The official opening of the Flower Festival to mark the bicentenary of St John's Church at Yellow Bog last evening was a most pleasant event,
writes Brian Byrne. 'Stepping Through Time' was opened by the Most Rev Patricia Storey, Bishop of Meath & Kildare, in the presence of the Dean, Very Rev John Marsden.
A concert and reception for sponsors and supporters of the Festival included music on the church's organ by Peter Moloney, and chamber recitals from the Dara Quartet of Dorly O'Sullivan, Alice Kelly, Helen Harney and Aoife Doyle. Among the composers celebrated were Vivaldi, Elgar, Bach, John Rutter, Arthur Duff and Henry Purcell.
An address by Mario Corrigan of the Kildare County Library & Arts Service looked through the known history of the church, believed to have been built on the site of an earlier church associated with the monastic site of Old Kilcullen.
Organiser Adrienne Thompson thanked all who had helped with the preparation of the Festival, which runs through the weekend and is open from 10am each day. She paid particular tribute to the flower clubs and arrangers who had contributed to the event, and to the sponsors of the various arrangements and the Festival itself, without whom it could not have gone ahead.
The many arrangements on view are varied and imaginative in both blooms used and concepts, and it is only when spending time with the details in each that one comes to appreciate the many stories being told in flowers and motifs. Our photographs here show only a small part of the overall display.
A visitor's fee of €8 will go to parish funds. The
Diary suggests the event is well worth taking a little time out to see, not just for the arrangements, but to revisit, or visit for the first time, a church with an interior that is possibly a largely unknown gem in the community.
