Curragh to Iona

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Details

Location

Derry, Inner Hebrides, Iona

Year

1963

Date

1963

Length

24min 00sec

Audio

sound

Format

16mm

colour

Source

Digitised as part of Unlocking Film Heritage

Courtesy

British Film Institute, Waddell Media

Rights Holder

Waddell Media

It is illegal to download, copy, print or otherwise utilise in any other form this material, without written consent from the copyright holder.

Description

Join a fearless crew on a spiritual maritime adventure from the shores of Derry to Iona, as they follow in the wake of St Columba.

This spiritual quest, funded by the Church of Ireland to commemorate the 14th centenary of St.Columba’s journey of self-exile, took four years to prepare. The narrator Wallace Clark was an insatiable seafarer and talented skipper who motivated this fearless crew to brave the 100 mile journey in a simple canvas covered boat. He regarded this voyage as the highlight of his life. Cannon John Barry said ‘there was not one of us who would not sail with him to the edge of the world’.
 

Notes

This film by E. T. Green is courtesy of Waddell Media. Watch ‘St Columba’ on the BFI player to discover more about the life of the tempestuous saint and experience the pilgrims' voyage to greet this crew at the end of its journey. This tradition of re-enacting historic voyages continues in Ireland with seafaring currachs like Bovinda built by the Boyne Currach Heritage Group. Wallace Clark went on to participate in a restaging of the Brendan voyage and this journey to Iona was replicated by a new generation in the Colmcille Curragh during 1997.


 

Credits

Produced by E.T. Green

Directed and Edited by Jack Neilsen

Narrator: Wallace Clark

On-screen Participants: William Jenkins, Jim Boyd, Richard Mc Cullough

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