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Last Monday Enda Kenny visited Bobbio in northern Italy to see one of the great shrines of Irish Christianity, the tomb of St Columbanus, who brought the message of the Gospel back to continental Europe during the Dark Ages, 1,400 years ago.
Kenny was in Italy to meet the country’s prime minister, Enrico Letta, as part of his duties during the Irish EU presidency , but he went out of his way to visit Bobbio with an old school friend, Fr Tommy Murphy, a Columban missionary who was head of the order for the past five years.