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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Damien Edgar

New St Patrick Centre exhibit opens in Downpatrick and is voiced by actor Ciarán Hinds

St Patrick has been given a new lease of life in Co Down as Belfast-born actor Ciarán Hinds lends his voice to the saint's writings.

It's all part of a new £300,000 exhibit detailing St Patrick's life at the St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick.

"St Patrick's Day is the biggest cultural festival in the world and it belongs to us here in Northern Ireland and particularly in Downpatrick, Co Down," said Dr Tim Campbell, Director at the centre.

Read more: Guide to St Patrick's Day parades and events happening across Northern Ireland

"The exhibition has been three years in the making, so it's taken a long time for us to be able to come together.

"Of course coronavirus came in the middle of everything but finally, finally, we've been able to completely refresh everything that's here."

Dr Campbell said they have tried to use as many innovative methods as possible to tell the story of Ireland's patron saint.

"The interesting thing about St Patrick is he tells his own story, the history of Ireland, the written word, begins with St Patrick," he said.

"When you think of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' and all these genealogical programmes, people think it's great to get back to that elusive ancestor in the 1800s, the 1700s if you're lucky.

"Imagine having a voice from the 400s and we do, we have the voice of Patrick through his writings.

"What we've done is we've used his voice through actually Ciarán Hinds, the famous Irish actor, he is the voice of St Patrick as you go around the exhibition."

Audio and visual displays combine to tell the story of St Patrick and there are also features woven in in to keep children interested too.

"All of your storyboards are new, we've got a really exciting light table which is the shape of Ireland," said Dr Campbell.

"That tells the story of the snake, so there's lots for kids to do.

"We've updated all the audio-visuals, we now tell the story of St Colmcille and St Colmbanus.

"We also have got an incredible IMAX show - back in the day it took us an awful long time to get a helicopter with five cameras on it.

"Nowadays you can just get drone and send it up and go face to face with St Patrick's statue, the tallest statue of St Patrick in the world, which is here at Saul.

"So we're here to celebrate everything St Patrick, we own this, this is all about Northern Ireland, it's all about Co Down and we want people when they come to Ireland, to come and visit the St Patrick Centre."

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