Joyful Pilgrimage: In the wake of St Columba

This is the true story of the 1963 re-enactment of the sea voyage St. Columba made in the 6th Century (563 A.D.) from Ireland to Iona in the Hebrides aboard a traditional Irish curragh.

The audiobook narrates the 1964 book by Canon John Barry, who instigated the re-enactment voyage. Recorded in 2026, 63 years after the 1963 curragh voyage, the story is narrated by four people associated with the voyage: Billy Patterson (a member of the curragh crew); Jonathan Barry (the son of the author); Bruce Clark (the son of the curragh skipper, Wallace Clark); and Nicholas Grainger (nephew of the author and author of The Voyage of The Aegre).

Brought to life by these four narrators, this audiobook will interest modern-day pilgrims who wish to learn more about St. Columba and his historic decision to leave Ireland for Scotland, and the path he took. It also includes skipper Wallace Clark’s reflection on the decision to build a curragh, the design, construction, and its sailing performance, and how it might have been improved.

John Barry wrote the story with the dry humour of an Ulsterman, savouring the original outlandish idea that he and a growing band of supporters shaped into a grand adventure of faith and fraternity. For him, the heroes are Wallace Cark, the skipper; Richard McCullagh, the curragh designer; Jim Boyd, who built the curragh; the rest of the crew; and the curragh itself. But beneath his commentary, his engaging, passionate influence shines.

John Barry was born in Belfast in 1915 into a Protestant family, the descendants of religious migrants from Italy who had reached Ireland in the early 17th Century. Embodying the spirit of his forebears, he was ordained in 1938 and came to believe that in life we may be called to travel and be ready to embrace the differences of others. In St Columba, he found a kindred spirit, someone from the distant past whose spirituality predates our contemporary divisions, and whose vision can inspire us and lead to a better future.