Loch Lao Christian Heritage Festival
14-21 October 2011
A Public Lecture by Maria Hufenus and Ernst Ziegler from the Abbey Library in St Gallen was hosted by St Mary's on Monday 17 October, 2011 from 12.00 noon -1.00pm.
This event was part of a programme that has been prepared by the cross-community Loch Lao Partnership to celebrate the feast of St Gall. The Abbey Library in St Gallen, Switzerland, is known as one of the finest manuscript libraries in the world. The lecture offered the opportunity to learn about the treasures that are held in its archives, in particular the Irish manuscripts.
Festival Launch 4 October 2011
Today we are launching the LOCH LAO CHRISTIAN HERITAGE FESTIVAL, or BLACKBIRD FESTIVAL. ‘Loch Lao’ is the name for “Belfast Lough” in modern Irish. The Festival names in Irish are Feis Oidhreachta Críostaí Loch Lao, or Feis Loch Lao; and in Ulster Scots Loch Christyan Heirschip Feis, or Blackburd Feis. The Festival acknowledges and uses all three languages.We are the Ullans Academy, St Mary’s University College, Belfast, and Forbairt Feirste, banded together in the Loch Lao Partnership, which formed earlier this year – each represented in our platform party today. The Festival will run from Saturday 15th to Thursday 20th October, around the Feast Day of St Gall on 16th October, with events in both Belfast and Bangor.
Dr Gabrielle Nig Uidhir, Kadri Umbleja and Dr Philip Johnston pictured at a reception in Belfast City Hall.
We are pleased to welcome as our guests Frau Maria Hufenus and her husband Professor Ernst Ziegler from the Swiss city of St Gall or St Gallen (named after St Gall). Frau Maria Hufenus, St Gallen’s expert on all things Irish, will give several lectures in the course of the Festival.
The Festival will offer in addition a diverse range of activities, secular and spiritual, around the linking theme of St Gall. For example, you will find a morning of traditional Irish sports, an Ulster Scots evening, and guided tours around the Mary O’Fee Early Christian Gallery here in the North Down Museum.
Our Blackbird symbol comes from a 9th century poem in Old Irish written by a monk, probably from the Bangor monastery. The poem speaks of a blackbird on a whin bush singing out over Loch Laíg, or Belfast Lough. The poem has become a literary treasure of Old Irish.
The Partnership is pleased to launch the Festival on the site of Bangor’s ancient monastery, which sent Gall to the European continent as a member of the mission team led by St Columbanus. Today St Gall is the patron saint of Switzerland. Every Swiss child learns of St Gall from Bangor. And the Swiss city and canton of St Gallen bears the saint’s name.
The Festival has produced two attractive brochures with our programme of events. The main festival brochure lists all the events in both Belfast and Bangor. The second deals with the Bangor events alone.