Long Tower Church, Derry
PRESS RELEASE
RE-BUILDING OF ANCIENT MONASTIC TOWER
By Rev. Roland Colhoun
9th August 2010

The Administrator of the Long Tower, Fr Roland Colhoun, has put forward the idea of re-building the ancient monastic tower of St Columba.  His proposal is to mark the 1500th anniversary of the birth of St Columba, eleven years from now, with a new round tower.  It would be a newly-built structure but faithful as far as possible to the tower in the ancient monastery.  Speaking on the 9th of June this year, Fr Colhoun outlined the history of the old tower and asked parishioners to consider the idea.  The attractiveness of the proposal is that it would be a restoration of the original site, dedicated as it was to religious life at the heart of the community for many centuries.  The Long Tower, of course, gets its name from the round stone tower which stood in the old monastery.  To rebuild the tower would be an endeavour to return the district to its roots and give renewed authenticity to the historic site.  The idea won instant favour with the people, with a chorus of parishioners giving their approval.

It was traditional for Irish monasteries to have a round tower, with a conical roof pointing upwards, as a visible reminder of heaven.  The tower in Glendalough, Co. Wicklow, preserved to this day, originally had six timber floors, connected by ladders.  The four storeys above entrance level are each lit by a small window, while the top storey has four windows facing the cardinal compass points.  The round towers were landmarks for approaching visitors, but also could also be used on occasion as store-houses.  Further, they were look-out posts against plunderers and served as a place of refuge for the monks in the event of an invasion.  For this reason, the entrance was usually about 3.5 metres from the ground.  However, the structure was first and foremost a bell tower.  It housed the monastery bell which summoned the monks to come to the chapel for prayer at various times during the day.  The history books tell us that there was a beautiful silver bell in the Derry monastery, “the sweetest toned in the land”.  However, with the disappearance of the tower, no bell has rung on this spot for centuries.  The other forgotten ecclesiastical edifices of ancient Derry – the Dominican Priory, the Franciscan Abbey, the Augustinian and Cistercian convents have all disappeared too.  All those churches had towers (the Dominican, which was nearest, had no less than four spires) but St Columba’s was the highest – hence its name, Long Tower.

The next big Columban occasion will be the 7th of December 2021, the 1500th birthday of St Columba.  That is eleven years from now and the rebuilding of the monastic tower would be a significant way of marking the event.  Since the idea was put forward on the 9th of June of this year, some donations have been coming in, unrequested, and the Long Tower has designated a fund for the purpose.  Any money given for this project will be ring-fenced and allowed to accumulate until such time as the proposal can come to fruition.  The parish bulletin has carried a short note each week since then, acknowledging the donations.  The idea has also caught the attention of visitors and prompted the request from the press to elaborate a little on the idea.  “Where is the tower?”, tourists often ask.  One day we would like to be able to point it out to the visitor and say proudly, “here it is”.  Here is our heritage and our history renewed.  Welcome to the Long Tower!