The first international conference on "St Patrick and Early Christianity" will open in Skerries, Co Dublin, next Friday.
The Skerries Community College is hosting the event, which will be addressed by experts on saints and Celtic mysticism. Mr Charles Thomas is to deliver the keynote lecture, entitled "Palladius and the Introduction of Christianity", on Friday evening.
The conference, which will be opened by the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, the Very Rev Robert McCarthy, will conclude on Sunday. Local tradition in Skerries holds that St Patrick first landed there when he travelled to this country as a missionary.