Return of Colmcille

I was working on the Olympic opening ceremony with Danny Boyle, and Marty

Melarkey, who I've known for a long time, got in touch with me and said,

"Derry's going to be Capital of Culture, we want to do a big outdoor

event, I think you are the person to do it." I knew the story of

Colmcille and it seemed like we should celebrate that and do

something everybody could get involved in. So, Frank Cottrell

Boyce, having rewritten the history of Britain, what led you to think

you might be able to sun up 1000 years of Irish history on this

amazing bridge? -- sum up. Having saved Britain, now he's come to

Derry! It is that thing of, you may feel as though you write books or

whatever and they go out, but those cultural events can be

transformative, you live in Bow and it completely changed the atmosphere

around those streets for a while. It did. The idea you can do that, you

can throw a party, joining things together. Yeah, and letting stuff

come out of the community. And communities, when they speak

together, are pretty powerful. I was doing a book gig in Belfast and

reading from one of my children's books and I looked up and I could

see Marty sitting at the back, thinking, "You're a long way from

home." And he had come on the bus and had a little copy of A

Children's Life of St Columba, and he gave that to me and said, "Would

you read this?" He had chosen me because I had written a film about

saints and done a film with Danny about a boy who can see saints, so

theis invitation came from Marty. -- the same connection. Almost 20 years

ago, we had the first screening of Trainspotting before it was seen by

anybody else in the world anywhere, at the invitation of Marty Melarkey

at the centre. I haven't been back for a few years. It is wonderful,

really. And to hear Frank and Marty talk about the big spectacle, it's a

wonderful thing for any community, let alone one with challenges like

Derry. It's Picasso, I think, someone said to him that terrible

question, "Well, what's it for? What's art for?" And he said, "It's

to blow dust off your soul." I think we began by thinking about

the water and what we could do, it's such a brilliant arena, the lough

itself, and what could you do with that? And I just remembered there

was this connection between Colmcille and the Loch Ness Monster,

he had seen the Loch Ness Monster, so we'd start almost with the most

childish thing. What I knew about the story of Colmcille was a revenge

story, that he had stolen this book, it had led to a battle and that he

had regretted creating that violence and had gone away and created

something beautiful. And that rhythm of violence to beauty seemed really

uplifting, but also just inherently dramatic. It meant you were

definitely working towards this big payoff. Because what he did was go

to Iona and start that community which created what for me are the

most beautiful objects ever created, the Books of Kells, the Book of

Lindisfarne, these incredible books that are full of amazing detail and

imagination, and that idea that out of violence and regret and sorrow

can come this beauty and joy. I'm thinking we need to build a

staging on top of the steps, so the book, the book would be angled out

that way and as far back as we can get, but I don't think we have

enough budget to have loads of mechanisms. On my first trip to

Derry for this, Marty introduced me to John Wassell and just everything

instantly was right. I kind of said things off the top of my head that

John didn't blink at. I now realise it had been anyone other than John

and Walk The Plank, we would have taken months to sort things out.

You may be wondering why I've asked you all here today. I believe the

murderer is among us! The nature of the event was that you

need experts to lead it and that means getting people from all over

the world to come to Derry for a little while and I think the great

virtue of the credibility and charisma of Walk The Plank is that

they have the clout to do that. So we had people like Dan Potra

designing the floats, who's an opera designer who is from Transylvania

who lives in Australia. Because you have that kind of stamp, you have

that guarantee that it's Walk The Plank, people will come for that, so

that was huge. We have what we're calling the platforms, which are

some of the bigger images that Dan has drawn, so for example, the shirt

factory, where a story that has some reference to the shirt factory or

the woman can be played out, so the whole afternoon is about people

telling each other stories. So alongside these landmark things we

have thoroughly rehearsed and brilliant costumes and shows and

things that are really worth going to see, the plan is to enchant the

whole of the city centre for the afternoon. We wanted this to be a

piece of storytelling. It really needed a writer's mind to set it

alight for four-year-olds up to 80, 90-year-olds. The thing that he is

bringing to this project I think is encapsulated by a eureka moment that

he just had recently, where it opened up the whole story for him.

He had discovered in his research that Colmcille didn't actually

finish the book of Kells himself, and Frank immediately said, "I've

got it, this is unfinished business." Colmcille is coming back

to Derry because he has business to finish, the Loch Ness Monster wants

to get back at him for defeating him years and years ago, and they are

going to come together on the Foyle and have it out. And around that,

you can build a whole story leading up to it, starting on Iona, of

Colmcille coming here and then this city telling a story and what we

will see is what happened here while Colmcille was away. My mission

statement has been this beautiful sentence from GK Chesterton where he

says the world is not perishing for lack of wonders, the world is

perishing for lack of wonder, and that ability to remind you of how

great things are and to point out the things around you that are

amazing, that you kind of become used to, or stopped noticing, and to

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

on a beach, with the small community of Iona, which hopefully will be

about 125, and hopefully with some people from Mull. There will be a

blessing of a boat and a strange happening. So this blessing will

happen on the Friday evening and is the night before the actual launch

of the curragh carrying one passenger and 12 rowers who are

heading off to Derry. The thing about her is, she could just turn up

on the day, she could literally just come in. Have a think about that.

John is all energy. He will walk around a city and say it takes 15

minutes to walk from here to there, and he runs meetings in exactly the

same way. We have 25 minutes to sort this out. And he will time it, so

you have to be creative. It's along here. We don't need the map. I'm

from Manchester. I know where Free Derry Corner is. We have done a

little bit of a scout around in the Bogside. There are a few festival

places. -- possible places. Let's go to the gasworks. Gasyard. He had

that book of contacts and he had that experience and just went yeah,

that's no problem, that's no problem. So just trying to think of

something that would link to this location in the stories. My view is

that we should look at all the sites, and then... I said to John,

if we want to bring a gigantic Loch Ness Monster up Lough Foyle, it has

to be huge. The moment I mentioned it to John, he knew where there was

a big barge and he knew where there was someone who made dragons and

monsters for a living, and that someone was Frankie Morgan. It feels

like it's a bit far. You will find that there are many other sheds

around here that have people inside that are at the top of their field

in engineering and they do weird and wonderful things that are going off

to somewhere else in the world and it's all in wee sort of agricultural

rural sheds around here. They seem to be a very talented bunch around

here. I've just never grown up. I remained a child. I go to climb

trees and do sort of unusual stuff to this day. The nature of the

projects that I get involved in, they are specifically designed to

stretch people's imagination. When you lift weights, you end up with

big muscles. I have to tax my imagination all of the time, so I've

ended up, you know, it comes naturally to me to imagine stuff,

whereas maybe other people need a bit of a wee lever now and then, but

once you get people into the world of imagination, they love it. I was

asked to design a Loch Ness Monster. So this is a scale representation of

the creature that we're building. This is a barge that the creature is

built onto. That's the wheelhouse of it there, somebody in driving it.

That's the size of a couple of people standing on the barge, so

that gives you an idea of the scale of the thing. Colmcille arrives on

the scene, confronts the monster, the monster looks down at him, has

an interaction with him, then the monster decides, right, I'm out of

here, and submerges. What you are looking at there is one-sided. The

other side is never seen, but these are painted cloth which rise and

fall on rollers and winch mechanisms, so that at any

particular point in the event, we can get the whole thing to appear to

submerge into the water. It never ceases to surprise me whenever you

actually start making it and see the size of it, you go, "Oh, chit." And

this has to be one of the biggest, scariest things I've ever made in my

life. One of the things that's been really exciting for me about working

in Derry is discovering that this is a whole tribe of people that live

mostly in Ireland, in rural places, who are building these extraordinary

things for festivals and events, making dragons for a living. There

are more villages of culture than cities of culture. I think we've

chosen to be on the edge more and that we appreciate the more rural

approach to culture. Walk The Plank came to us and said

they were taking a curragh from Iona to Derry to celebrate Colmcille, and

so we said, why don't we do the sendoff party and the arrival party

for that, because we like doing stuff on islands and we like making

stuff for parties. We wanted to make a small and beautiful gesture and I

hope very much that small and beautiful gesture kind of carries

through. We decided to make a book with the kids and put the book on

the curragh. Hopefully what will happen, we'll go up and have a

lovely time working with kids making the book and we'll pull the

community into the idea and on the Friday we'll give the book to the

people in the curragh and a big procession on the beach, but there's

a lot that could change between now and then.

Going to somewhere like Iona where you can really engage in a small

community and everyone becomes part of the theatre, I just find that

really amazing, but the people kind of own it. It's not just us turning

up and doing something and disappearing. We really are there

and they really are involved and we all do it together. They're on the

journey with us. I really like that. That's why we like working with

smaller communities, whereas if you're working in the city or towns

and you go and do a workshop, I'm not saying it's not equally valid

but our preference is to work in smaller communities, so the dad gets

involved and uncle Tommy and whatever. Culture is a word that can

define a different group of people. I was in Liverpool for a long time

and coming to the North here, and getting involved in theatre, I never

used to have theatre sets, everything was about words. --

nobody used to have theatre sets. There was no particular kind of

visual language for theatre and I noticed a bit of art that was

missing was that striving for beauty and beautiful things because I've

always wanted to make beautiful things.

I'll tell you what I think culture is for. We are the stories that we

tell, and we can become trapped in the stories that we tell. I'm from

Liverpool and I always think, I mean, for me, our Bloody Sunday is

Hillsborough and I always think about those young policeman standing

watching that disaster unfold and being completely unable to see that

it is a disaster because they were trapped in the story about football

hooliganism. That was so hard-wired into their heads, and I think we all

find our way around the world through stories about who we are,

about what we are, and if you think in Derry there are two really big

stories, two different names for the city. There is the story of the

siege, which is a Londonderry story, and the story of Bloody Sunday,

which is a Derry story, and the two competing stories. I think what

culture is for is to offer you another story.

This is, like, the big Colmcille site in town, really. This is the

kneeling stone. He kneeled so much, he wore some holes in it. The stone

was removed from the street near St Columba's Well, where it lain

vertically for centuries, and on the ninth June, 1898, it was solemnly

enshrined here. It's also how important roots are.

This walk we're doing today, this wasn't possible for decades. The

woman who wrote "There is a green hill far away, without a city wall"

used to go here. And there's the city wall, there's the green hill.

Yes. Maybe...you could put" a green hill far away." Yes. So, that's the

fountain, the last little protestant enclave in the heart of the city. A

monk would be good. This would be a good place for monks. Yes. Grab an

end there. People will think we are the council

coming to replace the wall! What do we have here? That's been there a

while, let's change it. Yeah, yeah. We're bored of it now. You see where

it says "free", what if we changed that and put "Lon" so it says "You

are now entering Londonderry". That would work! Can you imagine? That

would be the best ever culture jam, wouldn't it?! The venue that is most

of the beaten track is the Gas Yard. Basically, it's a mini pop festival

and we've got a massive draw there. That's where the Undertones are

playing. Yeah. I asked John to make a piece of music. Has he done it?

Yes, he has done it three different ways, and we'll put David Cameron's

apology to it. So we will start off with Amanda and

Richie who play a couple from old times, the Regency period. What we

will try and do is think of a couple of interactions that the lovers can

make with each other. Concealer, blusher and bronzer. And

then you want to make sure you shave on a Tuesday. What? Or whatever! It

is about getting those numbers in the final analysis, it has about

having some time with those numbers. We are the point where getting more

people makes it more counterproductive. You have to go

over the same stuff as you have done with previous people. Sometimes I

get five, sometimes I get ten and you have to keep going over and over

again the same material. With a larger group you can absorb absences

and people being flaky but with tiny groups of five, if two people do not

show, you can not do anything. Basically, what I have done is get

my mum to ring round and get actors. Basically, the actor numbers have

come from my mum! I think the big thing for me was that this was BY

Derry FOR Derry. We made this ideological, emotional commitment to

having mass participation and that emotional commitment has become

logistical because the event is deisgned to have thousands of

participants and if we them, it is not going to happen, it will look

rubbish. So that is so scary. You can show off your fancy foot work,

show off your moves. The term 'dance captain' put a lot of noses out of

joint because it was deemed to be a sub role and very much a role that

was hands off, and a role that was basically a whipcracker who was

going to deliver stern choreography. I call them rehearsal directors but

everybody has different names. We are the choreographers, we are the

ones who have the vision for the piece. We will not choreograph every

step, we cannot, we do not have enough contacts. It is about

empowering the people here, the participants and leaders. The dance

captain thing came out of the vision. Hopefully, that will step up

quickly. Dance is a pretty hard sell here. Culture is everything we have

to do. It is a need in you to express yourself or explore someone

else's identity. Let's try it. One, two, 3... Come up slowly. Slowly,

move slowly. Turnaround. Face the back. And just walk forward. Yes,

and stop, and that is it. It is dramatic and over the top.

We will try it. We will try it on Sunday I will get a better system so

we can hear it from the front. # Serenade across the water.

# Can you hear it soft and low? # A tale of love and lovers.

# Singing long ago. Imagination. I think it is very

important, yes. If you do not imagine... You cannot dream. If you

cannot dream, well, what have you got? If my wife did not have

imagination she would not have married me! She thought I looked

like Paul Newman! What a lucky woman! I think imagination goes

hand-in-hand with creativity. It is coming up with something from

nothing. Everybody with creative industries needs imagination. It is

the life of the industry. It is the currency. It is the best currency

you can have. From the Internet, we chose Colmcille. Before we knew we

were going to do the event, it was the Loch Ness Monster at the

forefront. The connection between Colmcille and the Loch Ness Monster

is simple. The first time that the Loch Ness Monster is mentioned in

lecture is in the life of Saint Colmcille. He goes on a journey to

see a king and comes across some crofters who are living by the Loch

Ness and what terrorised by the monster, and he gets rid of the

monster for them. He blesses the sanctified air and the monster

cannot breed. It swims off to Loch Ness where it resides to this day.

We had this investigation and we looked at the history. We looked at

trivial things like the fact that a killer whale had once swum up the

Foyle. It was called MP Dick. We chose it because it was great fun

and suggested something. Somewhat shows because they could not be left

out. Like David Cameron's apology. Walking. Walking was a big thing

that came up. Religious processions or protest marches, or the walk to

work. There are places in recent history where you could not walk.

Tonight is all about being so sure. It is about people getting to know

each other, we have a big team. There are people working up here who

are making things, and other people are rehearsing down in the city, and

there are people who have not met each other and they are trying to

meet each other. We have two weeks, and I would say it is the calm

before the storm. So many people are working on this project because it

is suddenly about turning ideas that have been talked about for the past

three months into something really concrete, and we are where we are.

There is a lot to do. It is all achievable. We are professionals, we

know what we are doing! It is great to have the opportunity to come out

this evening and get a sneak preview behind the scenes. This is the

Olympic moment, if you like. This is the seminal piece of the whole City

of Culture programme because of the Colmcille connection with the place.

The scale of this and the scope and ambition connects back into the

roots and heritage of the city. From zero to four minutes we will be

barring Pyro Technics. When you get those queues, you free, you should

know what actions are going on. The first part of the transformation is

when the creature is submerging into the water, and that will take three

minutes approximately. We are looking at around three minutes,

during that time there are smoke machines firing on the deck, but no

pyrotechnics going on. When the creature is down, when that we

minutes has happened, that is when you get the first big pyrotechnics

from the shore. Then I contradict you must remark when I spoke to

Richards before I got to Derry, they were going for a big shell or

something. When does all hell breaks loose? We will get to that, it is at

the end. I want everybody to be aware that that is going to happen

and that they can find a place where they can be comfortable and they

have head cover. She did not like the look of that. She ran back out

to sea. The others got into a fight. They smashed each other to

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

are making a book about Iona. It has lots of Jules on the cover and on

the back. It was really fun and we got to draw on it and write stories.

We wrote stories on the paper. We are going to give it to the Minister

of Ulster. No, we are going to give it to Derry. It is a place in

Ireland. I thought it was in London. You are an angel figure see you are

holding the light over everybody. Do not go near the kids because they

have flammable costumes. Stay well away from them. Where are the kids

in relation to the fire? They will run onto the beach. The event

started near Iona. That is a beautiful thought. When Mark and

Andy came on board, I had set ideas about what I wanted. They wanted a

small event and it is so great to have someone who had such a clear

idea of what they wanted to do. They were in charge of Iona. They wanted

to reach out to Iona. In terms of the narrative, it was great.

Emotionally, that idea that he was coming home is such a strong idea.

It is very difficult to make little things take and make them pure. I am

sure it will get dilutive in some way but if you hold onto your idea,

and you hold onto the tolerance as much as possible, or for as long as

possible, that will carry through to the end and we can start the job

with a tolerance of a millimetre, but by the time it is dilutive, we

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

putting everything together. You boys, you! Welcome to Iona!

Fantastic. Good to see you, man. Was it? Thought you looked a bit pasty.

I'm more worried about going back. It wasn't scary, but it was rough. #

Sing me song of a dear little isle # Let me attune it in the true style #

Tell me the tales that my heart beguile # Tell me of sweet Iona #.

Thank you so much. Thank you. What a welcome. Here's the book the

children have been making. It's beautiful. We were with them for two

days. I thought this was lovely, and we made handmade paper with them and

got them to tell the stories about the island, so we're trying to get

them to do a lot more about nature but they're really into the whole

Colmcille thing. They are really advanced. Some of these kids are

six, seven. And the popular corncrake. Together for their whole

life. St Colmcille had to come to Iona in

a curragh as big as this. You've got carvings on stones which showed 12

monks rowing oars, so this is a 12-oar curragh, so he must have had

something of a very similar length. Do you know where were going now?

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

apparent! These tattoos come off with alcohol. We refer to him as

Colmcille. They refer to him as Columba but they did understand who

we were talking about when we said Colmcille. There were initially 12

children when we went to the job on a owner but there are now 14 because

a family moved over from London. There are 14 now on eight older ones

we will mainly work with. How's that? That would be the wrong way

round. So this one is yours, yeah? Yeah. Excellent. The corncrake hides

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

for their whole lives. That's lovely. Was that your drawing as

well? We're just going to go to the school grounds, so I need some

people to help carry them to the school grounds. Nobody knew such a

thing as Nessie. Erupting roars went far and wide. That's what it says

here and who am I to doubt it? Who are you to doubt it? They sailed on

under the moon. Look out, waves. There is a great storm coming. The

waves clutched the boat closer to herself. They didn't notice her.

They were too busy smashing each other to smithereens. Waves, watch

out for the rocks. A gift from the children of Iona

will be presented to the crew of the boat that will row it from here

across the sea to Derry and who better to present to the crew than

the children themselves? Here we are. Fantastic. Present the gift.

Thank you very much. This is so precious. I will carry this in the

curragh all the way back to the City of Culture 2013 Derry-Londonderry.

And as a bonus we have also given you a lantern to help light your

way. Fantastic. We have got something for you. This is our big

boss here. Frankie. Wow. Since you very kindly gave us a gift, we

thought we'd give you a gift. Here's a little model of the Colmcille

Curragh which will bring your book back to Derry. So when you look

after that for us? What you say? Thank you very much!

Culture for me is people's rituals and ideas. That's the kind of

culture I'm interested in, what inspires me. Celebrating the land

where you live, and in Iona making a book. Making lamp turns and taking

them on a journey to celebrate a boat leaving somehow feels real.

Hopefully when we leave a place we leave some imprint of the work that

we have done, something special that you can remember. You remember the

feeling of having been at the event and being part of it and it being of

your beach or your island. It's of that community, so we leave that

behind but we also take with us a bit of that on onto the next place,

so it's like an exchange, in a way. I think we leave a sense of

enchantment and we also reawaken that possibility of enchantment.

Frank, thanks a million. This is a hard one, I guess. This is the BBC

One. It's a really valuable, yeah, it's the BBC News one,

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

and Ten O'Clock News. They want to get footage ready for that. So we go

to Ebringon for half an hour, if the kids aren't too tired. Yeah. MUSIC.

If the monster sinks, if the fireworks don't take, if the rain

comes down, if everyone stays home to watch Britain's Got Talent, it

won't matter because this is just so amazing, it's brilliant. I get

tearful thinking about it, it's so good, and you're giving so much that

I just don't believe it won't be repaid, so thank you so much. You're

amazing. Our culture is always storytelling, songwriting, singing,

especially in Derry, there's all these great entertainers, we have a

history of all that, so that's culture forming. -- for me. On one

side I have culture of being a Gael, I've been a Irish speaker, and on

the other side I have my mother's family's heritage of being a planter

of the Orange Order, so firmly there's always been that kind of

fractured culture. Culture is what makes life worthwhile. And it's

every single poetic piece of life that is worth grasping and giving

attention to. As I think what makes it are those pauses. Your role, want

it all gets up and running, is to help people visualise the image, and

as they're getting lost in all the logistical problems and political

problems, there is someone who can see that there is going to beat this

finishing line, this event that will be fantastic and keeping the vision

in front of you. Graham Stewart is the composer of the whole of the

show, apart from the Jim Sutherland peace. Have you heard that? We used

it in Iona. That piece, so does anyone have any questions, burning

issues, anxieties? Great quiz. The thrill of doing something like

this is that you are such a hostage to fortune. All that has to happen

is brought to rain, be windy, all we need is turbulence in the Rover. A

tiny thing, anything elemental that went wrong and we would be stuffed.

APPLAUSE .

Thank you to the children of Iona for this book.

The important thing about culture is that it rings people together. It's

not what it is saying, it is the fact it brings us together in a

spirit of peace and inquiry and fun. Ladies and gentlemen, you may have

noticed a big box here. What's in the box?

Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...

CHEERING. Welcome to Colmcille! This is the

place that Colmcille prophesy is. Good people of the city of

Colmcille, the greatest city in all the kingdom. I beseech you, we must

work together for it is prophesied that today, he shall return to the

city. Are there any monks of the city of Colmcille here? There they

are. BELLS RING.

Come forward, monks. What news of Colmcille? Come forward. They are

silent. This is such a joyous occasion. Please be good at

Colmcille. Everybody, please be good at Colmcille. Follow these monks.

They will direct you. The Museum of the railway, sir. The story of me

yeah heart. MUSIC: "All the Single Ladies" by

Beyonce. She thought she lost is across the

Irish Sea. Our heritage risen, now in another country. It is not the

aisle you leave behind, it is the land of hope and freedom now that

each of us long for. It was wrong, it was wrong, it was wrong.

ROCK MUSIC. What is great about culture? All

this stuff was going on, all this conflict, this negativity, the

economic depression, and out of it comes this joyous noise which says,

yes, yes, but there is more to life. # Teenage kicks throughout the

night. You have got to be naive because you

have agreed to deliver something without any clue whether you can do

it. There is no dress rehearsal. It has to be done on the day. I will be

there and it will be great. You have got the yearning for that adventure

to happen. You can cross into the unknown. Like in Huckleberry Finn,

you can just go. I do not know what this is going to be, it is the

blandness of the agenda, the emptiness, the unknown this that is

attractive. We came to the great River Ness. It

came up from the waters. A head like a horse, back like a snake, eyes

like the devil, teeth that flashed like swords. I cried out. Colmcille

heard me. He raised his staff. Do you know what he did? Calm as

summer, he did nothing but make the sign of the cross. He made the sign

of our Saviour there in the air. The monster despaired and sank back into

the waters. It went away back into the lock. It hid away in the deep.

He could not breathe the air he blessed. Even the beloveds dairy,

which is white with angels, will stand with you. Derry will stand all

around you, Colmcille. Derry will be your shield.

That moments just made absolutely every moment of anxiety and stress,

it it's just made it disappear. I have never seen such a cross-section

of people, from babies in arms to people in wheelchairs and older

people, completely injunctive. It was a part of history that with

climatic, a tremendous feeling of atmosphere. Very atmospheric. The

whole experience for me was magical. The young people felt like they

played a part in history. It had that special element of art and

culture that elevated me from the life of monotony. My experience in

the boat was I could have been anywhere in the world, in a dark

dungeon, pulling strings making things happen. Working with my

daughter in an event like that was amazing. You can never get that

back, the whole experience was amazing. The people of Derry, being

there, being part of it. I did want to be an actor for a little while

and then I wanted to be a singer, but now, after the event, I wanted

to be an actor.