A war of words has erupted in a County Down council over a sixth century Irish Christian saint and missionary, and a Europe-wide walking trail honouring his achievement and travels.
At the first meeting of the Ards and North Down Council since last month’s elections, the DUP said it was “absurd” for the local authority to label the “Columban Way,” a trail planned to extend from Ireland to Italy, as non-religious.
Saint Columbanus was an Irish missionary noted for founding a number of monasteries in France and Italy. He was born in Leinster in 543 AD, first educated on an island on the River Erne in Fermanagh and then moved to Bangor Abbey in County Down where he studied to become a teacher of the Bible.
