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www.celtic-connection.com
JULY/AUGUST 2011
The connection between The Vancouver Canucks and Rosslyn Chapel
T wasn't easy watching the Vancouver Canucks from Scotland. First of all, there was the time difference. Games started at 1 AM which guaranteed a form of jet lag later the same day even though you hadn't flown anywhere.
Secondly, it was nigh on impossible to find anyone to share your enthusiasm with. "Ice hockey" as it known in these parts is a mysterious and distant pastime. Scots who have heard of hockey at all imagine it as a series of pugilistic set-tos on wobbly skates.
Thirdly, the Scottish media is silent on hockey. No games on the television and nothing in the newspapers.
Thank goodness then (or at least I was thankful at the time) for the internet and the ability to stream games in to a room in Edinburgh from thousands of miles away.
The real difficulty however was the watching itself.
First the whimper: twenty three goals given up in the series and a final game that would bring tears to a glass eye, as they say over here.
Then the bang: the post game riot and a sudden avalanche of media attention where there was none for the games themselves.
There was something surreal about watching a familiar and much-loved city being torn apart on British television.
Even more so when Vancouver politicians and policemen were quoted as blaming the trouble on masked anarchists while the BBC showed endless footage of young and sometimes fashionably dressed rioters and looters.
Simultaneous riots in Greece (where masked people were clearly visible) created a "this country is bankrupt/these guys lost a hockey game" line which didn't help Vancouver.
The newspapers were in on it too. "Vancouver riot" was amongst the most popular stories in many British papers for several days in a row.
New photographs and video kept the story rolling over. One showed a very young looking 'fan' in designer glasses andjeans wielding ahockey stickalmost as heavy as he was. Behind him the bank window lay in shards.
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By HARRY McGRATH
There was only one thing to do post-game seven: take sanctuary in a church.
A few hours after watching the Boston Bruins lift the Stanley Cup and the vehicles set afire, I made my way to fifteenth century Rosslyn Chapel which sits near the village of Roslin a few miles from Edinburgh.
A few years ago Rosslyn Chapel was a relatively obscure tourist attraction, poor cousin to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace and other Edinburgh "must-sees."
Its tourist fortunes improved when it was featured in an Ian Rankin novel in 2001. They went in to the stratosphere
ROSSLYN Chapel near Edinburgh is one of the most ornately-carved 15th century medieval stone chapels in all of Europe. In more recent times, it has become more widely known, as the building and its history were featured in the movie, The Da Vinci Code.
RIOT squads in Vancouver battle to get control of the downtown area after Vancouver lost to Boston on the night of the Stanley Cup playoffs of June 15.
when Dan Brown used Rosslyn Chapel in the final scenes of the Da Vinci Code and Tom Hanks followed up with a film of the book located there.
Early evidence of this was available on Lothian Bus number 15 which transports people to Roslin. Tourists outnumbered locals by 20 to one, many drawn by the myths and legends associated with the chapel which the Da Vinci Code and works like it took advantage of.
Tales of the Knights Templar, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, a murdered apprentice and a piece of true cross hidden in the vault are powerful attractors.
I was happy to settle for what was known for certain about Rosslyn Chapel.
It was started by Sir William St. Clair in the fifteenth century and what you can see today is only a small part of his original vision which was to build a large cruciform church with a tower at its middle.
We know too that it was attacked by a mob in 1592 during the Reformation and again in 1658 when a gang from Edinburgh reinforced by local villagers destroyed the altar and some of the carvings.
When Dorothy Wordsworth visited Rosslyn in 1807 she found the interior locked "and so preserved...from the injuries it might otherwise receive from idle boys."
Sitting on a bench outside the chapel I heard a guide say that people have claimed to hear howling and baying in the night. Together these thoughts brought me back to the Vancouver riots that I was there to forget.
Strange how people like to get together to smash things and stranger still how often that inclination is connected in some way to worship.
One of the more interesting things I read concerning what happened in Vancouver last month was that the line of the riot and the line of the commercial district were almost identical.
The author ascribed this to a new materialism and the worship of possessions. He gave as evidence the fact that people smashed shop windows in order to pass through them and help themselves to the things that they adored.
The reforming Rosslyn mobs objected to what they saw as idolatry. I wonder what they would have made of the Sears window.
Rosslyn Chapel on the day I was there, however, was an oasis of tranquility. From my bench you could hear the soft tap of chisel on stone as masons worked on the exterior and the clink of glasses from the patio of the village pub up the road.
Had I been a sculptor I might have considered sneaking under the scaffolding that surrounds the chapel and fashioning images of the Sedin twins and Roberto Luongo to add to what's already there.
Hundreds of years later people might ask "who are they?" and unconsciously echo the thoughts of Canucks fans at game seven when the three of them were unrecognizable.
THE NATIONAL Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is currently under renovation to create a new exhibition space for larger shows.
Russian empress and Egyptian treasures feature in revamped museum's shows
EDINBURGH - Ancient Egyptian artefacts and a collection charting the reign of a Russian empress will be among the first shows to take pride of place in the National Museum of Scotland's new exhibition space.
Set aside for "blockbuster" showcases, the purpose-built 650 square metre area is a key part of the multi-million regeneration of the Edinburgh museum, and will allow it to stage larger shows than before.
The transformed space is due to open on July 29,2012, following the £46.4 million redevelopment, with the two new exhibitions scheduled to begin next year.
The first, 'Fascinating Mummies', will explore the complex rituals surrounding death and afterlife in Ancient Egypt, and will feature treasures from the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden in the Netherlands, famed around the world for its Egyptology collections.
The museum will be the only venue in the UK to show the exhibition, which will also include mummies owned by the National Museum of Scotland.
It will be followed by 'Catherine the Great', a one-off exhibition co-developed by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and National Museums Scotland.
Exclusive to Edinburgh, it will showcase the spectacular collections of one of Russia's most successful rulers, and mark the 250th anniversary of her accession to the throne. The exhibition, sponsored by Baillie Gifford, includes imperial court costumes and uniforms and is designed to mark the longstanding connections between Scotland and Russia.
Some of the objects have never been on display before outside Russia and include a newly restored full-length portrait of the empress in her coronation robes by the painter Virgilius Eriksen.
Fascinating Mummies will run from February 11 to May 27, while the Catherine the Great exhibition will take place between July and October, with precise dates yet to be confirmed.
CATHERINE the Great, Russian Empress (1729-1796). An exhibition exclusive to Edinburgh will showcase the spectacular collections of one of Russia's most successful rulers and mark the 250th anniversary of her accession to the throne. This will be the second major attraction in the National Museum of Scotland's new exhibition space due to open July 2012.
The latter exhibition is not the first time Scotland's national museum has worked alongside the Hermitage. Five years ago, the National Museum of Scotland staged Beyond the Palace Walls, an exhibition of Islamic art, which won five-star reviews.
The prestigious museum on Chambers Street closed its doors in April 2008 so that the refurbishment programme -jointly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Scottish Government, and private donations - could get under way.
Staff have been installing 8,000 objects into 16 new galleries while the original interior of the landmark building has been restored during the three-year programme.
The initiative means that 80 percent of those objects being exhibited in the revamped museum will be on display for the first time. In total, the gallery space will extend to around 7,000 square metres, and public spaces will be increased by 50 percent.