He's our Guy so let's honour him

THIS year we're seeing him off less with a bang, more with a whimper.

York hasn't held an official celebration of the capture of Guy Fawkes, our most infamous son, for years. Those terrific nights where fireworks exploded from Clifford's Tower fell foul of police safety worries. The pyrotechnics were transplanted to Knavesmire, only for Labour Party poopers to decide that the council had better things to spend its money on than creating magical memories for York children. The free fireworks were scrapped.

A number of organised displays survive, dotted around the city. Many, however, have been crushed under the money-for-nothing bandwagon. They are victims of massively increased public liability insurance fees, forced up by our blame-and-claim society.

So, for many families, Fireworks Night is down to dad dicing with a lit taper in the backyard.

How pitiful. How embarrassing. This is the city which gave birth, not only to Fawkes, but to the Gunpowder Plot itself. As our panel makes clear, it was largely put together by Fawkes's former schoolmates at St Peter's, which was then situated at the Horsefair, close to where Union Terrace is today.

Other cities, without our links to the heinous Catholic plan to send King James I and all of Parliament to kingdom come, stage tremendous free light shows. Here we do nothing. Nowt. Zilch.

Even that British traditional favourite Penny For The Guy has all but been consumed by the American import Trick Or Treat.

That has to change. This time next year it will be the 400th anniversary of the moment when Guido Fawkes was caught with barrels of gunpowder in the bowels of Parliament. Anniversaries come and go, but this one is too big to ignore.

The good news is that discussions have begun to ensure we mark the anniversary in some style.

York@Large, the body set up by the council to develop a cultural strategy, is planning a year of festivals next year. And to mark Fawkes 400, it would like to see a series of fireworks displays dotted across the city.

Plans are very much at the drawing board stage. Hopes that a Clifford's Tower spectacular could be resurrected were dashed by health and safety concerns. Instead, the radical idea being explored is to close the inner ring road for several hours to allow a number of free displays to take place within the city walls.

Peter Boardman, the council's cultural events manager, said this would be "very different to anything that's been done before in York".

It would cost many thousands of pounds to stage, money the council doesn't have. So business sponsorship will be sought - if you can help, contact Peter at the council.

Should funds not be forthcoming, the alternative is one large display with an entrance fee, at a venue with plenty of car parking space such as the Rawcliffe Bar Country Park.

Coun Keith Orrell is both the council's leisure executive member and involved in York@Large. He emphasised that any anniversary commemoration would have to be inclusive.

"It's important for York, and we would want to make the most of it for the people of York and the people who come to York," he said.

"Everyone on the York@Large board are very positive about the fireworks and about all the other events and festivals that will be happening in the next 12 months to two years."

The folk behind Rockin' Horse Promotions, who are staging a fireworks display as part of the Caroline's Rainbow Foundation ball at York Racecourse tomorrow, are also looking ahead.

Mark Brayshaw said they were looking to put on a Festival of Fireworks to mark the 400th anniversary. "We are looking at two or three different locations," he said. "It will have to be something good. Guy Fawkes was a local lad so it would be dire if we didn't celebrate this properly."

There will be those who consider such festivities in poor taste. Wasn't our Guy a traitor, a terrorist, a latter-day bin Laden? Why should we glorify the man who tried to destroy our democracy?

There is a point here, albeit a po-faced one. But Bonfire Night does not celebrate his success but his failure, the triumph of order over chaos. Of the many parallels we can draw between November 5, 1605, and today's perilous world, that is the most hopeful.

No institution is more aware of the uneasy position Guy Fawkes holds in the public imagination than his seat of learning, St Peter's School.

Tonight the school will hold its annual Boarders Bonfire Night. Guy will not be atop the pyre - they don't do that to Old Peterites, and the school hasn't burnt an effigy since one of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst was torched by what was then an all-boys school.

Just to make its position clear, the school song contains this verse: "Among all the praise we give to famous men we will not lift our voices in praise of Guido Fawkes."

However, the school has many ideas for commemorating the 400th anniversary. There will be a Plotters Ball on Saturday October 29, 2005, and Jackie Pyrah, director of marketing at St Peter's, hopes this could begin a series of events running up to the milestone date.

These could include an exhibition, possibly open to the public, charting Fawkes' life and connections with the other Peterite plotters.

Pupils could also be engaged in curriculum-based lessons around a November 5 theme. Plenty of history to go at, of course; but there are also plans to dramatise the events in a school play, and even pose scientific or mathematical problems on the use of gunpowder.

And the questions as to whether Fawkes was folk hero or felon, terrorist or freedom fighter, leader or stooge, are not being ignored by St Peter's. Guest speakers are being invited to contribute to a series of debates about the man and the myth. These, too, might be public events.

Jackie said the school would want to be a part of any city-wide anniversary festival. "He's an incredibly famous character in history. If for nothing else, it is worth celebrating for that reason."

York Dungeon has its own Guy Fawkes room. The plotters, his capture and torture are all depicted. "It gets a mixed reaction," said Helen Douglas, manager of the dungeon.

"The younger children don't know who Guy Fawkes is, which I thought was quite surprising."

Some foreign tourists are unaware of his infamy, while many British visitors know all about Guido's treachery, but little of his York connections.

A Fawkes festival could change that. "Bonfire Night next year is on a Saturday. You could have a full weekend of events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday," said Helen.

"They could do walks around the city, touring where he was born, where he went to school, where he used to hang out.

"Four hundred years is a long time - it's an anniversary worth celebrating."

Next year's York Ghost Festival, centred on Hallowe'en, would provide the perfect lead-in to a Fawkes fest, and the city's Ghostfinder General Rachel Lacy is keen to be involved.

York Tourism Bureau can also see the potential. "We would back it all the way, promote it as much as we could," said the bureau's public relations executive Jenny Coupland. "It would definitely bring more tourists to the city."

She said the timing could not be better, as any events would fall after the ghost festival and before St Nicholas Fayre.

So what are we waiting for? York should pull together to make sure that 400 years of Fawkes is marked with a proper bang.

Plotters all...

Guy Fawkes was not the only Gunpowder Plot conspirator to be educated at St Peter's School. Others included...

Brothers John and Christopher Wright. Their mother was imprisoned as a recusant, and their aunt was possibly Margaret Clitherow, the canonised York martyr

Oswald Tessimond (Father Greenway). Became a Jesuit. Said to be first priest to learn of the plot. Escaped to the Continent

Edward Oldcorne. Priest said by the government to have been involved. Tortured and executed 1606.

Guido Fawkes

Guido Fawkes we'll never know

What you really thought

And every year the bonfire's made

And fireworks are bought.

We'll build you up, then burn you down

Watch you eaten by the flame

But should you be responsible

For taking all the blame

Did you tremble in the darkness?

Did your hands begin to shake?

Did you wonder if your actions

Were all a big mistake?

Guido Fawkes we'll never know

If your heart and soul were bought

And every year the bonfire's made

... A penny for your thoughts.

By Steve Perkins, Derwent Road, York

Updated: 10:20 Friday, November 05, 2004