The discovery of an ancient manuscript in a bog in the midlands has been described by the National Museum of Ireland as of "staggering importance", writes Ruadhán Mac Cormaic.
Fragments of what appear to be an ancient psalter, or Book of Psalms, were uncovered by a bulldozer in a bog in the south midlands last Thursday.
It is estimated that it could be between 1,000 and 1,200-years-old and staff at the museum said yesterday its discovery was an Irish equivalent to that of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The director of the National Museum of Ireland, Dr Pat Wallace, said the find was of "staggering importance" and that its survival until now was "a miracle".
"In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile and rare as this. It testifies to the incredible richness of the early Christian civilisation of this island and to the greatness of ancient Ireland," he said.
The artefact comprises extensive fragments of what appear to be an Irish early Christian psalter, written on vellum. The pages appear to be those of a slim, large format book with a wraparound vellum or leather cover from which the book block has slipped.
Specialists do not know how the manuscript ended up in the bog, but speculated that it may have been lost in transit, or dumped after a raid.
The farmer on whose land it was found notified museum staff immediately, and it was brought to the museum's conservation laboratory at Collins Barracks in Dublin by a team of specialists on Friday.
According to Raghnall Ó Floinn, head of collections at the museum, there are about 45 letters per line and a maximum of 40 lines per page.
While part of Psalm 83 is legible, the extent to which other psalms or additional texts are preserved will be determined only by painstaking work by a team of experts. It is possible that the manuscript will be put on public display in the museum's early Christian gallery within a couple of years.
Dr Bernard Meehan, head of manuscripts at Trinity College Dublin, said the find was "sensational".
"I only heard about this yesterday, and since then I've been trying to come to terms with it. I cannot think of a parallel anywhere . . . What we have here is a really spectacular, completely unexpected find."
Arts Minister John O'Donoghue congratulated the finder and the museum on a "most fortunate" discovery.