Life

Bangor marks 1,400th anniversary of St Columbanus

Anne Hailes

Anne Hailes

Anne is Northern Ireland's first lady of journalism, having worked in the media since she joined Ulster Television when she was 17. Her columns have been entertaining and informing Irish News readers for 25 years.

Detail from the stained glass window dedicated to St Columbanus at Ballyholme Parish Church, Bangor Picture courtesy of Ards and North Down Borough Council.
Detail from the stained glass window dedicated to St Columbanus at Ballyholme Parish Church, Bangor Picture courtesy of Ards and North Down Borough Council. Detail from the stained glass window dedicated to St Columbanus at Ballyholme Parish Church, Bangor Picture courtesy of Ards and North Down Borough Council.

IT’S taken a long time to gather together all that is going to make the anniversary weekend of of Friday November 20 so special.

Along with his colleagues, Kenneth Irvine has curated a festival in Bangor, full of colour, history and worship, celebrating the life St Columbanus, who died in in November 615.

Born in Leinster, Columbanus was a missionary, a writer, a teacher and a man who loved nature. He founded a number of monasteries in continental Europe, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in France and Bobbio Abbey in Italy.

His influence lasts to this day but not only with the festival; he is patron of motorcyclists, for one thing, and there is a formal proposal before the Vatican to have him recognised as Patron Saint of Europe.

Columbanus left his home in Meath to study under Sinell, Abbot of Cluaninis in Lough Erne. He then moved to Bangor Abbey in Co Down and remained there until he was 40 when he began his travels.

“We are aiming to cover much ground as possible,” Kenneth explained. “Columbanus was a man of many parts and the concert on Friday night will include the Boat Song he wrote when rowing up the River Rhine.

"One of the talks on Saturday will be given by Barry Sloan, a Methodist minister living and working in Germany for l5 years; he saw himself walking in the footsteps of Columbanus, leaving Ireland for Europe. Then, a couple of years ago, he took a sabbatical, came back to Ireland, got a lift to Bangor station and hitch hiked from Bangor along the Columbanus trail to Dublin and on to Bobbio in the Kingdom of the Lombards in Italy, the place where Columbanus died 1,400 years ago.”

Columbanus is often represented bearded and bearing the monastic cowl, holding in his hand a book ,with an Irish satchel and standing in the midst of wolves. Sometimes he is depicted in the attitude of taming a bear – one of the miracles attributed to him was that he indeed tamed a bear and yoked it to a plough.

His is a fascinating story and the festival will do much to bringing him to a wider public. The festival opens with an evening of music, song and storytelling featuring tradition singer Les Graham and storyteller Jack Lynch; the talks and tales continue during Saturday, finishing that evening with Songs of the Scribe 7.30pm.in First Bangor Presbyterian Church.

On Sunday afternoon, To Find A Heathen Place and Sound a Bell is described as a haunting wave of voices and music with writers Kerry Hardie and Olivia O’Leary and music by David Power.

However, the heart and soul of the Columbanus 1400 Festival will be Sunday evening when Lord Eames will preach at the ecumenical service in Bangor Abbey.

Robin Eames started his career as a curate in Bangor and he was one person Kenneth Irvine wanted to invite to become involved in some way. When a hand of guidance positioned the two beside each other at a Philharmonic performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem in St Anne’s Cathedral, the conversation came round to the Columbanus Festival and Lord Eames readily agreed to lead the united service. The Lord surely works mysterious way.

:: Columbanus 1400 Festival, friendsofcolumbanusbangor.co.uk

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

SAVE up boys, if you want to give your woman perfume this Christmas – not cheap but much appreciated. Best to ask first, however: there are many fragrances on the market and what suites one doesn’t suit another.

Drugs and pregnancy can change the make up of a woman’s skin balance; indeed, having gone through a heavy drug regime years ago, I haven’t been able to wear my favourite perfume since – something to do with the acid and alkaline levels – and it’s been a long job finding a replacement. In fact, I haven’t quite managed it even yet.

The assistants in Boots are fed up with me hovering around the sample bottles. Getting a spray on little pieces of paper is really only good for scenting your handbag.

I had the pleasure years ago of interviewing Jo Malone, still the most recognised name in fragrance. When her first flagship store was in Sloane Street our nearest port of call was Brown Thomas in Grafton Street Dublin. How times have changed – now it's available in Belfast's Victoria Square and most airport duty free shops.

We talked in the 90s when she was just taking off. She’s been asked to perfume the vast expanse of the Royal Albert Hall for an event and her thought was that, just as we accept that colour can give a psychological boost to morale, so can your sense of smell.

“In fact, fragrance can do even more.” she told me, “whether it’s the Albert Hall or your own room.”

Jo Malone is a bit of a legend when it comes to the beauty industry. Like most little girls, she filled tiny bottles with crushed rose petals and water but as her mother was a beautician she was encouraged to follow this initiative. She was at that time mixing and blending in her kitchen – and so began a worldwide business.

When Estee Lauder took over the company there were ‘issues’ and she opted out but has since set up a new fragrance business, Jo Loves, and she still creates her scents at her kitchen table.

This is the woman who worked with the greatest parfumeurs and has drawn her fragrances from unusual sources, – the smell of lime blossoms along the Champs Elysees or the scent of wood warmed in the sun as you sit in a sandalwood chair in the Middle East even ginger tea in a Chinese restaurant.

And if you close your eyes after spraying the appropriate fragrance you can walk through a rose garden in the early evening and almost touch the beautiful blossoms.