{"id":7057,"date":"2014-04-10T08:22:52","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T07:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=7057"},"modified":"2014-04-10T08:23:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T07:23:35","slug":"armagh-marks-millenium-anniversary-of-brian-boru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2014\/04\/armagh-marks-millenium-anniversary-of-brian-boru\/","title":{"rendered":"ARMAGH MARKS MILLENIUM ANNIVERSARY OF BRIAN BOR\u00da"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Armagh commemorates life, death and burial of Ireland\u2019s High King<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Armagh is set to mark 1000 years since the death of High King of Ireland, Brian Bor\u00fa, with a series of family-friendly events including Viking longboat sailings, historical re-enactments, Cathedral concerts and a Viking tented village.<\/p>\n

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The special festival of events will take place from 22nd<\/sup> April to 4th<\/sup> May as part of an Ireland-wide commemoration of the millennium anniversary of Brian Bor\u00fa\u2019s death at the Battle of Clontarf on Good Friday 2014 and his burial in Armagh\u2019s Church of Ireland Cathedral.<\/p>\n

Armagh is one of four locations across Ireland taking part in a national programme of events and joins Clare, Tipperary and Dublin in the special commemorations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One of the festival highlights will be an exciting re-enactment of the Arrival of Brian Bor\u00fa at Navan Centre and Fort on Wednesday 23 April. This demonstration will reveal how an advanced party of warriors left Clontarf to make arrangements for the arrival of Brian Bor\u00fa\u2019s body in Armagh following his death. This free event will bring the past to life with a variety of activities for all the family, including storytelling, blacksmith and coin making demonstrations, as well as a fascinating scale model of the Battle of Clontarf.<\/p>\n

Loughgall Country Park will also play host to one of the festival\u2019s key attractions, a Viking Longboat event on Thursday 24th<\/sup> April. This free family fun day will see an invasion of Viking Longboats arrive in authentic vessels for visitors to enjoy rowing and sailing sessions, Viking talks, weapon training and exciting mock battles.<\/p>\n

Armagh\u2019s Cathedrals will play an important role in the commemorative festival by hosting their own special events. The festival will open on Tuesday 22nd<\/sup> April with an orchestral concert at Saint Patrick\u2019s Cathedral with a suite of music written by composer Michael Rooney to reflect the life of Brian Bor\u00fa which will be performed by the national Folk Orchestra Ireland. On Sunday 27th<\/sup> April the Cathedral host an Ecumencial Service of Commemoration led by preacher Mark Patrick Hederman, OSB, the Abbot of Glenstal (Co. Limerick). Then on Thursday 1st<\/sup> and Friday 2nd<\/sup> May the Cathedral will also host The Waking of Brian Bor\u00fa, a community project involving adults and children from the Armagh area.<\/p>\n

Concluding the line-up of events will be an impressive Viking invasion as over 100 Viking warriors set up camp in a tented village on Armagh\u2019s Mall on Saturday 3rd<\/sup> May and Sunday 4th<\/sup> May. \u00a0Visitors will get the chance to see how life was in Brian Bor\u00fa\u2019s lifetime as Viking re-enactors work, cook, eat and sleep on site. The unique event will also include falconry displays, story-telling, craft demonstrations, cookery displays and blacksmith and skills demonstrations, providing the ultimate insight to life as a Viking Warrior.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the unique festival, Lord Mayor, Robert Turner,<\/strong> said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important year for Armagh. As one of four key areas to be part of the Brian Bor\u00fa festival across Ireland, this is a unique opportunity to commemorate Brian Bor\u00fa\u2019s history and legacy in Armagh.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Viking re-enactments to classical concerts and special church services, Armagh\u2019s Brian Bor\u00fa festival will celebrate every aspect of this historic date. I would encourage everyone to come along to as many of the events as possible, even if they\u2019re not aware of the history of Brian Bor\u00fa, as this is a great opportunity to learn about one of Armagh\u2019s ancient figures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Bor\u00fa visited Armagh in 1004, where he left an offering of gold upon the Cathedral alter and acknowledged the ecclesiastical supremacy of Armagh. During this visit, Brian\u2019s name was inscribed in the Book of Armagh as \u2018Emperor of the Irish\u2019. It is in Armagh\u2019s Church of Ireland Cathedral that Brian Bor\u00fa was laid to rest, according to his wishes.<\/p>\n

Guides for the Brian festival are available at City Centre venues now or they can be downloaded from www.armagh.co.uk<\/a> or contact the Armagh Tourist Information Centre for more details on 028 3752 1800.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armagh commemorates life, death and burial of Ireland\u2019s High King Armagh is set to mark 1000 years since the death of High King of Ireland, Brian Bor\u00fa, with a series of family-friendly events including Viking longboat sailings, historical re-enactments, Cathedral concerts and a Viking tented village. The special festival of events will take place from … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7062,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057\/revisions\/7062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}