So, as Harry Enfield would say, which myth is more
important, religion or heritage? Only one way to find
out......F-I-I-G-G-H-H-T!!!!
Just to put off-island readers in the picture...
this is not really a church, and Cregneash is not really a village;
together they are more of a film or theatre set. Until somebody in
government paid a visit to the Ulster Folk Museum, then saw the
potential of the “living museum” concept in the Thatcher era,
Cregneash was just a farm next to a semi-abandoned chapel, known only
to Gaelic language pilgrims because Ned Maddrell (a Manx speaker
whose chance introduction to an Irish language academic in the 1940's
kicked off attempts to save Manx Gaelic) used to live nearby.
And ever since the beginning of the village's
commodification for Manx touristic purposes there have always been
historically inaccurate “improvements” to the church to make it
look more “authentic”. In reality, like any other working church,
it is a mish-mash of odd little bodge-ups according to liturgical and
national fashions of times when money, labour or materials were
available.
In the late 1980's, and again in the late 1990's,
my job took me to every tiny chapel and church on the island. Most,
however threadbare, at least have an air of being loved and used.
Someone regularly running a duster over the pews and brasses, flowers
changed, scattered hymn books and bibles indicating that acts of
worship actually take place.
Cregneash chapel, by comparison to most, is more
like a storeroom for a few religious props. When I last had to know,
it held an evensong every couple of weeks but no Sunday morning
communion, because the potential congregation refused to attend when
tourists were milling round the museum proper (i.e. when it might
just have drawn in visiting Christians eager for a rural religious
experience).
The only time in recent decades either looked well
was when they became a fictitious Irish village for the film Waking
Ned. For which the church had subtle changes made so it seemed
more like a rural Catholic church (which it has never been) and the
village telephone box was painted green to look like a proper Irish
one, and was not repainted for years – even at a time when the Baillie
Scott design of it was being played up in a row over whether to keep
it.
Why was it never repainted? I'm told because a
nationalistic element within Manx Heritage at the time preferred it
green so that it wouldn't look English, even though telephone boxes
on the island throughout history have always been red, like the
postboxes.
That tells you all you need to know about the
difference between “history” and “heritage”, just as the
single figure congregation's rows with “church management” reveal
how wide the gap is between Manx Christianity as an inclusive act of
faith and an exclusive means of cultural practice.
