Return of Colmcille

Download Subtitles

Transcript

:00:16. > :00:20.I was working on the Olympic opening ceremony with Danny Boyle, and Marty

:00:21. > :00:24.Melarkey, who I've known for a long time, got in touch with me and said,

:00:25. > :00:28."Derry's going to be Capital of Culture, we want to do a big outdoor

:00:29. > :00:32.event, I think you are the person to do it." I knew the story of

:00:33. > :00:34.Colmcille and it seemed like we should celebrate that and do

:00:35. > :00:37.something everybody could get involved in. So, Frank Cottrell

:00:38. > :00:41.Boyce, having rewritten the history of Britain, what led you to think

:00:42. > :00:52.you might be able to sun up 1000 years of Irish history on this

:00:53. > :00:58.amazing bridge? -- sum up. Having saved Britain, now he's come to

:00:59. > :01:02.Derry! It is that thing of, you may feel as though you write books or

:01:03. > :01:05.whatever and they go out, but those cultural events can be

:01:06. > :01:09.transformative, you live in Bow and it completely changed the atmosphere

:01:10. > :01:14.around those streets for a while. It did. The idea you can do that, you

:01:15. > :01:20.can throw a party, joining things together. Yeah, and letting stuff

:01:21. > :01:25.come out of the community. And communities, when they speak

:01:26. > :01:29.together, are pretty powerful. I was doing a book gig in Belfast and

:01:30. > :01:33.reading from one of my children's books and I looked up and I could

:01:34. > :01:36.see Marty sitting at the back, thinking, "You're a long way from

:01:37. > :01:40.home." And he had come on the bus and had a little copy of A

:01:41. > :01:44.Children's Life of St Columba, and he gave that to me and said, "Would

:01:45. > :01:48.you read this?" He had chosen me because I had written a film about

:01:49. > :01:54.saints and done a film with Danny about a boy who can see saints, so

:01:55. > :01:59.theis invitation came from Marty. -- the same connection. Almost 20 years

:02:00. > :02:02.ago, we had the first screening of Trainspotting before it was seen by

:02:03. > :02:06.anybody else in the world anywhere, at the invitation of Marty Melarkey

:02:07. > :02:10.at the centre. I haven't been back for a few years. It is wonderful,

:02:11. > :02:14.really. And to hear Frank and Marty talk about the big spectacle, it's a

:02:15. > :02:20.wonderful thing for any community, let alone one with challenges like

:02:21. > :02:25.Derry. It's Picasso, I think, someone said to him that terrible

:02:26. > :02:29.question, "Well, what's it for? What's art for?" And he said, "It's

:02:30. > :02:47.to blow dust off your soul." I think we began by thinking about

:02:48. > :02:50.the water and what we could do, it's such a brilliant arena, the lough

:02:51. > :02:53.itself, and what could you do with that? And I just remembered there

:02:54. > :02:57.was this connection between Colmcille and the Loch Ness Monster,

:02:58. > :03:07.he had seen the Loch Ness Monster, so we'd start almost with the most

:03:08. > :03:10.childish thing. What I knew about the story of Colmcille was a revenge

:03:11. > :03:14.story, that he had stolen this book, it had led to a battle and that he

:03:15. > :03:17.had regretted creating that violence and had gone away and created

:03:18. > :03:20.something beautiful. And that rhythm of violence to beauty seemed really

:03:21. > :03:31.uplifting, but also just inherently dramatic. It meant you were

:03:32. > :03:36.definitely working towards this big payoff. Because what he did was go

:03:37. > :03:39.to Iona and start that community which created what for me are the

:03:40. > :03:42.most beautiful objects ever created, the Books of Kells, the Book of

:03:43. > :03:46.Lindisfarne, these incredible books that are full of amazing detail and

:03:47. > :03:47.imagination, and that idea that out of violence and regret and sorrow

:03:48. > :04:02.can come this beauty and joy. I'm thinking we need to build a

:04:03. > :04:06.staging on top of the steps, so the book, the book would be angled out

:04:07. > :04:10.that way and as far back as we can get, but I don't think we have

:04:11. > :04:18.enough budget to have loads of mechanisms. On my first trip to

:04:19. > :04:24.Derry for this, Marty introduced me to John Wassell and just everything

:04:25. > :04:28.instantly was right. I kind of said things off the top of my head that

:04:29. > :04:32.John didn't blink at. I now realise it had been anyone other than John

:04:33. > :04:41.and Walk The Plank, we would have taken months to sort things out.

:04:42. > :04:52.You may be wondering why I've asked you all here today. I believe the

:04:53. > :05:01.murderer is among us! The nature of the event was that you

:05:02. > :05:05.need experts to lead it and that means getting people from all over

:05:06. > :05:08.the world to come to Derry for a little while and I think the great

:05:09. > :05:14.virtue of the credibility and charisma of Walk The Plank is that

:05:15. > :05:17.they have the clout to do that. So we had people like Dan Potra

:05:18. > :05:21.designing the floats, who's an opera designer who is from Transylvania

:05:22. > :05:25.who lives in Australia. Because you have that kind of stamp, you have

:05:26. > :05:30.that guarantee that it's Walk The Plank, people will come for that, so

:05:31. > :05:34.that was huge. We have what we're calling the platforms, which are

:05:35. > :05:37.some of the bigger images that Dan has drawn, so for example, the shirt

:05:38. > :05:41.factory, where a story that has some reference to the shirt factory or

:05:42. > :05:54.the woman can be played out, so the whole afternoon is about people

:05:55. > :05:57.telling each other stories. So alongside these landmark things we

:05:58. > :05:59.have thoroughly rehearsed and brilliant costumes and shows and

:06:00. > :06:03.things that are really worth going to see, the plan is to enchant the

:06:04. > :06:10.whole of the city centre for the afternoon. We wanted this to be a

:06:11. > :06:14.piece of storytelling. It really needed a writer's mind to set it

:06:15. > :06:22.alight for four-year-olds up to 80, 90-year-olds. The thing that he is

:06:23. > :06:25.bringing to this project I think is encapsulated by a eureka moment that

:06:26. > :06:32.he just had recently, where it opened up the whole story for him.

:06:33. > :06:34.He had discovered in his research that Colmcille didn't actually

:06:35. > :06:37.finish the book of Kells himself, and Frank immediately said, "I've

:06:38. > :06:44.got it, this is unfinished business." Colmcille is coming back

:06:45. > :06:48.to Derry because he has business to finish, the Loch Ness Monster wants

:06:49. > :06:52.to get back at him for defeating him years and years ago, and they are

:06:53. > :06:59.going to come together on the Foyle and have it out. And around that,

:07:00. > :07:02.you can build a whole story leading up to it, starting on Iona, of

:07:03. > :07:06.Colmcille coming here and then this city telling a story and what we

:07:07. > :07:18.will see is what happened here while Colmcille was away. My mission

:07:19. > :07:21.statement has been this beautiful sentence from GK Chesterton where he

:07:22. > :07:24.says the world is not perishing for lack of wonders, the world is

:07:25. > :07:28.perishing for lack of wonder, and that ability to remind you of how

:07:29. > :07:31.great things are and to point out the things around you that are

:07:32. > :07:40.amazing, that you kind of become used to, or stopped noticing, and to

:07:41. > :07:44.make you notice them again. So it's Friday, 24th May and we're on Iona,

:07:45. > :07:47.on a beach, with the small community of Iona, which hopefully will be

:07:48. > :07:57.about 125, and hopefully with some people from Mull. There will be a

:07:58. > :08:02.blessing of a boat and a strange happening. So this blessing will

:08:03. > :08:05.happen on the Friday evening and is the night before the actual launch

:08:06. > :08:15.of the curragh carrying one passenger and 12 rowers who are

:08:16. > :08:19.heading off to Derry. The thing about her is, she could just turn up

:08:20. > :08:26.on the day, she could literally just come in. Have a think about that.

:08:27. > :08:30.John is all energy. He will walk around a city and say it takes 15

:08:31. > :08:34.minutes to walk from here to there, and he runs meetings in exactly the

:08:35. > :08:38.same way. We have 25 minutes to sort this out. And he will time it, so

:08:39. > :08:41.you have to be creative. It's along here. We don't need the map. I'm

:08:42. > :08:47.from Manchester. I know where Free Derry Corner is. We have done a

:08:48. > :08:52.little bit of a scout around in the Bogside. There are a few festival

:08:53. > :08:58.places. -- possible places. Let's go to the gasworks. Gasyard. He had

:08:59. > :09:01.that book of contacts and he had that experience and just went yeah,

:09:02. > :09:08.that's no problem, that's no problem. So just trying to think of

:09:09. > :09:11.something that would link to this location in the stories. My view is

:09:12. > :09:16.that we should look at all the sites, and then... I said to John,

:09:17. > :09:20.if we want to bring a gigantic Loch Ness Monster up Lough Foyle, it has

:09:21. > :09:24.to be huge. The moment I mentioned it to John, he knew where there was

:09:25. > :09:27.a big barge and he knew where there was someone who made dragons and

:09:28. > :09:33.monsters for a living, and that someone was Frankie Morgan. It feels

:09:34. > :09:36.like it's a bit far. You will find that there are many other sheds

:09:37. > :09:40.around here that have people inside that are at the top of their field

:09:41. > :09:44.in engineering and they do weird and wonderful things that are going off

:09:45. > :09:48.to somewhere else in the world and it's all in wee sort of agricultural

:09:49. > :09:55.rural sheds around here. They seem to be a very talented bunch around

:09:56. > :10:00.here. I've just never grown up. I remained a child. I go to climb

:10:01. > :10:05.trees and do sort of unusual stuff to this day. The nature of the

:10:06. > :10:11.projects that I get involved in, they are specifically designed to

:10:12. > :10:17.stretch people's imagination. When you lift weights, you end up with

:10:18. > :10:20.big muscles. I have to tax my imagination all of the time, so I've

:10:21. > :10:24.ended up, you know, it comes naturally to me to imagine stuff,

:10:25. > :10:28.whereas maybe other people need a bit of a wee lever now and then, but

:10:29. > :10:40.once you get people into the world of imagination, they love it. I was

:10:41. > :10:47.asked to design a Loch Ness Monster. So this is a scale representation of

:10:48. > :10:53.the creature that we're building. This is a barge that the creature is

:10:54. > :10:57.built onto. That's the wheelhouse of it there, somebody in driving it.

:10:58. > :11:01.That's the size of a couple of people standing on the barge, so

:11:02. > :11:04.that gives you an idea of the scale of the thing. Colmcille arrives on

:11:05. > :11:08.the scene, confronts the monster, the monster looks down at him, has

:11:09. > :11:14.an interaction with him, then the monster decides, right, I'm out of

:11:15. > :11:19.here, and submerges. What you are looking at there is one-sided. The

:11:20. > :11:22.other side is never seen, but these are painted cloth which rise and

:11:23. > :11:25.fall on rollers and winch mechanisms, so that at any

:11:26. > :11:34.particular point in the event, we can get the whole thing to appear to

:11:35. > :11:38.submerge into the water. It never ceases to surprise me whenever you

:11:39. > :11:44.actually start making it and see the size of it, you go, "Oh, chit." And

:11:45. > :11:49.this has to be one of the biggest, scariest things I've ever made in my

:11:50. > :11:53.life. One of the things that's been really exciting for me about working

:11:54. > :11:56.in Derry is discovering that this is a whole tribe of people that live

:11:57. > :11:59.mostly in Ireland, in rural places, who are building these extraordinary

:12:00. > :12:12.things for festivals and events, making dragons for a living. There

:12:13. > :12:16.are more villages of culture than cities of culture. I think we've

:12:17. > :12:18.chosen to be on the edge more and that we appreciate the more rural

:12:19. > :12:32.approach to culture. Walk The Plank came to us and said

:12:33. > :12:36.they were taking a curragh from Iona to Derry to celebrate Colmcille, and

:12:37. > :12:39.so we said, why don't we do the sendoff party and the arrival party

:12:40. > :12:48.for that, because we like doing stuff on islands and we like making

:12:49. > :12:52.stuff for parties. We wanted to make a small and beautiful gesture and I

:12:53. > :12:56.hope very much that small and beautiful gesture kind of carries

:12:57. > :13:01.through. We decided to make a book with the kids and put the book on

:13:02. > :13:04.the curragh. Hopefully what will happen, we'll go up and have a

:13:05. > :13:08.lovely time working with kids making the book and we'll pull the

:13:09. > :13:12.community into the idea and on the Friday we'll give the book to the

:13:13. > :13:15.people in the curragh and a big procession on the beach, but there's

:13:16. > :13:24.a lot that could change between now and then.

:13:25. > :13:28.Going to somewhere like Iona where you can really engage in a small

:13:29. > :13:32.community and everyone becomes part of the theatre, I just find that

:13:33. > :13:37.really amazing, but the people kind of own it. It's not just us turning

:13:38. > :13:41.up and doing something and disappearing. We really are there

:13:42. > :13:43.and they really are involved and we all do it together. They're on the

:13:44. > :13:57.journey with us. I really like that. That's why we like working with

:13:58. > :14:01.smaller communities, whereas if you're working in the city or towns

:14:02. > :14:05.and you go and do a workshop, I'm not saying it's not equally valid

:14:06. > :14:08.but our preference is to work in smaller communities, so the dad gets

:14:09. > :14:20.involved and uncle Tommy and whatever. Culture is a word that can

:14:21. > :14:24.define a different group of people. I was in Liverpool for a long time

:14:25. > :14:27.and coming to the North here, and getting involved in theatre, I never

:14:28. > :14:33.used to have theatre sets, everything was about words. --

:14:34. > :14:37.nobody used to have theatre sets. There was no particular kind of

:14:38. > :14:43.visual language for theatre and I noticed a bit of art that was

:14:44. > :14:45.missing was that striving for beauty and beautiful things because I've

:14:46. > :14:51.always wanted to make beautiful things.

:14:52. > :14:57.I'll tell you what I think culture is for. We are the stories that we

:14:58. > :15:02.tell, and we can become trapped in the stories that we tell. I'm from

:15:03. > :15:05.Liverpool and I always think, I mean, for me, our Bloody Sunday is

:15:06. > :15:08.Hillsborough and I always think about those young policeman standing

:15:09. > :15:12.watching that disaster unfold and being completely unable to see that

:15:13. > :15:20.it is a disaster because they were trapped in the story about football

:15:21. > :15:23.hooliganism. That was so hard-wired into their heads, and I think we all

:15:24. > :15:27.find our way around the world through stories about who we are,

:15:28. > :15:31.about what we are, and if you think in Derry there are two really big

:15:32. > :15:36.stories, two different names for the city. There is the story of the

:15:37. > :15:40.siege, which is a Londonderry story, and the story of Bloody Sunday,

:15:41. > :15:45.which is a Derry story, and the two competing stories. I think what

:15:46. > :15:53.culture is for is to offer you another story.

:15:54. > :16:00.This is, like, the big Colmcille site in town, really. This is the

:16:01. > :16:06.kneeling stone. He kneeled so much, he wore some holes in it. The stone

:16:07. > :16:09.was removed from the street near St Columba's Well, where it lain

:16:10. > :16:11.vertically for centuries, and on the ninth June, 1898, it was solemnly

:16:12. > :16:25.enshrined here. It's also how important roots are.

:16:26. > :16:35.This walk we're doing today, this wasn't possible for decades. The

:16:36. > :16:39.woman who wrote "There is a green hill far away, without a city wall"

:16:40. > :16:44.used to go here. And there's the city wall, there's the green hill.

:16:45. > :16:52.Yes. Maybe...you could put" a green hill far away." Yes. So, that's the

:16:53. > :17:00.fountain, the last little protestant enclave in the heart of the city. A

:17:01. > :17:05.monk would be good. This would be a good place for monks. Yes. Grab an

:17:06. > :17:24.end there. People will think we are the council

:17:25. > :17:31.coming to replace the wall! What do we have here? That's been there a

:17:32. > :17:37.while, let's change it. Yeah, yeah. We're bored of it now. You see where

:17:38. > :17:43.it says "free", what if we changed that and put "Lon" so it says "You

:17:44. > :17:52.are now entering Londonderry". That would work! Can you imagine? That

:17:53. > :17:57.would be the best ever culture jam, wouldn't it?! The venue that is most

:17:58. > :18:03.of the beaten track is the Gas Yard. Basically, it's a mini pop festival

:18:04. > :18:08.and we've got a massive draw there. That's where the Undertones are

:18:09. > :18:13.playing. Yeah. I asked John to make a piece of music. Has he done it?

:18:14. > :18:23.Yes, he has done it three different ways, and we'll put David Cameron's

:18:24. > :18:27.apology to it. So we will start off with Amanda and

:18:28. > :18:35.Richie who play a couple from old times, the Regency period. What we

:18:36. > :18:37.will try and do is think of a couple of interactions that the lovers can

:18:38. > :18:51.make with each other. Concealer, blusher and bronzer. And

:18:52. > :19:02.then you want to make sure you shave on a Tuesday. What? Or whatever! It

:19:03. > :19:05.is about getting those numbers in the final analysis, it has about

:19:06. > :19:08.having some time with those numbers. We are the point where getting more

:19:09. > :19:12.people makes it more counterproductive. You have to go

:19:13. > :19:15.over the same stuff as you have done with previous people. Sometimes I

:19:16. > :19:20.get five, sometimes I get ten and you have to keep going over and over

:19:21. > :19:24.again the same material. With a larger group you can absorb absences

:19:25. > :19:27.and people being flaky but with tiny groups of five, if two people do not

:19:28. > :19:32.show, you can not do anything. Basically, what I have done is get

:19:33. > :19:43.my mum to ring round and get actors. Basically, the actor numbers have

:19:44. > :19:46.come from my mum! I think the big thing for me was that this was BY

:19:47. > :19:49.Derry FOR Derry. We made this ideological, emotional commitment to

:19:50. > :19:51.having mass participation and that emotional commitment has become

:19:52. > :19:55.logistical because the event is deisgned to have thousands of

:19:56. > :20:06.participants and if we them, it is not going to happen, it will look

:20:07. > :20:14.rubbish. So that is so scary. You can show off your fancy foot work,

:20:15. > :20:19.show off your moves. The term 'dance captain' put a lot of noses out of

:20:20. > :20:23.joint because it was deemed to be a sub role and very much a role that

:20:24. > :20:31.was hands off, and a role that was basically a whipcracker who was

:20:32. > :20:36.going to deliver stern choreography. I call them rehearsal directors but

:20:37. > :20:39.everybody has different names. We are the choreographers, we are the

:20:40. > :20:45.ones who have the vision for the piece. We will not choreograph every

:20:46. > :20:48.step, we cannot, we do not have enough contacts. It is about

:20:49. > :20:53.empowering the people here, the participants and leaders. The dance

:20:54. > :21:04.captain thing came out of the vision. Hopefully, that will step up

:21:05. > :21:12.quickly. Dance is a pretty hard sell here. Culture is everything we have

:21:13. > :21:21.to do. It is a need in you to express yourself or explore someone

:21:22. > :21:35.else's identity. Let's try it. One, two, 3... Come up slowly. Slowly,

:21:36. > :21:49.move slowly. Turnaround. Face the back. And just walk forward. Yes,

:21:50. > :22:01.and stop, and that is it. It is dramatic and over the top.

:22:02. > :22:26.We will try it. We will try it on Sunday I will get a better system so

:22:27. > :22:34.we can hear it from the front. # Serenade across the water.

:22:35. > :22:51.# Can you hear it soft and low? # A tale of love and lovers.

:22:52. > :22:59.# Singing long ago. Imagination. I think it is very

:23:00. > :23:05.important, yes. If you do not imagine... You cannot dream. If you

:23:06. > :23:12.cannot dream, well, what have you got? If my wife did not have

:23:13. > :23:16.imagination she would not have married me! She thought I looked

:23:17. > :23:36.like Paul Newman! What a lucky woman! I think imagination goes

:23:37. > :23:41.hand-in-hand with creativity. It is coming up with something from

:23:42. > :23:46.nothing. Everybody with creative industries needs imagination. It is

:23:47. > :23:56.the life of the industry. It is the currency. It is the best currency

:23:57. > :24:02.you can have. From the Internet, we chose Colmcille. Before we knew we

:24:03. > :24:07.were going to do the event, it was the Loch Ness Monster at the

:24:08. > :24:10.forefront. The connection between Colmcille and the Loch Ness Monster

:24:11. > :24:16.is simple. The first time that the Loch Ness Monster is mentioned in

:24:17. > :24:20.lecture is in the life of Saint Colmcille. He goes on a journey to

:24:21. > :24:25.see a king and comes across some crofters who are living by the Loch

:24:26. > :24:30.Ness and what terrorised by the monster, and he gets rid of the

:24:31. > :24:34.monster for them. He blesses the sanctified air and the monster

:24:35. > :24:45.cannot breed. It swims off to Loch Ness where it resides to this day.

:24:46. > :24:52.We had this investigation and we looked at the history. We looked at

:24:53. > :25:02.trivial things like the fact that a killer whale had once swum up the

:25:03. > :25:07.Foyle. It was called MP Dick. We chose it because it was great fun

:25:08. > :25:13.and suggested something. Somewhat shows because they could not be left

:25:14. > :25:19.out. Like David Cameron's apology. Walking. Walking was a big thing

:25:20. > :25:24.that came up. Religious processions or protest marches, or the walk to

:25:25. > :25:41.work. There are places in recent history where you could not walk.

:25:42. > :25:50.Tonight is all about being so sure. It is about people getting to know

:25:51. > :25:54.each other, we have a big team. There are people working up here who

:25:55. > :26:00.are making things, and other people are rehearsing down in the city, and

:26:01. > :26:07.there are people who have not met each other and they are trying to

:26:08. > :26:13.meet each other. We have two weeks, and I would say it is the calm

:26:14. > :26:18.before the storm. So many people are working on this project because it

:26:19. > :26:22.is suddenly about turning ideas that have been talked about for the past

:26:23. > :26:29.three months into something really concrete, and we are where we are.

:26:30. > :26:35.There is a lot to do. It is all achievable. We are professionals, we

:26:36. > :26:38.know what we are doing! It is great to have the opportunity to come out

:26:39. > :26:44.this evening and get a sneak preview behind the scenes. This is the

:26:45. > :26:51.Olympic moment, if you like. This is the seminal piece of the whole City

:26:52. > :26:58.of Culture programme because of the Colmcille connection with the place.

:26:59. > :27:10.The scale of this and the scope and ambition connects back into the

:27:11. > :27:18.roots and heritage of the city. From zero to four minutes we will be

:27:19. > :27:25.barring Pyro Technics. When you get those queues, you free, you should

:27:26. > :27:28.know what actions are going on. The first part of the transformation is

:27:29. > :27:37.when the creature is submerging into the water, and that will take three

:27:38. > :27:43.minutes approximately. We are looking at around three minutes,

:27:44. > :27:48.during that time there are smoke machines firing on the deck, but no

:27:49. > :27:53.pyrotechnics going on. When the creature is down, when that we

:27:54. > :28:00.minutes has happened, that is when you get the first big pyrotechnics

:28:01. > :28:07.from the shore. Then I contradict you must remark when I spoke to

:28:08. > :28:16.Richards before I got to Derry, they were going for a big shell or

:28:17. > :28:24.something. When does all hell breaks loose? We will get to that, it is at

:28:25. > :28:29.the end. I want everybody to be aware that that is going to happen

:28:30. > :28:48.and that they can find a place where they can be comfortable and they

:28:49. > :28:55.have head cover. She did not like the look of that. She ran back out

:28:56. > :29:02.to sea. The others got into a fight. They smashed each other to

:29:03. > :29:15.smithereens. At 10:30am, we are going there. It is a restaurant. We

:29:16. > :29:22.are making a book about Iona. It has lots of Jules on the cover and on

:29:23. > :29:30.the back. It was really fun and we got to draw on it and write stories.

:29:31. > :29:39.We wrote stories on the paper. We are going to give it to the Minister

:29:40. > :29:46.of Ulster. No, we are going to give it to Derry. It is a place in

:29:47. > :29:51.Ireland. I thought it was in London. You are an angel figure see you are

:29:52. > :29:56.holding the light over everybody. Do not go near the kids because they

:29:57. > :30:05.have flammable costumes. Stay well away from them. Where are the kids

:30:06. > :30:12.in relation to the fire? They will run onto the beach. The event

:30:13. > :30:21.started near Iona. That is a beautiful thought. When Mark and

:30:22. > :30:27.Andy came on board, I had set ideas about what I wanted. They wanted a

:30:28. > :30:30.small event and it is so great to have someone who had such a clear

:30:31. > :30:38.idea of what they wanted to do. They were in charge of Iona. They wanted

:30:39. > :30:42.to reach out to Iona. In terms of the narrative, it was great.

:30:43. > :30:48.Emotionally, that idea that he was coming home is such a strong idea.

:30:49. > :30:55.It is very difficult to make little things take and make them pure. I am

:30:56. > :30:58.sure it will get dilutive in some way but if you hold onto your idea,

:30:59. > :31:05.and you hold onto the tolerance as much as possible, or for as long as

:31:06. > :31:09.possible, that will carry through to the end and we can start the job

:31:10. > :31:15.with a tolerance of a millimetre, but by the time it is dilutive, we

:31:16. > :31:16.are still within. I think they're making stuff for the parade tonight,

:31:17. > :31:44.putting everything together. You boys, you! Welcome to Iona!

:31:45. > :31:52.Fantastic. Good to see you, man. Was it? Thought you looked a bit pasty.

:31:53. > :32:02.I'm more worried about going back. It wasn't scary, but it was rough. #

:32:03. > :32:06.Sing me song of a dear little isle # Let me attune it in the true style #

:32:07. > :32:26.Tell me the tales that my heart beguile # Tell me of sweet Iona #.

:32:27. > :32:31.Thank you so much. Thank you. What a welcome. Here's the book the

:32:32. > :32:39.children have been making. It's beautiful. We were with them for two

:32:40. > :32:43.days. I thought this was lovely, and we made handmade paper with them and

:32:44. > :32:47.got them to tell the stories about the island, so we're trying to get

:32:48. > :32:56.them to do a lot more about nature but they're really into the whole

:32:57. > :33:01.Colmcille thing. They are really advanced. Some of these kids are

:33:02. > :33:04.six, seven. And the popular corncrake. Together for their whole

:33:05. > :33:17.life. St Colmcille had to come to Iona in

:33:18. > :33:20.a curragh as big as this. You've got carvings on stones which showed 12

:33:21. > :33:27.monks rowing oars, so this is a 12-oar curragh, so he must have had

:33:28. > :33:32.something of a very similar length. Do you know where were going now?

:33:33. > :33:40.We're off to Rathlin. You've got one earring. I have, because I'm

:33:41. > :33:48.apparent! These tattoos come off with alcohol. We refer to him as

:33:49. > :33:52.Colmcille. They refer to him as Columba but they did understand who

:33:53. > :34:00.we were talking about when we said Colmcille. There were initially 12

:34:01. > :34:05.children when we went to the job on a owner but there are now 14 because

:34:06. > :34:11.a family moved over from London. There are 14 now on eight older ones

:34:12. > :34:17.we will mainly work with. How's that? That would be the wrong way

:34:18. > :34:31.round. So this one is yours, yeah? Yeah. Excellent. The corncrake hides

:34:32. > :34:34.in the willow looking for a mate. When he finds one, they live forever

:34:35. > :34:42.for their whole lives. That's lovely. Was that your drawing as

:34:43. > :34:46.well? We're just going to go to the school grounds, so I need some

:34:47. > :34:53.people to help carry them to the school grounds. Nobody knew such a

:34:54. > :35:00.thing as Nessie. Erupting roars went far and wide. That's what it says

:35:01. > :35:10.here and who am I to doubt it? Who are you to doubt it? They sailed on

:35:11. > :35:22.under the moon. Look out, waves. There is a great storm coming. The

:35:23. > :35:27.waves clutched the boat closer to herself. They didn't notice her.

:35:28. > :35:29.They were too busy smashing each other to smithereens. Waves, watch

:35:30. > :35:50.out for the rocks. A gift from the children of Iona

:35:51. > :35:54.will be presented to the crew of the boat that will row it from here

:35:55. > :36:22.across the sea to Derry and who better to present to the crew than

:36:23. > :36:28.the children themselves? Here we are. Fantastic. Present the gift.

:36:29. > :36:32.Thank you very much. This is so precious. I will carry this in the

:36:33. > :36:40.curragh all the way back to the City of Culture 2013 Derry-Londonderry.

:36:41. > :36:48.And as a bonus we have also given you a lantern to help light your

:36:49. > :36:59.way. Fantastic. We have got something for you. This is our big

:37:00. > :37:08.boss here. Frankie. Wow. Since you very kindly gave us a gift, we

:37:09. > :37:12.thought we'd give you a gift. Here's a little model of the Colmcille

:37:13. > :37:17.Curragh which will bring your book back to Derry. So when you look

:37:18. > :37:26.after that for us? What you say? Thank you very much!

:37:27. > :37:44.Culture for me is people's rituals and ideas. That's the kind of

:37:45. > :37:58.culture I'm interested in, what inspires me. Celebrating the land

:37:59. > :38:03.where you live, and in Iona making a book. Making lamp turns and taking

:38:04. > :38:12.them on a journey to celebrate a boat leaving somehow feels real.

:38:13. > :38:16.Hopefully when we leave a place we leave some imprint of the work that

:38:17. > :38:19.we have done, something special that you can remember. You remember the

:38:20. > :38:27.feeling of having been at the event and being part of it and it being of

:38:28. > :38:31.your beach or your island. It's of that community, so we leave that

:38:32. > :38:36.behind but we also take with us a bit of that on onto the next place,

:38:37. > :38:39.so it's like an exchange, in a way. I think we leave a sense of

:38:40. > :38:55.enchantment and we also reawaken that possibility of enchantment.

:38:56. > :39:05.Frank, thanks a million. This is a hard one, I guess. This is the BBC

:39:06. > :39:11.One. It's a really valuable, yeah, it's the BBC News one,

:39:12. > :39:12.One. It's a really valuable, yeah, to get footage ready for six o'clock

:39:13. > :39:21.and Ten O'Clock News. They want to get footage ready for that. So we go

:39:22. > :39:46.to Ebringon for half an hour, if the kids aren't too tired. Yeah. MUSIC.

:39:47. > :39:51.If the monster sinks, if the fireworks don't take, if the rain

:39:52. > :39:55.comes down, if everyone stays home to watch Britain's Got Talent, it

:39:56. > :40:00.won't matter because this is just so amazing, it's brilliant. I get

:40:01. > :40:04.tearful thinking about it, it's so good, and you're giving so much that

:40:05. > :40:17.I just don't believe it won't be repaid, so thank you so much. You're

:40:18. > :40:19.amazing. Our culture is always storytelling, songwriting, singing,

:40:20. > :40:22.especially in Derry, there's all these great entertainers, we have a

:40:23. > :40:34.history of all that, so that's culture forming. -- for me. On one

:40:35. > :40:38.side I have culture of being a Gael, I've been a Irish speaker, and on

:40:39. > :40:41.the other side I have my mother's family's heritage of being a planter

:40:42. > :40:46.of the Orange Order, so firmly there's always been that kind of

:40:47. > :40:53.fractured culture. Culture is what makes life worthwhile. And it's

:40:54. > :41:11.every single poetic piece of life that is worth grasping and giving

:41:12. > :41:20.attention to. As I think what makes it are those pauses. Your role, want

:41:21. > :41:25.it all gets up and running, is to help people visualise the image, and

:41:26. > :41:29.as they're getting lost in all the logistical problems and political

:41:30. > :41:33.problems, there is someone who can see that there is going to beat this

:41:34. > :41:39.finishing line, this event that will be fantastic and keeping the vision

:41:40. > :41:47.in front of you. Graham Stewart is the composer of the whole of the

:41:48. > :41:58.show, apart from the Jim Sutherland peace. Have you heard that? We used

:41:59. > :42:00.it in Iona. That piece, so does anyone have any questions, burning

:42:01. > :42:24.issues, anxieties? Great quiz. The thrill of doing something like

:42:25. > :42:30.this is that you are such a hostage to fortune. All that has to happen

:42:31. > :42:35.is brought to rain, be windy, all we need is turbulence in the Rover. A

:42:36. > :44:01.tiny thing, anything elemental that went wrong and we would be stuffed.

:44:02. > :44:55.APPLAUSE .

:44:56. > :46:16.Thank you to the children of Iona for this book.

:46:17. > :46:22.The important thing about culture is that it rings people together. It's

:46:23. > :46:28.not what it is saying, it is the fact it brings us together in a

:46:29. > :46:33.spirit of peace and inquiry and fun. Ladies and gentlemen, you may have

:46:34. > :46:50.noticed a big box here. What's in the box?

:46:51. > :47:48.Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...

:47:49. > :48:36.CHEERING. Welcome to Colmcille! This is the

:48:37. > :48:40.place that Colmcille prophesy is. Good people of the city of

:48:41. > :48:44.Colmcille, the greatest city in all the kingdom. I beseech you, we must

:48:45. > :48:52.work together for it is prophesied that today, he shall return to the

:48:53. > :48:57.city. Are there any monks of the city of Colmcille here? There they

:48:58. > :49:13.are. BELLS RING.

:49:14. > :49:19.Come forward, monks. What news of Colmcille? Come forward. They are

:49:20. > :49:33.silent. This is such a joyous occasion. Please be good at

:49:34. > :49:44.Colmcille. Everybody, please be good at Colmcille. Follow these monks.

:49:45. > :49:49.They will direct you. The Museum of the railway, sir. The story of me

:49:50. > :50:09.yeah heart. MUSIC: "All the Single Ladies" by

:50:10. > :51:10.Beyonce. She thought she lost is across the

:51:11. > :51:20.Irish Sea. Our heritage risen, now in another country. It is not the

:51:21. > :51:31.aisle you leave behind, it is the land of hope and freedom now that

:51:32. > :51:45.each of us long for. It was wrong, it was wrong, it was wrong.

:51:46. > :51:59.ROCK MUSIC. What is great about culture? All

:52:00. > :52:06.this stuff was going on, all this conflict, this negativity, the

:52:07. > :52:19.economic depression, and out of it comes this joyous noise which says,

:52:20. > :52:26.yes, yes, but there is more to life. # Teenage kicks throughout the

:52:27. > :52:32.night. You have got to be naive because you

:52:33. > :52:36.have agreed to deliver something without any clue whether you can do

:52:37. > :52:41.it. There is no dress rehearsal. It has to be done on the day. I will be

:52:42. > :52:45.there and it will be great. You have got the yearning for that adventure

:52:46. > :52:52.to happen. You can cross into the unknown. Like in Huckleberry Finn,

:52:53. > :52:56.you can just go. I do not know what this is going to be, it is the

:52:57. > :52:57.blandness of the agenda, the emptiness, the unknown this that is

:52:58. > :55:20.attractive. We came to the great River Ness. It

:55:21. > :55:26.came up from the waters. A head like a horse, back like a snake, eyes

:55:27. > :55:44.like the devil, teeth that flashed like swords. I cried out. Colmcille

:55:45. > :55:50.heard me. He raised his staff. Do you know what he did? Calm as

:55:51. > :55:57.summer, he did nothing but make the sign of the cross. He made the sign

:55:58. > :56:05.of our Saviour there in the air. The monster despaired and sank back into

:56:06. > :56:15.the waters. It went away back into the lock. It hid away in the deep.

:56:16. > :56:20.He could not breathe the air he blessed. Even the beloveds dairy,

:56:21. > :56:29.which is white with angels, will stand with you. Derry will stand all

:56:30. > :57:23.around you, Colmcille. Derry will be your shield.

:57:24. > :57:38.That moments just made absolutely every moment of anxiety and stress,

:57:39. > :57:42.it it's just made it disappear. I have never seen such a cross-section

:57:43. > :57:48.of people, from babies in arms to people in wheelchairs and older

:57:49. > :57:52.people, completely injunctive. It was a part of history that with

:57:53. > :58:02.climatic, a tremendous feeling of atmosphere. Very atmospheric. The

:58:03. > :58:08.whole experience for me was magical. The young people felt like they

:58:09. > :58:13.played a part in history. It had that special element of art and

:58:14. > :58:23.culture that elevated me from the life of monotony. My experience in

:58:24. > :58:27.the boat was I could have been anywhere in the world, in a dark

:58:28. > :58:34.dungeon, pulling strings making things happen. Working with my

:58:35. > :58:40.daughter in an event like that was amazing. You can never get that

:58:41. > :58:47.back, the whole experience was amazing. The people of Derry, being

:58:48. > :58:54.there, being part of it. I did want to be an actor for a little while

:58:55. > :58:56.and then I wanted to be a singer, but now, after the event, I wanted

:58:57. > :59:00.to be an actor.