Workshop: Flight of the Little Golden Swallow

High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.

The Happy Prince, Oscar Wilde

In 2021, under the inspiration of Happy Days’ Founder Seán Doran, 150 gold leafed swallows were produced by leading Fermanaghbased sculptor Simon Carman and artist Helen Sharp as part of the Happy Days’ initiative to celebrate the beautiful story of The Happy Prince. In the story, enjoyed by millions around the world, the statue of the Happy Prince once called “Happy” for his joyful ignorance of sorrow, now weeps sapphire tears and pleads with a little swallow to stay and distribute his jewels and gold leaf to the people of the town to relieve them of their suffering.

Format

6.30pm	Introductions – setting the context
6.50pm	Guest Presentation Zoë Seaton, Founder and Artistic Director of the Big Telly Theatre Company
7.30pm	Co-Creating Ideas… The 150 Golden Swallows Adorning the Buildings of the Town Centre…
8.30pm	Close

This beautiful tale is an allegory of love, sacrifice, and the transformative power of compassion. It is a fable where the gilded heart of the statue of the Happy Prince beats with empathy, and a swallow’s wings carry not just treasures but the essence of compassion and caring for others, leaving a legacy of radiant love in a town cloaked in sorrow.

“All day long he flew, and at night-time he arrived at the city. “Where shall I put up?” he said; “I hope the town has made preparations.”

To this day, The Happy Prince story is one of the most beautiful, inspiring and sad fairytale stories loved by both children and adults worldwide.

Bring me the two most precious things in the city” said God to one of his Angels; and the Angel brought him the leaden heart and the dead bird.

The Happy Prince and Enniskillen

It is believed that Oscar Wilde was first inspired to think of The Happy Prince as a child himself looking out from his dormitory window at Portora Royal School Enniskillen (1864- 1871) at the west side of the island town to the opposite hill on the east side of town where stands, as tall as Nelson’s column and on a high hill overlooking the town, Cole’s Monument. The Happy Prince statue, aka Cole’s Monument, takes the form of a Doric column, topped by a statue of General the Honourable Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole with sword. Cole had distinguished himself in the Peninsular War and later became Governor of Cape Colony. During the Napoleonic wars with France, Cole served in Egypt, which is engraved large on one side of the monument’s base. General Galbraith Cole was the second son of the first Earl of Enniskillen and a direct descendant of Sir William Cole, the Planter. This striking Doric column and statue still stands tall above the town today. Work first began in 1845, inspired by Nelson’s Column of 1843. It was not finished until 1857, only seven years before the nine-year-old Oscar Wilde arrived in Enniskillen.

The statue would likely have been the pride of the town in Wilde’s days. “I am covered with fine gold,” said
the Prince, “you must take it off, leaf by leaf, and give it to my poor; the living always think that gold can make them happy.” If you climb its 108 winding staircase steps within you will reach the foot of the statue where there now lies a bronze sculpture of ‘the dead swallow’ by artist Alan Milligan. Many of the features of The Happy Prince story are also physically present in Enniskillen to this day: the river with reeds that surround the island town, the Ardhowen Theatre on the Lake, The Town Hall and councilors, the mathematics teacher (of his school), the arts professor (South West College on the river) and its students and the Cathedral. “One night there flew over the city a little Swallow. His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was in love with the most beautiful Reed. He had met her early in the spring as he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth, and had been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk to her.”