Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire has called for the permanent repatriation to Ireland of 'The Annals of Inisfallen', a 1,000-year-old medieval manuscript currently on loan to University College Cork (UCC) from Oxford University's Bodleian Library. Speaking as the text went on rare public display in Cork, the local politician argued that historical items removed from Ireland in past centuries should be returned to Irish ownership.

The manuscript, written in Latin and Irish across 57 vellum leaves, is being exhibited at the Glucksman Gallery at UCC until November 1 in an exhibition titled 'Recording the Past: The Annals of Inisfallen and the Making of Irish History'. The public display marks the first time the document has been shown in Ireland in over 40 years, having last been exhibited briefly in Killarney in 1983.

In statements on Sunday, Ó Laoghaire, TD for Cork South-Central, criticized the fact that the historic document is scheduled to return to Oxford following its two-month exhibition period. He characterized the removal of such historical items as a form of colonial plunder and stated that the manuscript should belong permanently to an Irish institution where the public and local scholars can access it.

Compiled primarily by monks at Innisfallen Abbey on Lough Leane in County Kerry, 'The Annals of Inisfallen' documents more than 1,000 years of Irish history spanning from 433 AD to 1450 AD. The text features contemporary entries written by around 30 different scribes between the 11th and 14th centuries, serving as a vital chronicle for medieval Munster, early political history, and the development of the Irish language.

The manuscript entered the private collection of 17th-century Irish historian Sir James Ware before passing through several collectors to Richard Rawlinson. Rawlinson subsequently bequeathed his collection to the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, where the document has been preserved for more than 250 years.

Academic leaders at UCC and Oxford welcomed the temporary loan collaboration. Pádraig Ó Macháin, professor of Modern Irish at UCC, described the manuscript as a monument to the scribes who facilitated the transition from Latin to Irish as a language of record. Bodley's Librarian Richard Ovenden noted that the Bodleian Library was delighted to collaborate with UCC to make the manuscript accessible to the public in Ireland.