaver says the manuscripts, which include religious texts, encyclopedic works, and even scribbled personal notes, offer rare insight into daily life in medieval monasteries. "These books are key to an understanding of ourselves, our language and our links with the continent," he said. "Their value and importance are difficult to overestimate."

Ireland's early monastic centres became beacons of learning following the spread of Christianity. Monks produced and copied religious and academic works by hand, helping preserve the classical tradition during a period often referred to as the Dark Ages.

Among the treasures on display is the oldest surviving copy of Etymologiae, a Latin encyclopedia of word origins described by scholars as the "internet of the ancient world." Other texts include Priscian's Institutiones Grammaticae, a grammar book whose margins are filled with candid notes. "New parchment, bad ink. O I say nothing more," wrote one frustrated scribe. Another confessed to being "ale-killed," or hungover. Others voiced fears of Viking raids, including one who hoped a storm would deter them from attacking.

Such marginalia, Seaver said, bring these ancient manuscripts to life. "They're full of human voices, humour, frustration and resilience," he said. "These aren't just relics. They're windows into how monks lived, worked and thought."

While Ireland is home to the Book of Kells, many early Irish manuscripts were lost during centuries of war and upheaval. Today, more survive in Britain and Europe than in Ireland.

The exhibition also features over 100 artefacts from the National Museum's collection, including the Lough Kinale Book Shrine. Discovered in a lake in County Longford, the shrine is believed to be the oldest and largest container for a sacred text in Ireland and is being shown publicly for the first time following years of conservation work.