On the Town: Ambassadors and academics packed into the National Museum on Dublin's Kildare Street to witness the ancient links that connect Celts and Germans this week.
"The Celtic style can be seen on many archaeological finds in southern Scandinavia," said Maja Hagerman, the Swedish author and historian who delivered the lecture.
"And, the Old Norse religion has much in common with that of the Celts," she added. Her lecture, Celts and Germans - Close Cousins?, took place in the museum's Ceramic Room. Among those present was architect and television presenter Duncan Stewart, historian Prof Kevin B. Nowlan, the Indian Ambassador, Prabhakar Menon and the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Lazarotto.
There was a cultural closeness between the Celts and the Germans in the pre-Christian era, said Hagerman. "It was a world that was undivided by national borders," she said. "Maybe the borders and sharp divisions that are written in our history books, between different peoples and their cultures in ancient times, need to be critically reconsidered today," she said.
A golden Celtic torc was found buried in Västergötland in the south-west of Sweden a couple of years ago, she said. The archaeologists who excavated the settlement could give no clear explanation for this. "But, in a wider perspective, the spectacular find fits into a context," she said. There was a closeness between the two cultures, she explained.
The Swedish ambassador's wife, Ulla Daag, was present, as was the deputy head of mission, Magnus Rydén. The ambassador himself, Nils Daag, was unable to attend because he had the flu.
This series of lectures has been organised to celebrate the first lecture delivered 20 years ago about Wood Quay by Dr Pat Wallace, the museum's director, who also attended the public lecture. The lectures have become an integral part of the museum's public programme.