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A walking trail through a new public art installation of 150 gold-leaf swallows high on building facades through Enniskillen Island Town. (Installation date: June 2021)
Oscar Wilde, the playwright, poet and wit spent seven years (1864-71) in Enniskillen at Portora Royal School (now Enniskillen Royal Grammar School). His most popular short story, The Happy Prince, is directly inspired by Enniskillen’s Cole’s Monument that stands ‘high above the town’, which Wilde could see from his dormitory window at Portora. In the story the statue of the Happy Prince pleads with the little Swallow to stay and distribute his jewels and gold leaf to the people of the town to relieve them of their misery.
Inspired by the fairy tale, ARTS OVER BORDERS has created The Flight of the Little Golden Swallow from Coles Monument down into the Island Town of Enniskillen. You can Follow the Swallow from the War Memorial in Belmore Street at the foot of Forthill Park of The Happy Prince statue all the way through the town to Enniskillen Castle Museum.
The full walking tour of ‘Follow the Swallow’ begins at War Memorial, Belmore Street, at the bottom of Forthill Park and the Happy Prince statue. On Cole’s Monument itself is the first gold-leaf Swallow arriving on the column itself. If you climb the 108 steps within the tower up to the Happy Prince you’ll find the last dead swallow in bronze painted black by sculptor Alan Milligan lying at the foot of the statue as written in the story. Nearby, a tired and worn little goldleaf Swallow is attached to the faded but beautiful Victorian bandstand in the park. Erected in 1895 it recalls Wilde’s greatest theatrical triumph of his most popular play The Importance of Being Earnest and his downfall from grace the same year.
LOOK UP and Follow The Swallow as you stroll through the island town’s main street on the jewellers, butchers, solicitors, dentists, opticians, clothes shops, shoe shop, pubs and cafes.
(Allow 50-60 mins)
Download more information HERE / Download a copy of the map HERE
