Recently, a number of ‘Friends of Columbanus’ from Italy and Ireland took the opportunity of the visit of the ‘Coro Gerberto’ Male Choir of Bobbio/Piacenza (where St. Columban died, in Italy) to compete in the Bangor International Choral Competition 2025, to visit 2 nearby schools which bear the name of St. Columban.
Just before the Bobbio choir were welcomed by the Deputy Lord Mayor and the Former High Sheriff to the Council Chambers at Belfast, City Hall, Fr. Pat Colgan (Turas Columbanus, Ireland) along with Manuela Bertoncini and Diego Frasta (Peregrinus Project, Italy) gave a presentation to the St. Columban Primary School (Oldpark Ave, Belfast), with the aim of developing links between this and a similar school in Italy.
A couple of days later, Columban Fr. Pat Colgan visited the ‘other’ St. Columban Primary School in the diocese of Down and Connor, that in Kilkeel. This happened to be the town of his dad, and his uncle taught in the school for 4 years in the 1970s.
The present site is a recent amalgamation of 3 schools. Pat was able to speak to most of the teachers at their tea break and then had time with the P7 (senior) class, who knew a little about St. Columban but had never heard of the Columban Missionaries. Their eco- and sensory garden, though, is very in tune with the saint’s vision, and the kids are proud of their location, overlooking the Irish Sea at the foot of the famous Mountains of Mourne (which are suffering multiple fires in this unusually warm weather).
He presented the school with 2 ‘sign boards’ with sayings of Columbanus, along with gifts left by Manuela Bertoncini of a hardback history of Bobbio with attractive photographs, and also a handmade, Ligurian style palm, as a preparation for next Sunday’s Passion/Palm Feast day.
As mentioned, it is hoped that, just like the school in Belfast, a twin school can be found for Kilkeel, so that these kids, sharing Columban and European heritage and identity, can make new friends through emails, class Zooms, and perhaps even reciprocal visits.
Such linkages do seem appropriate, given St. Columban’s reputation as the first person to use the word “Europe” as a unifying concept, and at the inception of what would become the E.U., was called the “Patron of all who seek to construct a united Europe”.
