I see that the town of Kells is laying claim to the Book of Kells, and wants it back. It seems a reasonable claim, because Kells was the original home of the book, until a former Bishop of Meath handed it over.
However, Trinity College, though it must have many more books than it ever gets around to reading, is unlikely to accede to the Kells request. There is probably a better chance of getting the Lindisfarne Gospels back from the British Library, or the Gobbio Irish Gospels from Milan.
No doubt the feeling is that if Kells is given back its book, Durrow will be next up. Descendants of the Four Masters might then request the return of their Annals.
Nor is the campaign likely to be limited to demands for the return of books or manuscripts. The National Museum will be plagued: Ardagh will be seeking the return of its chalice and Lismore its crozier. It won't stop until we give back the Elphin Marbles.
Right. Now to more mundane matters. It was good to see members of the European Parliament voting down controversial amendments to an EU Water Directive which could have forced the Irish Government to reintroduce water charges.
For a start, it is always pleasant to see that haughty and incredibly pompous body, the European Council of Ministers, defeated on almost any matter, and especially pleasant when our own MEPs assist in the defeat.
Among the amendments tabled by the MEPs were some which defeated the principle that domestic water charges should be paid for by domestic users. It was the excellent Leinster MEP, Ms Avril Doyle, who suggested that a blanket charge for domestic users would create political and practical difficulties for governments.
Over-sensitive as I am to the notion of new EC-generated charges for anything, I was instantly enraged at first that the Council of Ministers should be seeking a "blanket charge" for domestic users, or for anyone.
Did they now intend to check the coverings on our beds, and charge for every night's usage? Would duvets be exempt?
This, of course, was only paranoia. Ms Doyle had done her job well. And the Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa also welcomed the Parliament's decision to block obligatory water charges.
In the debate, he said that water was "essential to life itself, and people must have free access to sufficient quantities for normal daily life. The Parliament's decision aims to ensure that no charge for water can be imposed through European legislation."
Well said, Proinsias. Not many people fully realise the importance of water, and more to the point, its increasing importance in Ireland. Once a country which depended on land, the emphasis now is on water and in particular our waterways, which have in the last few years been developed beyond recognition.
With traditional farming on the way out, and water, water everywhere, it is only a matter of time before rice becomes our main crop. As for tourism, basically the idea is not only to reopen waterways and restore canals to their former glories but eventually to connect every stream and boghole in the country, all the way to the sea.
In thus going forward we are in fact returning backwards to our glorious days as a great seafaring nation.
Already, the consequences of moving to a water-based economy are visible even in our language. England may lay claim to Estuary English but MEP Patricia McKenna was most fluent in this particular language when she raised questions this week in Europe about the development works going on at the Boyne estuary in Drogheda Port. The imagery of water has always been powerful in Ireland, from Finnegans Wake to Riverdance.
Even our own John Waters (there's a name) used such imagery in this paper not very long ago, when he spoke of the "backwash of anti-values being pumped in from the east coast" and of how our indigenous phlegmaticism was "more than a match for the incoming tide".
At last we can express our pride at living in a backwater.
bglacken@irish-times.ie