Kells has always laid claim to the 8th century work of art - it is generally held to have been started in the Columban community in Iona and completed in Kells - but new evidence about to be presented at an academic conference this weekend casts doubts on that theory.

Evidence that the Book of Kells was made by the monastic community of St Brigit run by women at Kildare and that the scribes and illuminators of the book were likely to have been women will be presented at the 2019 Irish Conference of Medievalists in Cork on Saturday.

Francis O’Reilly, an independent researcher, will show how the 7th century book ‘Kildare Life of Brigit’, and the Book of Kells can be used to understand each other.

Dubliner, Francis O’Reilly lectured in mathematics at third level for a number of years, but is now an independent researcher.

However, Kells man, Chris Murphy of Trinity College, where the world famous artefact resides and who is currently writing a history of Kells, says that “while we can’t prove the book was made in Kells, there are demonstrable links between Kells, Iona and Lindisfarne that date back to at least 685AD and connections between various important historical characters going back to the 620s.”

Francis O’Reilly points out that ‘Kildare Life of Brigit’ was claiming primacy for its bishop in Ireland, yet asserting that at Kildare this archbishop was subject to the abbess. In the Book of Kells, Brigit was portrayed as the Goddess who can compel any man. She is depicted as the Virgin in the Virgin and Child page and the Celtic Goddess with sovereignty over God and man who could take dragon-form.

Mr O’Reilly says that in the Book of Kells, the creation of the book itself is represented as the work of women and it’s likely it was created by women. “This can only have taken place at Kildare. The received theory that it was ma de at an all-male community associated with St Colmcille, at either Iona in Scotland or Kells in Co Meath rules women out as its creators.

“Kildare is a very good choice as the origin of the Book of Kells. The Kildare Life of Brigit tells us it was a great centre of art in the 7th century with a towering cathedral church adorned with paintings inside and out. While the travel writer, Gerald of Wales, saw a manuscript very like the Book of Kells at Kildare in the 12th century,” he said.

Chris Murphy says he would be keen to hear what Mr O’Reilly has to say as Kildare, Durrow and Kells were all closely connected during the 8th and 9th Centuries under the Clan Colman High Kings from western Meath.

He said Saint Brigit is a work of fiction begun by Muirchu of Ardbraccan, the same man who created the story of Patrick after the Synod of Whitby 664AD after the Columban Church refused to bow to Rome’s authority.

“However, there is evidence to suggest there was a very powerful female Christian Bishop in KIldare in the 7th Century, on which Muirchu based Brigit’s story. Kildare was also the centre of the Culdee movement, which developed after Whitby, and was vehemently opposed to Rome’s hierarchical system and believed only in the spiritual isolationist practices of the early hermit monks.

“As it stands, while we can’t prove the book was made in Kells, there are demonstrable links between Kells, Iona and Lindisfarne that date back to at least 685AD and connections between various important historical characters going back to the 620s,” said Mr Murphy.