Get Involved · For Kells

Kells Made It. Kells Brings It Home.

The Book of Kells carries this town’s name around the world. It sits in a glass case 69 km away in Dublin, and 968,666 people went to see it there in 2024. Every one of them saw it in Dublin. Trinity has turned Kells down twice. The answer is a whole town standing behind the ask, and that starts on your street.

Count me in   Six ways to help

Why it matters

Our name. Their glass case.

968,666
Visitors to the Book of Kells at Trinity College Dublin in 2024 (Fáilte Ireland). All of them saw it in Dublin.
69 km
From Trinity College Library to Kells. About an hour up the road.
1653
The year it left Kells, sent to Dublin for safekeeping during the Cromwellian wars. It never came back.
2
Times Trinity refused Kells a loan: 2000 and 2011. We are not asking for a loan.

St Colmcille’s community kept this book in Kells for centuries. In 1007 the Annals of Ulster recorded its theft from the church at Kells. It is not called the Book of Dublin. It is not called the Book of Trinity. The name is an address, and the address is here.

We are not asking for a season, an exhibition or a favour. We are asking for the Book to come home for good, to a home in Kells built to the same conservation standards Trinity applies itself. One website asking is easy to ignore. A whole town asking, with its councillors and TDs behind it, is not.

Bring the Book home and Kells stops being the detour and becomes the destination.

Sources: Fáilte Ireland visitor attractions data, 2024. Trinity refusals: The Irish Times, 22 June 2000; Irish Examiner, 31 August 2011. Read the full story · FAQ

Six ways to help

What you can do. Starting this week.

None of this takes more than an evening. All of it adds up. Pick one, or pick all six.

01
Put Your Name Down
Add your name to the Kells list below. Every local name is proof this is a town’s demand, not one person’s hobby.
02
Write to Your Councillors and TDs
A short email asking for a return home, not a loan, lands on a desk that answers to your vote. We have a template letter ready. Ask for it.
03
Put It in Your Window
We are making window posters for shops, pubs and homes on the main streets, so every visitor walking past knows Kells wants its Book back. Email us to be first in line.
04
Lend Us Your Kells
Old photographs, cuttings, school projects, family stories about the Book or the monastic town. Send us a picture of it and we’ll be in touch. Always credited to you.
05
Tell Visitors the Truth
When a tourist on Headfort Place asks where the Book is, tell them straight: 69 km away in Dublin, sent off for safekeeping in 1653 and never returned. Then point them up to the Round Tower.
06
Bring It to Your Club
GAA club, school, parish hall, book club: if you can gather a room, we can help with a short talk and materials. See events.
The Kells Round Tower, its conical cap long gone, under a dark sky
The Round Tower still stands in Kells, cap long gone. The manuscript that shares the town’s name is 69 km away in Dublin. Photo: Jjm596, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA, colour-toned by Made in Kells.
Join

Count Me In. I’m With Kells.

Leave your name and tell us how you want to help. Born here, moved here, or married into the place: if Kells is home, you belong on this list.

Join the Kells list
Goes to ColmTheKiller@MadeInKells.Com. We read every message and reply to as many as we can.
I can help by
🍀 Go raibh maith agat. You’re on the Kells list. We’ll be in touch.

We only use your details to contact you about the campaign.

Friends of the Return   Events   FAQ

Named for here. Kept here for centuries. It belongs here. Return home, not a loan.