Benediction

Editorial Benediction In this edition, I am delighted to inform you that we are publishing articles not only from these islands but also from the United States, Austria and Germany. Two articles consider those who decide to undertake medical undergraduate training in Europe. The first, our Review Paper by Professor John Mayberry, details the data on students from Ireland and the UK who did precisely that between 1990-2005. The second, written by Dr Rhiannon Killingbeck, tells us what it's like to enroll abroad in a foreign English language medical degree course and specifically, what it is like to study, live, work and play there. As Rhiannon observes, some of these venerable European academic institutions have been in existence for over 600 years and have an impressive medical and scientific pedigree. The distance, culture shifts and language barriers are not inconsiderable, and as she also wryly comments, 'there won't be anyone there to hold your hand.' People from these islands have, of course, been travelling to Europe for centuries, often leaving their mark, sometimes literally. In the ninth century, an Irish Benedictine monk was hard at work in his cell in Reichenau Abbey, which is located on an Island in Lake Constance on the borders between Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He was working on a manuscript now known as The Reichenau Primer. This was written using a medieval script system called 'Insular Script', a cartographic technique that had its genesis in Ireland and travelled eastward with the Irish missionaries who founded many of the European monasteries. This technique is also associated with Insular Art and such illuminated manuscripts as the The Book of Kells. The monk's only companion in that lonely cell was his cat, Pangur Bán. In the manuscript's margin, he wrote a poem, comparing Pangur's feline activities to his own scholarly pursuits. The original text is in medieval Gaelic but the first lines (from a translation by Robin Flower) begin: I and Pangur Bán my cat, 'Tis a like task we are at: Hunting mice is his delight, Hunting words I sit all night. The primer, now housed at Saint Paul's Abbey library in Lavanttal, Carinthia may be viewed on line (http://