Professor Sabine Asmus receives 2026 St Patrick’s Day Award

The 2026 St Patrick’s Day Award was presented to Professor Sabine Asmus during the Embassy’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations. Professor Asmus received the award in recognition of her contribution to Celtic Studies, Irish Studies, and to the Irish language, culture and history in Germany and beyond.

Ireland’s Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill presented Professor Asmus with the award during the Embassy’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

The St Patrick’s Day Award, first awarded in 2021, recognises an individual, who is not themselves from Ireland, making important contributions to Irish-German relations across the fields of art, community relations, academia and law.

Professor Sabine Asmus is a distinguished linguist specialising in Celtic and minority languages. She previously established and then led the Celtic Studies departments in both the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan and the University of Szczecin in Poland.

Currently, Professor Asmus leads on Irish and Celtic Studies within the University of Leipzig’s Sorbian and Minority Languages Department. Her work there has included creating BA and MA courses which involve teaching Irish literature and history, as well as the Irish language up to fluency level.

More on previous winners of the St Patrick's Day Award.