CultureHUB - Issue 4

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ISSUE 4

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E C L E C T I C B E L FA S T

ONE PLACE, MANY PEOPLE Welcome to this Special Edition of CultureHUB Magazine.

This edition celebrates Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week organised by the Community Relations Council. We are delighted to feature the events of the Week and to provide you with articles aimed at building community relations and showcasing cultural diversity.

From the team at CultureHUB, Happy reading folks.

CONTENTS ARTICLES 4 • One Magazine, Many Stories 6 • Community Relations & Cultural Awareness Week

LI

8 • Literary & Poetry Events CRC Week U R E 9 • One Place, Many Faces 10• Interview with Ciaran Lavery 12 • Scream For Me Belfast

Creative Director: Anna Wherrett Editor: Scott Boldt Cover Design & Layout: Root Design Belfast Art Direction: Root Design Belfast www.rootdesignbelfast.co.uk info@rootdesignbelfast.co.uk 028 90 021104 / 07964 389 125

14• Bassam - Fadl Mustapha 16•Art Without Frontiers - A Kiss of Life 18• Music Invades Belfast!

20• Home Grown: Pick of the Crop 22 • Soup DuJour: Tease-O-Rama 24 • Culture Night - Retrospective

Jounalists: David Aurthor, Ahmed Al Sarraf,

Melanie Brehaut, Jasmine Daniels, Colin Dardis, Stacy Fitzpatrick, Mike Gaston, Cara Gibney, Adam Henry, Garham Higgin, Alyson McElroy, Conor O’Neill, Caitlain Rafferty, Graeme Watson.

26 •Silent Testimony - Colin Davidson 28 •BELFAST 89FM 29 •Music Unite: The Unexpected Journey 30 •Built to Laugh: Northern Irish Stand-Up

Guest Photographer: Phil Dorman Junior Designer: Cathal Gorman

32 • Dramatic Movements - Dancing at Lughnasa 34 • Album Review

CultureHUB Magazine Ltd. Merrion Business Centre Office 1-2, 58 Howard Street Belfast, BT1 6PJ Tel: 02895 43 4060 Mob: 07548 928 115 www.culturehubmagazine.co.uk info@culturehubmagazine.co.uk © CultureHUB Magazine Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means,electronic or mechanical without permission of CultureHUB Magazine.

This publication has received support from the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council which aims to promote a pluralist society characterised by equity, respect for diversity, and recognition of interdependence. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Council.

36 • Leading Ladies 37 • Purely Poetry 38• EMBRACE: Hear My Voice 40 • PhotoHUB Special Community Relations Competition 41• Jimeoin - Tortured Comedian 42• Connla: Transcending Trad 44 • Literary & Poetry Events Belfast 45 • Book Review 46 • Living Together 47 • Stories of Migration Old and New 48 •Keeping It Real - Ray Mullan 50•Alexandra Ford Interview

ONE MAGAZINE

MANY STORIES

Cultural Diversity – who needs it? Community Relations – you must be joking. Some people are opposed to mixing and most of us experience some fear, annoyance or hesitation when it comes to change or something different.

M

eat and two veg, no beans with my fry, traditional routes, 'No' to bike and bus routes, who is sitting in my seat?, how come they don't celebrate Christmas and what do you mean we're not going to my mother's for Christmas? 'Speak English!', she says in her Ullans/ Ulster-Scots infused accent as he repeats the same thing in his broad Hiberno/Gaeilge lilt.

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This issue of CultureHUB Magazine is a Special Edition centred around Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week. The theme for 2015 is ‘One Place, Many People’ and the magazine is infused with the many and varied activities and events that feature in this, the thirteenth year of it. With over 170 events from which to choose throughout the North, the Province, Northern Ireland, Ulster, our wee

country, we selected and connected with a number that resonated with us and integrate with our mission and ethos. In addition to many of our regular features and writers, we take a particular focus on some people and activities that contribute to CR week with an emphasis on creative expressions.

Our culture is in part made up of the accumulation of actions of the people who live here. The way we relate to 'them', the fact that we talk of the 'two communities' and 'the other side' betrays the underlying facets of our culture created by levels of fear, suspicion, lack of trust, hurt, ignorance and misguided assumptions. Learning about 'the other' is a way to be better informed but probably is not the best way to improve community relations.

“In conflict, before we even hear what the other side has said, we assume we know what they mean. We have already attached motives to their messages. Often, even before they have finished, we are develop ing our response.�

(John Paul Lederach).

Relationship is the key; there needs to be connection and people need to meet. Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week is not going to make a huge difference this year or any year, but it will remind us and in many ways show us what needs to be done, what works and, for a few people, it will open new ways of seeing 'the other' and may lead to further connections, even friendship.

In this way, it can and always does make a huge difference in some people's lives and therefore in some locality and hence in our society.

Such a transformation opens up new possibilities, gives others permission to step out, inspires people to stand by their principles, to cross boundaries and to change the culture. This is the paradox of being limited (one week, certain places, sometimes the same people) but significant.

As far as we are aware, a week set aside to focus on community relations is unique in the world and it happens here. As much as some of us may not like to recognise it, the recent history of Northern Ireland is viewed by many, especially those not living here, as an inspiration, an achievement, even a beacon of hope for other societies struggling to emerge from violent conflict.

Community Relations Week is another positive and healthy consequence that has resulted from the vision for something better in the face of an often ugly past.

We are proud to present this Special Community Relations Edition of CultureHUB and hope it too will contribute to together building a united community.

Scott Boldt

Photography: Phil Dorman

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COMMUNITY RELATIONS & CULTURAL AWARENESS WEEK

CultureHUB Selection ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

One Place – Many People, CRC Policy and Practice Conference Stormont Hotel 587 Upper Newtownards Rd, Belfast

28 September • 9.30-3pm The conference brings together politicians, practitioners and public bodies working to create the conditions for long-lasting peace. tgibson@nicrc.org.uk

Community Relations Forum: Who am I? The Barron Hall, 230 Antrim Road Glengormley

28 September • 7pm – 9pm A PSNI Officer, a local athlete and a politician will talk about why they went into their chosen field of work and some of the trials and the highs they have experienced, followed by a Q&A session. kathywolff1@aol.com

Community Relations Forum Music Night The Barron Hall, 230 Antrim Road Glengormley

02 October • 7.30pm – 10pm Songs and music from our past, and from countries people emigrated to or from, with a sharing supper. kathywolff1@aol.com

Ards and North Down Borough Council in conjunction with Beyond Skin and CDPB Music unite - The unexpected Journey Taking place across Northern Ireland

08 September – 04 October Encouraging musicians from different cultural backgrounds to work together and develop positive outcomes. donna.mackey@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk www.ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk

Ballymoney Community Resource Centre Showing Your True Colours Units 22-23 Acorn Business Centre, 2 Riada 2

01 October • 9.30am – 2pm Challenge prejudice and hate, understand shared symbols and celebrate identity without causing offence. info@ballymoneycrc.org.uk Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council Sharing the City – Looking through shared lens Lagan Valley Island, Lisburn

30 September • 7pm -9pm Linda Irvine will deliver a talk on the strong heritage of the Irish Language within the Protestant Community followed by a panel discussion. Contributors will be made up of Irish speaking members of the Protestant Community.

Dolores.donnelly@armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk www.armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk

Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough REACT - Galvanising the Peace Workshop 2 Mallview Terrace, Armagh

28 September • 7.30pm – 9.30pm A workshop where participants will discuss what needs to be done to move the peace process forward; what opportunities exist and what actions are needed. marion@reactni.org / www.reactni.org

Belfast City Council Living Library City Hall, Belfast

24 September • 10.00am The Living Library is an innovative method designed to promote dialogue and encourage understanding. Rather than borrow a book you borrow a person which allows people from diverse backgrounds to come together in conversation. www.belfastcity.gov.uk

Women’s Information Northern Ireland & Community Dialogue Launch of the Women and Sectarianism Report NICVA 61 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast

30 September • 11.00am–12.00pm Event to launch a research report carried out by WINI and Community Dialogue about Women’s experience of sectarianism in Northern Ireland. caroline@womensinfoni.com / www.womensinfoni.com

The Educational Shakespeare Company Voices of the New Belfast Film Screening Long Gallery, Stormont Buildings

28 September • 7.00pm The event will be an opportunity for participants to meet, share and record their own experience of living in a new council area and discuss their aspirations for the future. www.lisburncastlereagh.gov.uk

28 September • 5.45pm–8.15pm Film screening of the documentary film, Voices of the New Belfast, with panel discussion at the Long Gallery, Stormont.

Sponsored by MLA Chris Lyttle, this event will bring together politicians, local dignitaries and participants from other ethnic minority backgrounds. www.eventbrite.com/e/voices-of-the-newbelfastfilm-screening-at-stormont

Inclusion and Diversity Service ‘Ways of Seeing II’ Exploring diverse faiths and cultures Holy Trinity College, Cookstown

Belfast Health & Social Care Trust Traveller Women’s Choir Belfast City Hospital Foyer

30 September • 10.00am–12.00pm This workshop will encourage respect for cultural diversity in the classroom. It will provide teachers and pupils with resources and frameworks to help explore diverse faiths and cultures. brid.maher@eani.org.uk

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Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council Banbridge Good Relations Forum “Protestants & The Irish Language” Bridge Integrated Primary School, Ballygowan Rd Banbridge

29 September • 12.30pm Traveller Women’s Choir at Belfast City Hospital. The Choir is made up of Traveller women from a range of different ages.

They are the first Traveller women’s choir in Northern Ireland. veronica.mceneaney@belfasttrust.hscni.net

Public Achievement Everyone has a Chance to be Different Common Grounds Café, University Avenue, Belfast 02 October • 5.00pm – 7.00pm

A group of young people from the Somali community will showcase their short film about cultural diversity in schools and invite people for a discussion as well as a celebration with traditional music and food. irina@publicachievement.com www.publicachievement.com

Uganda Association NI The Omuntu Philosophy of Unity St Mary’s University College, Belfast

03 October • 3.00pm – 8.00pm This event will include scholarly speeches along with food, dancing and music from many different cultures and traditions across Belfast. kingi.robert@yahoo.co.uk

Fobairt Feirste With Glór Na Móna and Lower Shankill Community Outreach Programme Scéal Dhá Reilig – A Tale of Two Cemeteries Shankill Graveyard and Belfast City Cemetery,Belfast

29 September • 3.30pm – 5.30pm A guided tour with historical and cultural contextualisation of Shankill Cemetery and Belfast City Cemetery with a specific focus on Gaelic heritage. jake@forbairtfeirste.com / www.fobairtfeirste.com

Castlederg Youth Forum Multi-Cultural Night 24a Main St Castlederg

28 September - 04 October Design and paint a welcome sign in all languages spoken by residents of Castlederg and launch it at the end of the week. The sign will then be displayed at the front of the building to help create a shared space where everyone is welcome. margaret@castledergyouthforum.co.uk www.facebook.com/castledergyouthforum

Du Dance (NI) & Dungannon Youth Resource Centre Youth Focus Dungannon Dungannon Youth Resource Centre

30 September • 6.00pm–9.00pm This event will bring together young people from many diverse cultures, creating the space for them to work together, question what separates them and celebrate diversity by performing together for the wider community. info@dudanceni.com / barry.mcginley@dyrc.co.uk

Mitchell House School Shared Sports Mitchell House School, Holywood Road, Belfast

30 September • 6.00pm–9.00pm Two schools within the community will work together with a local cross community group based in a shared space. The focus will be on able bodied pupils working alongside disabled students and the event will encourage those from varying cultural and religious backgrounds to get to know each other. lmatchett572@c2kni.net

Education Authority Belfast Region, Youth Services My Shoes Might Fit Education Authority, 40 Academy Street, Belfast

30 September • 6.30pm–8.00pm A photography exhibition about the lives of Roma young people living in Belfast from a young person’s perspective. stuart.kennedy@eani.org.uk / www.eani.org.uk

NICRAS Cookery Workshops Shaftesbury Community and Recreation Centre, Belfast 01 October • 12.00midday–5.00pm Cookery workshops provided by women from refugee and host communities followed by roundtable discussions on topics chosen by participants on the day. info@nicras.org.uk / www.nicras.org.uk

Holywell – Diverse City Community Partnership Towards Understanding and Healing – Testimony Event 10-12 Bishop Street, Derry 30 September • 12.30pm – 2pm

Personal testimonies of individuals who have been impacted by the conflict and how they have dealt with this. mhetherington@thejunction-ni.org / www.thejunction-ni.org

REPLAY Theatre Company Expecting Something Baskin Room, Skainos Centre, Belfast

01 October • 11.00am Exhibition and celebration showcasingthe work of participants in Replay’s Expecting Something project working with expectant parents. It invites women from BME communities accessed through the red cross, to share participation in arts workshops focussing on their pregnancy, their changing identity and how to connect with their babies once they are born. artistic@replaytheatreco.org / www.replaytheatreco.org

National Museums Northern Ireland Things Left Unsaid Ulster Museum, Belfast

01 October • 7.30pm–8.30pm This will be a talk about ‘Things Left Unsaid’ an exhibition of photographs by Paul Seawright at the Ulster Museum. The talk will examine the exhibition’s themes of contemporary conflict and journalism and is part of NMNI’s ongoing commitment to exploring issues around global conflict. www.nmni.com/um

Community Relations Council David Stevens Memorial Lecture and Community Relations Award Presentation The Long Gallery, Stormont, Belfast

01 October • 2.00pm–4.00pm Rev. Harold Good presenting lecture on Reconciliation theme followed by the presentation of the annual CRC award for Exceptional Achievement. The event will raise and discuss issues of reconciliation in postconflict Northern Ireland and recognise good practice. info@nicrc.org.uk / www.nicrc.org.ukk

All Nations Ministries Youth Music Presentation Church of Ireland Chaplaincy, 22 Elmwood Avenue, Belfast 29 September • 9.30am–3.30pm An event hosting drum circle workshops and story-telling which will celebrate diversity of cultures existing in Belfast it will help bring people of various backgrounds together and work towards a shared future. davidmaganda@aol.com

St Anne’s Cathedral Choir Project ‘A Musical Celebration of Diversity with the Children of North Belfast’ St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast

02 October • 2.30pm–4.30pm Taking place on the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi; UN International Day of Non-Violence, this is a schools’ project which seeks to provide an alternative creative outlet for children attending three schools in North Belfast, (Sacred Heart, Edenbrooke and Cliftonville Integrated Primary School) an area characterised by sectarian antipathies, deprivation, social dysfunction and sectarian violence. catherine@belfastcathedral.org / www.belfastcathedral.org

Kabalikat In North West & Derry and Strabane District Council Philippines ‘Pearl of the Orient’ Holywell Diversity Building, Derry / Londonderry

26 SeptembeR • 10.00am–1.00pm A family event showcasing the traditions of our local Filipino Community including a slideshow about the Philippines, amazing cultural performances, exhibitions and delicious Filipino food. info.kabalikat@gmail.com / www.kabalikatnw.co.uk

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COMMUN IT Y RELAT IONS WEEK

E

&

EVENTS

Reading Rooms explore ‘One Place, Many People” Verbal Arts Centre • 28 September - 4 October All Reading Rooms across the Province will explore stories and poems of diversity and acceptance of others both locally and globally with a range of literature specially chosen to open up discussions on these issues.

John de Courcy, Prince of Ulster – A talk by Dr Steve Flanders Libraries NI Downpatrick Library • 30 September, 12.30pm–1.30pm Dr Steve Flanders will speak about John de Courcy and his impact on the history of Ulster, based on his recently published book.

Booking is advisable for this event.

Localstudies.down@librariesni.org.uk

One Place, Many People Libraries NI Lisburn City Library • 30 September •4.30–6.30pm Creative writing workshop led by Shelley Tracey of the project A Write to a Sense of Belonging.

Lisburncity.library@librariesni.org.uk

Celebrating Diversity: Northern Ireland Assembly – Assembly Community Connect Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Belfast 30 September • 6.00pm - 8.00pm There will be music, dance and poetry hosted by Mitchel McLaughlin, Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The event will welcome the different communities in Northern Ireland to Parliament Buildings and celebrate their contribution to our society. (*Invite only) E: outreach@niassembly.gov.uk

Keeping the Faith Rainbow Storytelling / Nandi Project South Belfast Roundtable Friendship Club, Common Grounds Café, Belfast • 01 October, 6.30pm–8.00pm

Poetry reading to inspire faith and hope. This will be a collaboration between Rainbow Storytelling, Nandi Project and South Belfast Roundtable Friendship Club.

E: rainbowstorytelling@hotmail.co.uk / W: www.rainbowstorytelling.com

Leading Ladies Antrim And Newtownabbey Borough Council Templeton Hotel, Templepatrick • 01 October, 7.00pm Local launch of Toward Understanding and Healing’s ‘To Tell you the Truth’ by Eamonn Baker featuring reading from some of the books contributors. This event will raise awareness of the experiences of local women throughout the Troubles and how they have been able to lead positive, productive lives.

E: claire.fox@antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk / W: wwww.antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk

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PoeTrY

Stories from around the world Libraries NI Draperstown Library • 02 October,•11.00am–12.00 midday Steve Lally has worked as both an artist and storyteller throughout Ireland for over fifteen years. He writes his own material along with telling folk tales from Ireland and around the world, recitations, myths, legends, story songs, participation stories and arts based workshops.

E: readingrooms@theverbal.com

‘Crows on the Wire’ and Reading Room Event Verbal Arts Centre NICVA, Belfast • 02 October Reading rooms offer participants the opportunity to engage with stories and poems on the theme of diversity and acceptance of others both locally and globally with a range of literature specially chosen to open up discussion on these issues.

E: readingrooms@theverbal.com

Beyond Burns Linen Hall Library 03 October, 2.30pm–5.00pm • 17 Donegall Square North, Belfast An introduction to the library’s Ulster Scots collections including language, literature and family history.

E: m.delargy@linenhall.com / W: www.linenhall.com

150 Years since the birth of WB Yeats Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council All Saints Church Hall, Tullylish, Gilford • 03 October Talks by Plunkett Campbell on the History of Tullylish during the time of Rev. Yeats. Dr Eamon Phoenix will then deliver a talk on Tullylish Gilford Famine Relief followed by WB Yeats poetry readings with singing and live music.

E: heather.wilson@armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk / W: www.armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk

ONE

PLACE MANY FACES An exhibition which explores the concept of 'One Place, Many People' comes from local artist Norma Beggs.

'Normabee' is a visual artist based in Randalstown who uses her camera creatively, with an array of skills in photo installation, photo animation and photo textiles.

With this exhibition, she unleashes her creativity through the medium of UV lighting and painting.

The project was funded by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council Good Relations Programme which receives financial support from the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

The exhibition is due to open on Saturday 26 September at the Museum at the Mill, Mossley.

Normabee has conducted work like this before, more recently with the Belfast Friendship Club. The images featured in this exhibition will include the work of young people across the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area including Crumlin, New Mossley, Bawnmore/Longlands, Muckamore/Greystone, Rathenraw and Randalstown.

From the collection of images, they all vary in colour and structure. Each young person from across this district, although near, have constructed entirely distinct masks, seemingly appropriate to each background and lifestyle.

Each image carries its own unique meaning and hidden message which the young person has chosen to define. This exhibition challenges us not to judge but to try to understand that in fact we are all built up of our own experiences throughout our lives that have made us who we are.

Caitlain Rafferty

Normabee facilitated the exhibition with young people in order for them to express their own design. It is a striking series of visuals aimed to gather children from various backgrounds, and a total of 168 children took part.

For location information and more please visit: www.antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk/MuseumatTheMill

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INTERVIEW WITH

Ciaran

Lavery Ciaran Lavery is that singing song-writing Aghagallon townsman gaining millions of hits on Spotify, as people press repeat on his soul pull ing songs of love and loss and life.

His ear for emotional detail sonically rubs the back of your neck as you try to work out whether that ache in your spirits is a good one or a bad one.

Case in point is the otherworldly mini-album Sea Legs, released this summer in collaboration with elec tronic producer Ryan Vail. Lavery reckons working with Vail was the easiest thing he’s ever done.

“It was a no-brainer from the beginning and we didn’t even have to brainstorm too hard over what we were creat ing; we just did it. Obviously the electronic side of things is Ryan’s bag; that’s what drew me to him. But also as a producer and ideas man, I guess it was nice to meet someone like-minded in taking risks and going against the grain. We both felt strongly about creating something a little differ ent from the norm.”

10

A

nd they did, they created a record that hooks every feeling, the ones And they did,submerged they created a record that you thought had washed away hooks every submerged feeling, the oneswith Fromaway the atmospheric you thought the hadtide. washed with the break heart of “The tide. From theheart atmospheric breakColour of Blue” to the modern-ancient “The colour Blue” to the modern- ancient word of Teknopeasant spoken wordspoken of Teknopeasant on “Ceol on “Ceol Na Na Mara” Mara”the thecollected collectedtracks trackspay payhomage homage to the sea and its sea people its shores.

But what did to the and and its people and its shores.

Lavery bring to the table?

But what did Lavery bring to the table?

“Skeleton songs, words, dodgy cheap “Skeleton songs, words, dodgy guitar sounds, and bad jokes.”cheap Joking guitar sounds, andhe’d bad aside though, do itjokes.” again. “Collaborations are not as scary as you would think.

Joking aside he’d do itthing again.

Thethough, most important is that honesty is king in these situations.”

“Collaborations are not as scary as Looking back The on themost departing summer of you would think. important 2015, he reflects on the gigs and performthing is that honesty is king in these ers that filled his days. “It’s been busy situations.” with festivals but that was the plan” he

“I departing was luckysummer enoughofto2015, be he Looking explains. back on the accompanied strings on a filled few shows reflects on the gigs and by performers that his days. (with Zarah Fleming, Rachael Boyd, and he “It’s been busy with festivals but that was the plan” Owen Denvir) so our performance at by explains. “I was lucky enough to be accompanied Chagstock was a nice one.

It’s a lovely strings on a few shows (with Zarah Fleming, Rachael festival England.

Weperformance had been driving Boyd, and Owen in Denvir) so our at Chagall night and literally made it to the stock was a nice one. It’s a lovely festival in stage England. for sound check; within an hour We had been driving all night andhalf literally madeofit to parking we were on stage.” the stage for sound check; within half an hour of parking we on stage.”

Ofwere course that wasn’t the only festival.

There Glastonbury, and Stendhal, Of course that was wasn’t the only festival.

There was and Dranouter Festival in Belgium to in Glastonbury, and Stendhal, and Dranouter Festival name a few.

“The solo show at Camp Belgium to name a few. “The solo show at Camp Bestiwas a nice tent, val was aBestival nice one, huge bigone, top huge tent, big andtop I was lucky and I was lucky enough to have lots enough to have lots of people come in, stay andofclap people in,be stay and clap and holler.

I and holler.

I hadcome fun. To honest I learned something had fun.

To be honest I learned somenew at each one, so that’s better than anything.” thing new at each one, so that’s better than anything.”

That wasn’t enough for him though, and he recently finished a tour of Ireland.

That wasn’t enough for him though, and he recently finished a tour of Ireland.

“My first sold out Dublin show at “My first sold out Dublin show at Whelan’s will Whelan’s will always be dear to my always be dear to my heart, the place was heart, the place jammers andwas I hadjammers a super nice,and if butI very had a super nice, He if but verydowntime warm, too warm, time.” had some time.” though, “I got to watch Marc O’Reilly do his thing, and to meet and see Dermot He had some downtime though, to watch were“I got personal Kennedy play. too These Marc O’Reilly do his thing, and to meet and see highlights just as a fan. Those boys Dermot are Kennedysomething play. Thesespecial.” were personal highlights just as a fan. Those boys are something special.”

He needs that downtime, because things are crazy after September.

He needs that downtime, because things “I’ll be after doing something year’s are crazy September.

“I’ll at bethis doing Hard Working Festival in something at this Class year’s Heroes Hard Working Class Heroes in off Dublin, then Dublin, thenFestival straight to Switzerland to straight off to Switzerland to do a handful do a handful of shows in early October...” of shows in early October. I’ll have the UK “I’ll have the UK Tour Tour mid-October andmid-October the German and Tourthe German tour mid-November to support the European mid-November to support the European re-releaseof of my my debut album Not re-release NotNearly NearlyDark on Periphreque Records. Records.

I’ll also have couple of special I’llaalso Dark on Periphreque shows in Belfast at Christmas toBelfast look forward to.” have a couple of special shows in at Christmas to look forward to.”

But it is all working in our favour – there is another album offing.in our favour – there is But it is in allthe working another album in the offing. “I am work“I toward am working toward a new release ing a new release next year.

Hopefully willHopefully be signs of itthere as early as be nextthere year. will February time but it’s all planning right signs of it as early as February time now. I’m real happy with how it sounds. It but it’s all planning right now...” will be my first full album release of all brand newhappy solo material the Kosher I’m real with howsince it sounds.

It will be my first EP. It’s exciting. can full album release of Iallguess brandpeople new solo material since expect elements of both what was on Not the Kosher EP. It’s exciting. I guess people can expect Nearly Dark Kosher the on whole elements of & both what–was Not thing NearlyisDark & quite dark butwhole there’s a lot of rhythm in there’s a lot Kosher – the thing is quite dark but there.” of rhythm in there.”

He new Hewill willbebe“playing “playinglots lotsofofshows showsin in new territories territories across the UK, Europe and US New Year, to across the UK, Europe and US into the into the New to coincide with this coincide withYear, this next solo release” he told me, and next soloup release” he told me, and signing signing with Paradigm Talent Agency will make a up with Paradigm difference to all this.Talent Agency will make a difference to all this. “Paradigm is one of the biggest booking agents world- book “Paradigm is one of the biggest wide so naturally I’m chuffed to be a part ing agents worldwide so naturally I’m of the roster now. Because of their base in chuffed to be a part of the roster now.”

The States hopefully it will open up that market for make touring in it will open Because ofme, theirand base in the States both hopefully USA, Canada Australia more thanboth in USA, up that marketand for me and make touring just a possibility.

Canada and Australia more than just a possibility.

To Tobe bequirky quirkyIIasked askedhim him- -ififthe thepast pastyear year was a song – was a song song it– would what song it would be. “Kendrick He what be. He answered Lamar answered “Kendrick Lamar “Alright”.

– “Alright”.

It’s a great song;–I have no other reason for It’s a great song; I have no other reason mentioning it.” So I’m going to take for granted I’m for mentioning it.”

So I’m going to take quirkier than Ciaran Lavery. for granted I’m quirkier than Ciaran Tickets for shows can be found at his website www.ciLavery. aranlaverymusic.com and be sure to join the mailing Tickets for shows can be found at his list for updates. website www.ciaranlaverymusic.com and Cara be sureGibney to join the mailing list for updates.

Cara Gibney Photography: Tremaine Gregg 11

OUR GUIDE TO BELFAST’S

ROCK & METAL GIGS SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER

SCREAM FOR ME

BELFAST

So, Summer is over, and with it festival season draws to a close too. I hope you managed to go to at least one - especially a local one, of course! Sunflowerfest, Devestationfest, Bash at the Bridge, Monsters of Rot V...truly we have been spoiled for choice this year.

But don't go crying into your Weetabix just yet, because there are plenty of gigs to get you through the Autumn and keep the chill at bay.

Check out the list below (dates covered: September 20th to November 20th) and turn that “Winter is coming” frown upside down...

SEPTEMBER Saturday 26 • Beholder w/Sinocence and By Any Means – Limelight 2 • Heart of a Coward – Voodoo, Belfast

Sunday 27 • Wheatus w/special guests – Limelight 1

Sunday 27 • Ricky Warwick/Damon Johnson w/Acoustic Outlaws (Gasoline Outlaws) - The Diamond Rock Club

Sunday 27

Sinocence

• Rich Robinson (Black Crowes) - The Belfast Empire

Monday 28 : • Paradise Lost w/Lucifer (Distortion Project gig) – Limelight 1 • Bullet For My Valentine w/While She Sleeps – Ulster Hall

OCTOBER Friday 02 • Club Hell – Voodoo, Belfast • More Than Conquerors (final show) w/David C Clements – Mandela Hall

Saturday 03

BY ANY MEANS

Maverick

• Maverick w/Stereo Nasty – The Diamond Rock Club

Sunday 04 • The Lemonheads – Limelight 2 • Bill Bailey: Limboland (4th and 5th) – Ulster Hall

Tuesday 06 • UFOMAMMUT – Vodoo, Belfast • Jex Thoth – Limelight 2

Wednesday 07 • 'Weird' Al Yankovic – Limelight 1 • Empty Lungs w/Bitch Falcon/Apartments/Junk Drawer - The Belfast Empire 12

Rabid Bitch of The North

OCTOBER Continued Thursday 8 • Gun w/Vuvoki – Limelight 2 • Heroes Before the Fall w/R51 – Voodoo, Belfast

Friday 9 • Burning Crows – Voodoo, Belfast

Saturday 10 • Enforcer w/Wolf/Dynamite– Limelight 2

Saturday 17 • Mutoid Man – Voodoo, Belfast From Hell To the Unknown: Fifteen Years of the Distortion Project! Feat. Xentrix, Acid Reign, Shrapnel, Zombified, Zlatanera, By Any Means, Rabid Bitch of the North, War Iron, Sinocence, Conjuring Fate, Astralnaut, Skypilot, Two Tales of Woe, Overoth and seven more TBA. Twenty-one bands, three venues, one metal event of the year! - Limelight 1/Katy Daly's/Limelight 2

conjuring fate

Thursday 22 • Glenn Hughes – Limelight 1 Empty Lungs w/Bitch Falcon/Apartments/Junk Drawer – The Belfast Empire

War Iron

Zlat

Friday 23 • Club Hell – Voodoo, Belfast • More Than Conquerors (final show) w/David C Clements – Mandela Hall

Saturday 24 • English Dogs w/By Any Means/Acid Age – Voodoo • Screaming Eagles w/Gasoline Outlaws – Limelight 2

Sunday 25 • Deathcrusher 2015: Carcass, Obituary, Napalm Death, Voivod, Herod – Limelight 1

Saturday 31 • Hayseed Dixie's Halloween Hoedown – The Belfast Empire

NOVEMBER Saturday 7 • Sweet and Mud II – Waterfront, Belfast • Dr. Marten's Stand For Something Tour w/Lonely the Brave – Limelight 1 • Jizzy Pearl's Love/Hate w/ The Kinglot – The Diamond Rock Club

Wednesday 11 • Y&T w/Sweet Savage – Limelight 1

Saturday 14 • Stiff Little Fingers – Ulster Hall • The Quireboys – The Diamond Rock Club • Evil Scarecrow – Limelight 2

Saturday 21 • Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats w/Spiders – Limelight 2

Overoth

Photography: Carolyn McGimpsey

As you can see, a delightfully varied schedule of bands for your delectation, from the worlds of punk, hardcore, rock and metal. Belfast has seen – and will be seeing – some real legends this year – Y&T! Stiff Little Fingers! And, er, 'Weird' Al Yankovic...as well as catching glimpses of bands whose stars are on the ascension, such as By Any Means, Maverick and Overoth. It's a fantastic time for heavy music in Belfast.

We at CultureHUB magazine are particularly looking forward to banging our heads 'til they come off at the fifteenth anniversary show for The Distortion Project in The Limelight complex on Ocotber 17th – what a lineup!

Congratulations to Mr James Loveday, creator of the DP, mystical bringer of bands and all round decent guy. Look out for an interview with him in the next issue of CultureHUB – until then, keep 'er lit, rockers!

Melanie Brehaut

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BASSAM Written and Directed by Idan Meir Performed by Fadl Mustapha Translation Daniel Wade Music Oded Gadir

Bassam Aramin is a Palestinian who had been a Fatah Freedom militant and served seven years in prison in Israel. Years later, his 10 year-old daughter Abir, was killed by an Israeli soldier, but amazingly he chose not to seek revenge. Instead he forgave and went on to co-found Combatants for Peace with Elik Elhanan, an Israeli. His story, entitled Bassam, has been written by Idan Meir, an Israeli director living in Sligo and it is performed as a one-man show by a Palestinian actor based in Donegal called Fadl Mustapha.

Fadl Mustapha responded to my questions.

Have any of your own life experiences prepared you for this role?

I have always explored methods of expressing my opinion about the Middle East conflict, the outcomes and the history behind it, but I never expected to be able to use the art and theatre as a form of expression. Being born into a refugee status from parents and grandparents of refugees since the ‘Nakba’ (Catastrophe) in 1948, I believe I have been prepared for this role all my life. The cynicism and the anger is within me just as much as it is within Bassam, but I will not compare the loss of a daughter to a loss of a home, country and roots, but loss is loss and due to the displacement and the situation that was imposed on my family and because of their status and the volatile circumstances that arose in Lebanon, they also lost family members due to the violence.

Has your work on Bassam altered how you view conflict in general or in your own relationships?

I had a massive build up of anger, frustration and general blame towards everyone who played a role in the conflict, but things changed inside of me, 14

there was a crack in my shield, mainly due to the play but also due to the fact that the piece is written by an ex-Israeli soldier, Idan Meir, from a Palestinian perspective and that in a way surprised me, because to be honest I was sceptical and cynical; I thought to myself what does an Israeli have to say about the Palestinian situation, how can they empathise with a Palestinian? But I grew up in a home that wasn’t geared towards violence and didn’t believe that violence is the answer to solving anything especially the Middle East conflict, ... so in a way my view on conflict has altered a little but more so my actions in playing a part for change has been altered dramatically, and because of that, my anger is more controllable in both my view towards the conflict and my personal relationships.

What message do you think the play has for the people of Northern Ireland?

During our first tour in 2012, we were surprised by how the audience were willing to open up and share their stories with us mainly about the Northern Ireland Conflict, especially in venues that were either in Northern Ireland or in towns and venues on the border, and we both realised how there is a lot of similarities in all conflicts, how stories are parallel and how people’s experiences aren’t much different. I think it is the people in the Middle East that can learn more from the Northern Ireland conflict rather than the other way around, because what you have here is a form of reconciliation that has allowed both parties from either side to set up channels of communications that allows dialoguein order to build up for change and that is what is lacking in the Middle East conflict. There is still a lot of fear in both conflicts but in the Middle East

the government uses that fear to gain power and control over their people, the governments feed off this fear.

Where do you see hope today in Palestine and in Israel?

It does seem like a hopeless situation to many especially from the outside, but to me hope is what feeds my perseverance. Without hope and belief that things will change is admitting that we have lost, but we cannot do that, we cannot stand by idly as spectators because if we do that then we become complicit by our complacency. We cannot do that for our sake and for the sake of our children and future generations, for the sake of all those who lost their lives, we owe it to them. Change is coming in the form of awareness, in the form of action, there are a number of movements and organisations that are working towards change whether in Palestine, Israel or around the world, non-violent organisations such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) are having a huge impact on forcing change, organisations such as Combatants for Peace are also using different tools to create change, we are using the art to promote peace and create hope and I believe more should be done and more people should do whatever they can to contribute in bringing awareness and create hope and change.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Each performance is followed by discussion and dialogue with the writer and director.

Scott Boldt

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ART WITHOUT FRONTIERS

A Kiss of Life

Eileen Weir of the Greater North Belfast Women’s Network made a telling observation when I met her at the Shankill Women’s Centre. She said “the sectarian divide only exists for men.” In her 20 years of experience organising cross-community women’s groups in Tiger’s Bay, the New Lodge, Rathcoole, and at the Barron Hall in Newtonabbey, she’s discovered that working-class women are enabled to cross sectarian frontiers and engage with each other in a way that’s inconceivable for their male peers for whom tribal allegiance weighs heavier. Next year, Eileen says, will be a particularly important time for Community Relations in Belfast with the two centenary commemorations of the Somme and Easter 1916, which have the potential to drive wedges of suspicion and recrimination between communities.

Eileen thinks 2016 will be a real opportunity for the communities to reach a deeper understanding of each other’s cultures and traditions. She’s helping to collate a book where the women of New Lodge and Tiger’s Bay share their stories of positive collaboration and friendship in the face of fear and intimidation, entitled, Women’s Voices from behind the Barricades. Eileen like all other social networks in Belfast is getting her funding where she can at the moment. Community relations are taking place in a cash-flow hiatus just when community-building has reached another critical juncture.

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Chris O’Halloran who took over the directorship of Forthspring Intercommunity Group in January also presents me with a recent publication, Talking about the Troubles; an anthology of vivid anecdotes and vignettes collated by community co-ordinator Johnston Price and his team under the aegises of Forthspring’s “5 Decades Project” which is determined to be a cross-community trove of testimony. Organised chronologically it leads the reader through the decades of the Troubles to the Good Friday Agreement. Its coda of “we’re a bit happier” while according well with the modest, bitter-sweet tone of the book, perhaps is still too optimistic.

Chris expressed his view that, since the Good Friday Agreement “community relations have been mainly stagnant,” but the fact that there was no major rioting at the Workman Avenue peace-wall, next door to Forthspring on the Springfield Road, was seen as a minor mercy, given the large scale disturbances not far away in Woodvale. Chris may be realistic about the sectarian background, but he is not pessimistic. Forthspring runs three youth projects with half a million pounds worth of help from the Lottery Fund. There’s one inter-community youth group and one each for the Protestant and Catholic community for kids who don’t feel ready to meet kids from ‘the other side’.

Truly transformative community relationships that can interfuse and remake each other require curiosity, courage and creativity. That’s why Chris is so full of praise for his artist in residence Fiona Lovely’s use of art to help both kids and adults reimagine their environments beyond stereotypes and the toxic gestalt of the past. In particular, she likes to get people to make weird fashion, like the national dress of some brighter planet where people have never feared what other’s think, and flaunt themselves, wearing their hearts on their sleeves and sporting their memories in all their raggle-taggle splendour, patch-worked into garments that are really mind-goggling.

Deirdre Mackel, the arts manager at the Springfield Development Trust, is also keen to use art to explore memory and identity. She recently showed her own delicately crafted dresses, light as gossamer, snagged on barbed wire, fraught with childhood anxieties, at the Gerard Dillon Gallery at Cultúrlann. Deirdre expects artists to push boundaries in their own experience and take risks. This means that she’s extremely active in the community, facilitating art projects such as Labyrinth where kids from Whiterock, the Westrock Residents Association, and the Matt Talbot and Newhill Youth Clubs produced an alternative tourist guide to the Upper Springfield, chock-a-block with the secret knowledge of local kids and their worm’s eye view of their world.

Artists Charlotte Bosanquet, Deborah Malcolmson and writer Brenda Murphy delivered the project. Bosanquet produced a book that is a witty reimagining of the communities, so should you want to wander the Shepherd’s Path, shake a leg in the Windy Gap or play with the Giant’s Foot, then Labyrinth is essential reading. Another project, Haiku, installed poems on billboards in prominent locations in West Belfast as well as in the Markets, Lower Ormeau and Millfield.

In her most recent artistic collaboration, Deirdre facilitated a Guerilla Gardening project where young and older people reclaimed an interface, anti-social hotspot and installed a pop-up garden where ideas, passions and hopes come together for a moment, then are dismantled again. Deirdre is enabling, “creative conversations about heartfelt things.” She is “really optimistic about the power of art to create social change both as a platform to address pressing social issues and to enhance how we see the world as an audience.”

Eileen, Chris, Fiona and Deirdre work where the sectarian interface looms largest, but in the way they are transforming these spaces through art, community action and creative conversations, they are giving a kiss of life to the future. So while community relations may seem stuck in an impasse, bubbles of infectious wit, joy and laughter are seething thick and fast through the old pot.

Graham Higgin 17

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Belfast sees a

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swarm of musical artists from across the globe descend on the City this season. There really is something for every musical palette

-and every generation. Be prepared to be transported to your youth with a host of musical heroes from days-gone-by on the line up, as well as all the fresh talent stirring your musical excitement. Spoilt for choice is an understatement!

S

eptember 25th sees U.S rockers Wheatus hit Belfast. Will they perform their infectious anthem 'Teenage Dirtbag'? Limelight is the place to find out - and to see if you remember the lyrics! In musical contrast, fellow American Tom Russell is performing at The Real Music Club at The Errigle Inn. Folk and country music lovers will appreciate his honest, heartfelt collection of cowboy songs from new album The Rose Of Roscrae.

If you miss out on Tom, don't despair! The following week Country legend Don McClean is at The Waterfront on 30 September for the second part of his mammoth tour. On 01 October at The Errigle Inn, completing the trinity of Americana comes Jeff Finlin all the way from Nashville. With gentle, artful strums and Bob Dylan-esque vocals your worries will melt away.

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Jeff Finlin October 4th sees 90's Indie Rockers The Lemonheads of 'Mrs Robinson' fame hit Limelight 2 with their first full band UK tour in over three years. Or if Jazz is your thing, do not miss the elegant, vibrational sounds of the Andy Sheppard Quartet at the MAC on 09 October. Sleek saxophone, bass guitar and electronic soundscapes will penetrate your core.

The Real Music Club brings Grammy nominee Gretchen Peters to Fitzroy Church on 16 October with her sultry country voice and foot tapping Americana beats. However the 16th is a night of wide variety. If you want to get sweaty and jump about, head to Voodoo for high energy indie Essex boys, The Music Invades Belfast!

Bohicas.

If that's not enough to choose from, fans of The Smiths can head out for Johnny Marr on his UK Tour at Limelight1.

Weekends don't suit you? There is plenty happening midweek. Rising star Ezra Furman will deliver his unique 60's sounding pop indie combination at Limelight2. The young Chicagoan's fresh style will lift Monday blues on 19 October, whereas at Voodoo on the 22nd, the brilliantly named Acid Mothers Temple from Japan will blow your mind with surreal Psychedelic Rock. Like the names of their tracks, there's no point trying to understand, just let yourself feel it!

Father John Misty, formerly of Fleet Foxes, plays Mandela Hall on 23 October. Descriptive lyrics as found in 'Bored In The USA' provide food for thought, with humour and satire. If you are free that night, it's not to let slip. Baltimore duo Beach House's dreamlike indie-pop can be heard at Mandela Hall on 24 October. Rolling synths, floating melodies and soaring, sensual vocals will make this a mesmerising show. Finishing the month is up and coming folk singer Lucy Rose from the UK on the 29th at The Empire. With so many appealing gigs, it's set to be an eventful season!

The Bohicas

Beach House

ACIDHOUSE TEMPLE

Gretchen Peters

FATHR JOHN MISTY

JoHnny MARR

WHEATUS

TOM RUSSELL

Stacy Fitzpatrick Andy Sheppard

Lemonheads

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Home grown Pick Of The Crop

Just like a bounty of new spuds,turnip and carrots, this season our homegrown musicians are ready for harvest and out in abundance across Belfast. Entertaining us with a range of home tours, special gigs and album/ single releases, fresh new music and plenty of enthusiasm is on the menu.

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he final installment of Jam Jar Series - the enthralling collection of sound artists, musicians and composers takes place at the Black Box on 27 September. Tyrone's Gaze is Ghost giving a rare performance back on home soil, will be a truly one-off experience collaborating her haunting, deeply emotive vocals with experimental sound artist Matilde Meireles.

October 1st marks this month’s Gifted at the Belfast Empire featuring Belfast’s own Geoff Hatt and The Rockpool Band, celebrating the 10 year anniversary of his celebrated musical show 'Hippos In The Shower', a new musical and two albums also under his 'Hatt' (sorry, I'll get my coat!). With quirky lyrics and 60's sound, prepare to be amused and bemused. Also on the bill is DANI, a young singer who brings mature vocals and enthusiastic strums from a range of instruments, creating her signature folk style. Portadown’s Jealous of The Birds promise musical stories with colourful lyrics and simple, artful chords, whilst Antrim boys My Pilot's airy, uplifting indie-folk sounds will invigorate. Not bad for £3 entry!

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The monumental events of 02 October will make you want to split into three. Belfast's alt-rock quartet Girls Names are launching their new album 'Arms Around A Vision' at the Belfast Empire. Expect high energy, gritty vocals, slick riffs and an electric atmosphere.

For a more intimate experience head to the Black Box featuring Derry's indie band PORTS. After spending time writing and recording, they will showcase their latest sounds with a new single. Melodies, arousing arrangements and engaged vocals will give you goosebumps. And sadly on this night we say goodbye to alt-punk rock band More Than Conquerors at their FINAL EVER gig at Mandela Hall. One of Belfast's and Ireland's most popular, loved bands, they are ending on a high after 6 years of doing what they love. This will surely be dynamically charged with emotion,energy and pure passion. Expect the boys to play their hearts out for the last time together in their home city, for fans they consider as friends. An unmissable gig.

G& TheeoRofckfpoolHBaandt PORTS

Gaze is Ghost

My Pilot More Than

Conquerors

Orla Murphy

Girls Names For a gentle week night out, the Black Box give us the sophisticated, rich vocals of Jazz singer Orla Murphy and band giving a Tribute to Stevie Wonder on 05 October as Irish Guitar legend Declan Sinnott, provides tender down-to-earth lyrics and soothing guitar on the 7th. A treat not to miss out on, Declan’s performance will warm your soul on an autumnal evening filled with sentiment and nostalgia.

Later, Robocobra Quartet and Leo Drezden round off the month at the Black Box on the 30th. Spoken word, sax, and improvisation and mind-blowing instrumental arrangements guarantee an intriguing performance. A bellyful of quality, there looks to be no famine this season!

Robocobra Quartet

Ports

Stacy Fitzpatrick

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p r u o uJou

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Interview with Founder of Tease-O-Rama

Where is the Burlesque scene at in Belfast at present?

Burlesque and cabaret has been in Belfast for a long time, long before I moved here - with Pigeon and Plumbs, Cabaret Supper Club, Belfast Unbound, The Belle Hoppers and the Whistle Bait Babies.

I think that Tease-o-Rama has just brought back the attention to burlesque as it is a show that purely focuses on burlesque and its many different styles and possibilities. The Black Box is the home of Tease-o-Rama as they have supported the event right from the start. It is because of the people who work there and their encouragement that the show exists.

What originally lead you to burlesque?

The combination of my choreography studies, interest in performance art, feminism and sexuality led me to burlesque. I feel the cabaret world is the perfect platform to express myself, be humorous and entertaining. This all started about 6 years ago during my second year at university.

Your stage name Soup DuJour; where did the name originate?

When starting burlesque and choosing your stage name, it is very important to research (so you don't come up with something that is already in use). As I looked around I found that a popular choice was food related names but things like cherries, cupcakes, bon-bon, candy and well, I wanted to follow this classic style but with a food that wasn't 'sexy' or 'cute' to represent my comedy styling. So Soup it was, and this way I'm always the soup of the day.

What are your thoughts on the burlesque community in Belfast at present?

Harmony between all the cabaret events that go on in Belfast is for me necessary not just as a producer but as a performer. When you combine the swing from 8 to the Bar, the classic performers from AMPM, the drag shows and vogue balls in Boom Box, comedy, magic, circus school and the wonderful performances at festivals like Outburst, it is then you can see a real sense of community and how working together we can make Belfast a very interesting and exciting place for performance.

different ages all together. Burlesque in general will often have more female audience members but on the whole I am very pleased with the eclectic group that come to Tease-o-Rama.

What do you look for in the burlesque performers you select for Tease-o-Rama?

Well part of the tagline is fun, fun, fun! I know this seems a silly thing to say but making people smile, let go and just have fun is important for me. So this influences the performers I choose. I don't necessarily have themes (apart form something like the film festival) but it's about selecting acts that are colourful, playful, creative and high quality. Selecting acts for each show I want to show a variety of acts that complement each other, showing different burlesque styles, a variety in the music but also a difference in the look and body type of the performers to create a positive image and celebrate differences.

What is in store for us at the upcoming Burlesque Birthday event?

The Birthday show is going to be a Tease-o-Rama spectacular extravaganza! With performances from Teezy Overeazy (Belfast), Bella Agogo (Dublin), myself and the queen of British Burlesque Coco Deville (Brighton), it will be night filled with colourful and fun performances showing burlesque at it's best.

Also coming up is the Belfast Burlesque Festival. This is a three day event on the 27-29 November with a Newcomer competition on the Friday, The Belfast Crown award show on the Saturday and a very special Sunday Soiree show.

I am very excited to announce that for the Sunday show we have the wonderful Lili La Scala singing and hosting the show and the stupendous Velma Von Bon Bon, these two women are the creme de la creme of the burlesque world and it will really make the festival an extra special event.

As the modern burlesque scene grows I think that neo-burlesque is such a huge umbrella of styles and that people have started to separate particular niche's within this; such as 'gorelesque' and the more fetish acts are in categories of their own.

Who are the audience for the performances?

It's a very mixed audience and this makes me very happy. It's great that the show is appealing to all sorts of people. It's my opinion that burlesque is for any age and it is great that these shows bring people of 23

CULTURE RETROSPECTIVE In seven short years Culture Night Belfast (CNB) has become the most popular date in Belfast’s cultural calendar, transforming the cityscape and attracting more than 50,000 people to the Cathedral Quarter. It is a day when Belfast is unwittingly united, and families, friends and curious visitors come together regardless of background to enjoy the arts in new and unexpected ways – creating new possibilities and realities within our urban spaces.

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managed to steal a few minutes with organiser and programming genius of Culture Night Belfast (and Director of Seedhead Arts) Adam Turkington to get the low-down. For anyone who has been living in a bubble since 2009, CNB, famous for its ambitious street art, happens each year in September and opens up streets, venues, galleries, historic buildings, churches and artist studios to the public, showcasing the new, old, weird, wonderful, edgy, traditional, crazy, unusual and everything in between in the world of art, performance and culture. With more than 250 events, there is definitely something out there for you!

This year, for the first time, events have been programmed from 1pm, running until 10pm. Adam explained the change, “CNB is a family friendly day and the feedback every year is that people want longer to enjoy the events – we are not about becoming a night party - so an afternoon programme made sense”.

This year Belfast Harbour came on board as CNB’s main sponsor and this support, saved their bacon, quote unquote. It allowed the team to get planning and deliver a programme that celebrates, unites and for a moment transforms a small part of Belfast and perhaps even those savvy enough to be in attendance. In the midst of drastic cuts to the arts, Belfast Harbour are a 24

shining example of how industry has the power to help sustain this sector and in doing so, ensure our arts heritage is not lost, that it continues to challenge and improve our experience as citizens and enhance our wellbeing.

“At CNB we have never said no to a group or an idea, we want to foster that desire to be part of something that challenges perceptions and paints our city in fresh ways.

We work with groups to shape their idea for the CNB audience and it’s very rewarding to marry or cluster events together so they meet their potential, can be understood and are enjoyable for everyone involved.

CNB is a unique opportunity to do something out of the ordinary and that … is exciting”.

“I was involved in CNB for two years before I became programme manager; this was invaluable because I know what it’s like to be on the participant side of things and it makes managing these relationships easier and more exciting because I know what people are capable of producing”.

“I really believe in people and it surprises me that more events don’t trust the very creatives who have the potential to transform our realities; people can produce outstanding work when given the right space and encouragement. At CNB we don’t patronize our participants or audience we just want to inspire people and showcase art in fun new ways that offer the opportunity to look at life differently and see the city in an alternative light”.

Adam is particularly excited about the potential of this year’s street programme. He said: “For CNB we transCara Dillon form the streets - the physical act of removing cars from the built environment is astonishing, altering it in its entirety. The freedom people experience is infectious, it creates conversations: Why can’t it be like this all the time? ... Well it can! We couldn’t possibly mix bars and family spaces - there would be chaos?... No there wouldn’t! In fact by bringing the two together new realities are created, excessive drinking naturally curbed and civic life improved. This year our street programme reaches new heights - it's a must-see”.

CNB runs this year on 18 September 1pm – 10pm. For more information and to get involved go to: culturenightbelfast.com Don't despair if you can't make it. CNX: Culture Night Extra showcases some of the great things happening at CNB for a whole week so you can keep that Culture Night feeling all week long! www.culturenightbelfast.com/cnx.php Alyson McElroy 25

SILENT TESTIMONY Exhibition by Colin Davidson

Image 21014 – Kim Mawhinney Head of Art at National Museums Northern Ireland and artist Colin Davidson in the Silent Testimony exhibition at the Ulster Museum

Somewhere between 1969 and 1994 is where the faces of the sorrowful but powerful stories of Colin Davidson’s recent project, Silent Testimony, are set. Mr Davidson shows us the people of Northern Ireland and holds a light up to the dark time of the Troubles. Colin shared some of his views and feelings with CultureHUB.

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pon entering the gallery we are met with the unfaltering gaze of Virtue Dixon and the harrowing story of her daughter Ruth celebrating her birthday in the Droppin’ Well Public House with friends. It was there that in her final moments, the room collapsed around her in a time bomb attack. Witnesses claim to have heard the DJ playing 'Happy Birthday' to her at the exact moment the masonry had started to fall.

Horror, sadness and empathy take charge as you wander to each individual portrait. Graphic images

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stain the mind as you consider each story; a record sleeve belonging to that of young Terrance, strewn in the road beside a coach bombing on the motorway, the clock that now stands still in Paul Reily’s house since the moment he heard the news of his daughter Joanne’s death, the permanent and life debilitating injuries of Margaret Yeaman and Emma Anthony, the discovery of a body so tarnished by the earth after being found in a bog, that it was only by the gold cross hung around the neck that Walter Simon could confirm that it was his son Eugene who had been missing for 3 years.

You worked in partnership with cross-community victims’ support group WAVE throughout the project. I imagine that it would be very hard at times to meet these people and to learn of their stories. “I think it has actually changed me as a person even more than as an artist. The stories were harrowing to hear. I hope I have succeeded in channelling this emotion into the work.

This is an exhibition, not rooted in the past. In fact it is very much about our ‘now’ in this place. This is the legacy of all conflict”.

“I started talking to people who had suffered loss through the Troubles here in 2010. It was important to me that this idea was not seen as patronising or unhelpful. WAVE have been a key ally in the whole quest. I started talking to them seriously about the project in 2013. The paintings took around 12 months to complete”.

Virtue Dixon

How did these portraits compare to other projects? “Put simply – the previous themes I chose to work within were born out of the need to be making a painting. The subject served this need. I looked for themes which would allow me to explore paint. Silent Testimony turned that aim, that need, on its head. The idea, the concept, came first. The paint served the idea for the first time in my practice”.

Bombings, torture, executions and such human suffering is with us here in the hushed stillness of the gallery. These faces in their silence testify with their eyes, and ghost-like shells smudged and altered by the pain of life. Using broad and rigid brush strokes, Colin brings us their day to day existence that we shan’t forget. Vacantly they look off into the distance to some other dimension, to perhaps a happier time with the ones that are gone.

It’s only when you stop and look down the length of the gallery that 18 pairs of eyes stare back, the convergence of their stare both bearing witness and giving us a sense of their loss. It can be assumed that Davidson joins them together in their sorrow, which helps to subtract that feeling of individual suffering from looking at the portraits as a singular thing. These images draw you into their world, their individual heartache, their Silent Testimony.

Walter Simon

Walter Simon

Jasmine Daniels

in the Ulster Museum

Margaret Yeaman

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The Official Opening was a day to remember for all the volunteers at Belfast 89FM. The Lord Mayor was very supportive and humorous with his remarks and chose a fitting song - The Happening by the Supremes. It certainly was that!

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28 If you have a yen to work on radio, contact Belfast 89 at www.belfast89.com

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Terry’s love of 60‘s music is shared by Paula O’Hare, who first heard Donovan at her parents’ knees. A few decades younger than Terry, she brings her joy in the music to her Saturday afternoon show with delightful enthusiasm. Like many station volunteers, she had no previous experience of broadcasting before she joined Belfast 89. She’s now hooked on the buzz of being on air.

pau la ar

Belfast 89 is the first radio station at the start of the local dial. Playing the music of the 60s and 70s, it’s also the new kid in town. Since its low key launch in June it’s been gathering an enthusiastic listenership. The ethos is warm and positive. It’s aimed at the plus 55s rather than over (the hill) 55s. The plus 55s are a growing segment of the population, with expanding leisure time, improving health and more uncommitted income than the rest of society.

According to presenter and director, Lisa Flavelle, the target audience has a special relationship with radio. She’s committed to community radio and believes that truly local radio is best.

“Being on the station is great fun,” she says “and the key is to enable listeners to enjoy it as much as we do.”

So how will Belfast 89 fare? It is shaped by successful radio innovators, developers, managers, trainers and technical wizards. It runs with massive energy and enthusiasm from its totally volunteer line up. It is genuinely accessible and is continually seeking local stories and local folk to voice them. One of those local voices is Terry Whyte originally from Joy Street in The Markets. Terry fell in love with the music of the 60’s since he played his first track on a Dansette at the age of four. He spent 30 years as a DJ and entertainer and always dreamt of being on radio. He now presents the Friday morning Talk In and loves being part of the team at Belfast 89.

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elfast 89 put the buzz back into Libby Hunter’s life. The veteran broadcaster retired 12 years ago after spending 40 years on BBC local radio. But radio was still in her blood. So she jumped at the chance to present the Monday Morning Talk In at Belfast 89. Libby says that her voice may be the only one that some older listeners hear and that adds an extra joy to her programmes.

MUSIC UNITE Muslim Community and Loyalist Flute Band

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oyalist flute bands and the Muslim community are two groups that may appear not to sit well together.

There is however at least one thing that they both have in common - due to negative stereotyping they both receive a great deal of hostility.

Since the beginning of this year, the Shankill Road Defenders Flute Band (SRD) has been working with Beyond Skin, an organisation that aims to unite different cultures and traditions through music and the arts. On 11 May the SRD played alongside artists from a variety of cultures, including Muslims, in “Night to Unite”.

John Higgins, the SRD conductor, noted that the majority of the members of the band unhesitatingly wished to take part, seeing the occasion as a great opportunity to change negative perceptions of Loyalist flute bands. In many ways, the event symbolised the progress Northern Ireland has made in welcoming diversity. On Culture Night Belfast 18 September, Beyond Skin and the Centre for Democracy and Peacemaking will be working again with the SRD to present Music Unite – a performance by the SRD and international musicians.

As part of Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week, a touring presentation called the Unexpected Journey has been developed between the SRD and a Kurdish (Muslim) musician.

Both have experienced animosity in relation to their cultures and this event will showcase and explore the insight the SRD has gained from working with musicians from various cultural backgrounds, including a discussion about the empathy shared between the SRD and the Kurdish musician. The presentation will also show how, through working together, they have gained a positive insight into each other’s culture.

The SRD first formed in 1957 and it is a melody flute band. The SRD have been All Ireland Champions and even marched on the fields of the Somme in France for the opening of the Somme Orange Memorial Obelisk.

Adam Henry Magee

Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre, Limavady • Friday 02 October 2015 - 7.30pm

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BUILT TO LAUGH THE RISE AND RISE OF NORTHERN IRISH STAND-UP

As the Belfast Comedy Festival enters its fourth year, it captures a moment of rude health in the Northern Irish comedy scene that hasn’t been seen since Patrick Kielty enthralled audiences at the Empire Comedy Club in the 1990s.

Although Belfast has always been a city with a deep-rooted dark sense of humour, reflected in its literature, poetry, theatre, and the quickfire street banter of its inhabitants, stand-up comedy as an art form had, until relatively recently, been surprisingly slow to develop. In contrast to comparable cities like Dublin, Glasgow, Newcastle and Liverpool, Belfast has taken its time to embrace and nurture a vibrant stand-up comedy scene. This explains why – aside from Kielty, arguably – Northern Ireland has so far failed to produce a Kevin Bridges or Sarah Millican at the national level.

Over the past seven years the stand-up comedy has experienced a resurgence, sparked by a small number of comedy openmic nights that emerged between 2007 and 2008. Established by would-be comedians who were passionate

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about comedy and frustrated by the lack of opportunities available for honing their craft, these anarchic, often shambolic evenings of amateur stand-up were a long, long way from the slick suits and boots of Live at the Apollo. Although offering a perverse kind of fun for an audience (if there was any audience at all), for performers there was a recognition that persistence was the key to both getting audiences and getting good.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter,” as Samuel Beckett put it, “Try again.

Fail again. Fail better.”

Now, in 2015, the Northern Irish comedy scene is raucously alive and growing from strength to strength.

Alongside the long-established big comedy clubs such as those at the Belfast Empire and Queen’s Student Union, the pioneering amateur nights which launched the new generation of stand-up comics – such

as Monday Night Comedy at the Pavilion and Voicebox Comedy – continue to nurture and challenge new talent. Meanwhile, venues such as Laverys, the Black Box and McHughs, as well as Mason’s Comedy Club in Derry-Londonderry and Daly’s Comedy Club in Omagh, provide a platform for those who have honed their skills well, and offer audiences a more diverse choice of acts, styles and comedic voices than Northern Ireland has traditionally produced. Alongside the political comedy that has played a staple role in local stand-up from its beginnings, you’re just as likely to be entertained by absurdist clowning, laddish banter, personal confession, stand-up poetry, slow-burn storytelling and musical comedy.

While local broadcast media has yet to find an adequate vehicle for many of the new generation of comics, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have been impressive in allowing comics to build audiences themselves with self-produced podcasts and videos.

2 8 SE PTEMB E R - 0 4 OC TOBE R

Pioneered by stand-up Colin Geddis, whose Barry the Blender series of videos attracted millions of viewers in 2010, the power of social media continues unabated, with Micky Bartlett, Shane Todd and Sean Hegarty all building large dedicated fanbases with very little support from traditional media outlets.

Another welcome development is the emergence and recognition of a growing number of strong female performers such as Ursula Burns, Teresa Livingstone, Leonie McDonagh and Gemma Hutton. Aside from a small number of comic actresses, Northern Irish stand-up has been an almost entirely male dominated affair.

This year’s Belfast Comedy Festival brings together the venues and performers which represent the Northern Irish comedy scene at its strongest moment to date, alongside major performers such as Daniel Sloss, Sara P a s c o e and Ardal O’Hanlon, and international acts such as the provocative ‘clown monster’ Red Bastard.

Is Northern Ireland close to producing the next comedy superstar?

That remains to be seen. But with one of the most creatively healthy and uniquely diverse comedy scenes in the United Kingdom and Ireland, it shouldn’t be long until it does.

Graeme Watson (founder of The Infinite Jest comedy agency)

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DANCING AT

LUGHNASA

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Photagraphy Portrait: Brian Friel

Dramatic Movements val (LIFF), funded by Belfast City Council and Tourism NI, broke cultural barriers with its cross-border programme animating the closing days of summer.

Celebrating the life of arguably Ireland’s greatest living playwright Brian Friel, the programme opened in Donegal with a journey across the Foyle estuary from Magilligan to Greencastle, Co Donegal, where Friel lives, and it continued in the heart of Belfast where Friel has spent much of his life.

This duality created an interesting balance for festival goers who chose to follow the journey from Donegal to Belfast juxtaposing gentle meandering days in the country with larger than life family friendly events in Belfast; including a silent disco in the Grand Ballroom at Belfast City Hall and a public ceili in association with An Droichead not to mention classical concerts in the awe inspiring Titanic Suite and a travelling rendition of Friel’s stunning play Faith Healer.

This breaking down of physical distance, spaces and borders offered a sense of belonging to something greater. It bypasses the old familiar and too often divisive identities of Irish citizens, instead unifying festival goers regardless of background through the universal themes of dance, food, fun, music and relationships – perfectly mirroring the central ideas within

Friel’s iconic play and inspiration for this year’s festival, Dancing at Lughnasa.

LIFF went even further in its bid to embrace cultural diversity with its impressive A m o n g s t W o m e n programme, welcoming women of great achievement from all walks of life, including Shami Chakrabarti, the UKs leading human rights campaigner and Director of Liberty (the UK National Council for Civil Liberties), Canadian singer/songwriter Feist, Sandi Toksvig, legendary comedian, presenter, writer and now “MC” of the newly formed Womens’ Equality Party, and Adhaf Souief, a novelist, activist and leading public intellectual.

Cara Dillon

This ambitiously curated festival celebrated diversity as much as it celebrated Friel himself. Designed by artistic director Sean Doran, who also masterminds the Beckett Festival, LIFF has sown the seeds for a culturally diverse, inspiring, challenging and in many ways transformative festival to grow. So watch this space…or go along to the Lyric Theatre where Dancing at Lughnasa runs until 27 September before it crosses the border for the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Alyson McElroy

Production Photography: Ros Kavanagh

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ALBUM Routine

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The Clameens Techno

Rita Hosking Frankie and the No-Go Road

Robocobra Quartet Iwazaru/Mizaru

From the opening bars of first track 'Techno' you just know this E.P is going straight onto your favourites playlist, with it's addictive bass beat and slick drums. Derry's young, vibrant, indie rock four piece, The Clameens inject their personalities into four songs filled with mischief, zest and confidence. Equally infectious, 'What's The Difference' grasps you instantly. Bouncy bass, confident, flirty lyrics and catchy chorus will welcomingly linger in your mind for days. The straightforward, spirited words of title track 'Routine' reflect life's grind with relatable expression.

A collection brimming with upbeat, polished arrangements, statement making tempo changes, and attitude packed distinctive vocals, guaranteed you won't make it through without resisting the urge to dance. By the end of this mini tornado, you will be hooked, craving more.

On the face of it Rita Hosking’s Frankie and the No-Go Road is a country, mountain soul collection of songs sung with a voice like the ripples on a velvet dress. Not high fashion, classically cut, beautifully tailored. The thread running through it is strong - the 12 tracks illustrate the 12 steps of the ‘Heroes Journey' (Check out Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces).

She serenades us in the art of protest in “Our Land” (“We don’t want your blood money Mister, we just want our land”), and she speaks out for the little guy in “Better Day.” She offers swampy banjo in “Power Moving In,” like the kind aunty of Agnostic Mountain Choir, then she eloquently trawls despair and loss in “Black Hole."

Leaning at times on cushioned guitar, at others bouncing with those grinning, winning banjos, these songs are very strong words softly spoken.

Penetrating sax, crashing cymbals bring to being the first of this two-track release, with interludes of thought-inducing spoken word 'I'll choose deaf as well as mute, at least my pinball game will improve'.

Expressed with deep emotion and intensity, compelling you to visit a deeper place whilst steady sax and drums anchor you, harmoniously playing with your senses. Like roaring waters flowing over a waterfall metamorphosing into the calm, blissful pool below, the intensity of 'Iwazaru' transmutes with 'Mizaru'. Tender, soothing arrangements carry you as vocals infused with resigned anguish permeate your being without resistance. Magnetic drums, delicate sax conclude the story, words replaced with chords. Robocobra Quartet manifest from within, taking you on a journey you have been on before- but just don't remember.

Stacy Fitzpatrick

Cara Gibney

Stacy Fitzpatrick

REVIEW The Strypes Little Victories

Stormzone Seven Sins

THVS Everyday Hexes

There is much to admire on this young Irish band's follow-up to their 2013 debut, Snapshot. The touchstone for that album was the driving R&B influenced Dr. Feelgood sound of the 1970's, but musical horizons have clearly been broadened here. If the chugging guitar beat of 'Status Update' is reminiscent of 1950's Bo Diddley, then the appealing 'Cruel Brunette', with its jerky riffing, is more a reminder of The Jam. Elsewhere on the album, there are big guitar hooks and heavy metal like vibes to be heard on 'Three Streets and a Village Green', as well as a psychedelic guitar freak-out on '(I Wanna Be Your) Everyday'. Critical listeners may also detect the influence of more recent greats like Oasis, and Arctic Monkeys, ‘Little Victories’ provides evidence of a band very much aware of music heritage, and one almost certainly headed in an upward direction.

Local classic metal legends Stormzone have seriously upped their game from already impressive previous album Three Kings with album number five Seven Sins, a concept album based on the seven deadly sins of humanity. The mysterious Dr Dealer is the central character, as he and his deadly sidekick Bathsheba travel around eighteenth century America with their motley crew of misfits, testing the merit of men and saving neglected children. Sonically the album is masterful; produced by guitarist Steve Moore, it is crisp, bold, and capable of withstanding being turned up to eleven (as all good metal should). Tracks such as 'Special Brew' and the title track gallop along at a breathless pace, whilst highlight 'Another Rainy Night' is punchy, catchy and simply wonderful; the rest of the album follows suit and is unabashedly enjoyable.

Heavy rockers THVS have arisen from the ashes of hardcore punks Comply Or Die to create an altogether more rock’n’roll sound in the form of EP Everyday Hexes, albeit with clear links to their hardcore past. Scuzzy guitars, throaty bass, malevolent drums and venom-spat lyrics are all combined here, resulting in a very organic feeling EP, as though the lads simply pressed 'record' and jammed the hell out of the four tracks. There is even the occasional surprising twist, most notably in the form of 'Hudson', a moody and sludgy epic that clocks in at an ambitious six minutes long – twice the length of the other three songs. Highlight track 'Herman' is a sullen, slinky number, filled with yearning and regret (“Why did you leave me? I needed you”). Slight vocal fuzziness aside, this is a raw, rough and ready debut, full of rock bombast and punk attitude.

David Aurthur

Melanie Brehaut

Melanie Brehaut

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RELATI ONSHIP S ARE KEY Somewhere in this world people have decided to go forward and push for change. This is why Leading Ladies is there. It is an opportunity to move forward, share your experience and build relationships for a better and shared future

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eading Ladies is held every two months with many people sharing their stories and getting to know those from the 'other side'. It is based on Eamonn Baker's book To Tell you the Truth in which 22 people tell their stories from the Troubles. The stories are not just about murders or bombs; they are about people and families affected by the Troubles.

The book shows us how to deal with the past, and the idea is to change the perception of the other, to remember the past and see how everything is changing.

Kathy Wolff, one the contributors of the book, shared a little bit of her story with me and I was truly moved.

Kathy suggests we should say 'community relationships' and not 'community relations' to keep with the Leading Ladies spirit. It is all about building, “relationships and seeing people as people. Leading Ladies is about the person and that person is opening their life to you and is not talking just about the job, is talking about the person behind the job".

Eamonn Baker, the man behind the book, is a community worker and training manager with the Junction in Derry.

Focusing on dialogue, he gathers people and gets them to talk. Kathy described him as someone very methodical and considers Leading Ladies as the best CRC event as it builds bridges and develops relationships regardless of backgrounds. The main purpose is breaking down the wall between people and getting to know your neighbour better. Leading Ladies is a safe space to speak, share, and facilitate the coming together. Leading Ladies is an opportunity to show how people and Northern Ireland are moving forward. It's an amazing initiative from the council, the community and all the courageous women who told their stories and shared them.

Sometimes we say one step forward and two steps back. With Leading Ladies it's a huge leap forward and no looking back!

Ahmaed Al Sarraf

Lead ing Ladi es wi l l be hel d 01 O cto b e r a t th e M u s e um of t he Mil l wi t h i n Ant r i m an d Newto wn a b b ey Bo ro u g h Co u nci l .

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The All Ireland Poetry Slam is an annual event, running since 2007, with poets competing across Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster in regional heats. If you’ve never been to a slam before, think of it as a live poetry competition.

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ach slam has three rounds, through which poets are judged on the composition and delivery of their pieces. Each poem must be your own work, and you have a time limit of three minutes a round. That results in a lot of great poetry all in one night at each heat!

Poetry NI hosted the Belfast regional stage in early September, as our monthly Purely Poetry night in the Crescent Arts Centre. In front of a sold-out crowd (the ticket machine even ran out of tickets to print, that’s how popular the event was!), seventeen poets entered for their chance to advance to the All-Ulster heat, happening in Enniskillen later this year. Each province has their own main heat, from which two poets each go on to the grand final.

But after an intense and incredibly close event, our two winners from Belfast were announced as Rory Jones and David Braziel. Both have past winning form - Rory won the Glastonbury Poetry Slam earlier this year, while David won the event last year, and has twice won our slam at the Belfast Book Festival. Both are wholly comfortable on the mic – no nerves were showing at all – and impressed us with a great blend of confidence, humour, vulnerability and originality.

Belfast will be hosting this year’s grand final in late November, the first time the city has hosted the event since its inaugural year. We’re excited to find out which of our Ulster poets get through, and we wish them all the best of luck!

Colin Dardis

Our judges – Mark Cooper, David Smylie, Geraldine O’Kane (Purely Poetry co-host) and myself – have a tough task scoring through the rounds. One of the amazing things about our annual slam is seeing how everyone really brings their best work to the fore. In other slams, you might see the emphasis on bombastic performances, over-the-top deliveries and highly stylised spoken-word. At Purely Poetry, we’ve always put the emphasis on the ‘open’ in our open mic nights, welcoming poets of all styles, backgrounds and experience. We feel this helps emphasise not only great readings, but also great writing as well.

From seventeen entrants, the top eight went through to the second round, and then the top four in our final.

Special mention must go to finalists Ray Givans for some excellent work, and also Dave Wilson, who was competing in his first ever slam. In fact, Dave has never read in public before, yet came out of nowhere to wow us all!

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EMBRACE

Hear My Voice In spite of the negative attitudes and actions of some, there is a widespread desire here to welcome people from other countries. This was very evident when the EMBRACE group held a meeting in Belfast at the end of August where over a 100 people came to hear the latest news about Syrian refugees and the possibility that Northern Ireland might be able to welcome some families in the future under the UK’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme.

That meeting showed how positive many people feel about newcomers, but that does not mean that people always find it easy to feel at home here.

“I have lots of friends, but I never give my telephone number to them because when they call me, I cannot understand what they are talking about.”

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This comment from a newcomer reveals one of the initial challenges in settling into a new country, understanding the local language and accent.

Northern Ireland has become home for people from all over the world - from countries such as China, Hungary, Syria, India, Lithuania, the Philippines, Nigeria, Poland, the United States, Somalia and Zimbabwe. There are people here from at least 120 different countries.

They become our neighbours, work colleagues, members of our churches and faith communities, and people whom we meet on our streets and in our leisure and shopping centres. Eventually, they may become one of us - if we let them.

We may see them, but do we hear them? Do we know how they are settling in and what things may seem strange or difficult as they adjust to life here?

The EMBRACE group asks what Christians can do to extend a welcome but that challenge should be for everyone. Do the voices of newcomers help us find ways to connect with them?

EMBRACE asked some migrant people to share something of their initial impressions when they arrived here. What did they notice?

Their responses can be heard on two DVDs: Hear My Voice (adult voices) and Our Voice (the voices of young people). They reveal some of the initial shock that a change in country and culture brings.

“I just got so frightened because I could not see any African”.

The DVDs present these and other voices in short animated films, each about 6 minutes long and make an excellent tool for starting discussions.

They help people who may have no point of contact with minority-ethnic people before to realise how much we have in common. We are all longing for true friendship and acceptance.

The DVDs and other resources are free and are available on the EMBRACE website (www.embraceni.org) or can be obtained in hard copy from the EMBRACE office (info@embraceni.org, EMBRACE, 48 Elmwood Avenue, Belfast BT9 6AZ).

EMBRACE is a group of Christians from different denominations working together to promote positive responses to people who are seeking asylum, refugees, migrants and minority-ethnic people in order to assist local congregations and groups in building a more welcoming society.

Margaret McNulty & Jill Marrs

“I’d never seen the sea before in my life” .

“I kept telling people I like their pants, but that doesn’t mean the same thing over here”.

“Sometimes people just make jokes about like, they’ll go, ‘I saw your Dad in a movie’ just because I’m Black you know, and then they just take the mick out of me”.

Some comments show our similarities, and how faith connections and links with the wider community can play an important role in the lives of newcomers.

One woman said: “I know most of my friends who have been depressed, they have been down and once they go to church they feel better. Most of my friends, whom maybe they just came and were keeping to themselves, once they start going to a … church they just quickly change and then you could see the improvement even in themselves. They become happy. They get to know people and trust them more”.

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PHOTO

HUB

MARY HILL 'REACHING OUT' Category I COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Winner

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JIMEOIN ENGLISH born of Northern Irish stock and now based in Australia, stand-up comic Jimeoin talks to CultureHUB about his latest tour and his take on comedy, writing and music.

Relaxing back into a sumptuous leather sofa, Eoin – what do I call him? – hardly qualifies as the stereotypical tortured comedian. Not even halfway through 2015’s tour, he’s amiable to the point of horizontal. Yet ask him the right question and the lilting voice rises a little in response.

For the minority of you scratching your heads asking, ‘who the hell is Jimeoin?’ you’ll most likely have laughed at his softly-softly-catchy-monkey brand of humour displayed across our screens on shows such as Live at the Apollo, 8 out of 10 Cats and the Royal Variety performance, to name a few. Those who’ve witnessed his stand-up routines will know him as that ‘Irish fella with the eyebrows’.

Born in Lemington Spa, the family moved back to Northern Ireland when Jim was two where he stayed until London called at 16. Settling in Oz at 22 he quietly gained note as a comedian. On his fame in Australia, Canada and most other areas of the former British empire, he quips: “Well, the marketing people would say that, wouldn’t they?” Such nonchalance is not arrogance, far from it. It just seems his nature. And the same relaxed attitude is on display as he talks of his comic influences: “I remember Tommy Cooper and Jimmy Young, who I still listen to now, and the Sex Pistols.”

The Pistols? Eoin draws forward slightly in his seat and adds: “They just really make me laugh, they were my introduction to comedy. I was only 10 at the time but I remember laughing my head off. This was the 70s when the Troubles were at their height. The Church and the State were the almighty powers, then the Pistols came along.

They were anarchic and fun. Totally tongue in cheek.”

The co-writer and star of two movies (1999’s The Craic and 2005’s The Extra) Jim, admitting there’s a little bit of ‘not solely being in control’ says about writing,

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“Well, I enjoy writing movies with others. You have to think about characters, plot, et cetera. With comedy it’s just little jokes linked together.” Eoin describes his method. “Well funny things happen and later I just record them on my phone. I listen back to them when I’m alone and the good ones get written down. I try them out on the audience that night and the ones that get laughs stay in the act”.

Discussing the rock-star fame enjoyed by many alternative comedians today, Eoin is all for it, “Why should bands have all the fun? Everything including music and comedy now have their own space and play in big theatres.” Any words for the people of Belfast? : “Aye, come and see my show.”

Jimeoin plays Dublin on 23 October, Belfast’s Waterfront on 24 October and Derry/Londonderry on 07 November . For booking details contact the Waterfront box office on 02890 334455 or visit jimeoin.com Conor O’Neill 41

Transcending Trad "What is important to us is the music and the tradition" - Connla

Irish Folk music, also called Traditional music or "Trad", existing for centuries, is diverse in its forms.

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ean nós', or 'the old style' is solo unaccompanied vocals considered the ultimate in expression. Sorrowful laments called 'Caoineadh' reveal deep sentiment to kin and country. Not forgetting lively, celebratory dancing music we all recognize, Trad can be heard at 'sessions' in many a bar across Ireland. Proud enthusiasts annually come out in force to compete, perform and enjoy "Fleadh Cheoil", meaning Festival of Music.

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Despite the 'Traditional' moniker, there is a thriving younger generation determined to keep this music progressive and reach new audiences. Connla is one such group of twenty-somethings who are steering this transition. "To us, Irish traditional music is a universal language that can be enjoyed by musicians of all levels, and by non-musicians. It is such a loved country and genre of music throughout the world and we are hoping as a band we will be travelling the world bringing our style of Trad to all music lovers out there," says Connla's harpist Emer Mallon.

The Derry based five-piece brought their individual flair together after forming friendships at university.

Piper Conor Mallon reveals: “We came together as a band as Ciara, Ciaran, Emer and Paul all studied music at University of Ulster, Derry where we often performed together and became friends. Emer and myself are siblings who play music regularly together - so it was the perfect fit.''

Studying music in a modern environment, it would have been easy for them to follow today's indie/pop

culture path. But what made them take the traditional route? "I think with the instrumentation in the band we would always lend ourselves more to a traditional/folk background," observes Conor.

For siblings Conor and Emer, growing up in the small village of Keady, Co. Armagh where traditions are prevalent, it was a natural choice to practice Trad. The Armagh Pipers Club was their musical home in which Emer, a leading harpist and Conor with uilleann pipes, honed their talent, leading them to numerous awards.

Coming from a musical family, flutist Ciaran Carlin was encouraged to learn the tin whistle from the age of eight and has never looked back. He says, "For most of us traditional music has been cemented into our playing since we

have been young, so in some ways you could say that traditional music choose us rather than the other way around."

Trad is made distinctively Irish with indigenous instruments and Connla acknowledge this as Ciaran explains "...The instruments played are harp, uilleann pipes, guitar, flute, whistles and voice. Each individual musician is very passionate about their chosen instrument and all are very competent as individual players."

To keep an ancient form of music distinctive to its roots yet make it your own is a feat that only a musician will understand. Key to this is acknowledging and respecting tradition. Guitarist Paul Starrett reflects the modern element of Connla's musical programme.

"Traditional music is no different from any other genre of music, in that it moves and evolves along with the times." He muses: "For us, Connla, we like to help keep our sound modern but always be connected to the tradition and we hope that our listeners can hear that.�

Vocalist Ciara McCafferty, despite classical training has always held her heart in Trad, enthusing pride and ambassadorship as she says, "We all definitely feel that it’s great to be upholding our culture ... honestly we all do this because of the love of the music. If in some way we are inspiring young musicians to get into the genre and play music then that’s really great. We have no doubt that the next generation will do just as good a job at keeping the tradition alive."

Stacy Fitzpatrick

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E V E N T S • B E L FA S T Literary Lunchtimes - Liz McManus

Crescent Arts Centre • First Friday of the Month, 9pm We welcome readers of all styles and experiences, from first timers to old pros. Purely Poetry fosters an open, laid back and encouraging atmosphere, for people to read their work, and to listen in comfort. B.Y.O.B £4 Admission

Linen Hall Writers' Forum Launch

Imagine Arts Festival 2015 for Older People Ulster Hall • 20 October, 10am-5pm

Linen Hall Library, Performance Area • 23 September, 6.00pm The new Linen Hall Writers Forum is an opportunity for Northern Irish talent to read pieces, both published and non-published, and share their work with an audience. The sessions are hosted by Belfast-based writers Michael Nolan and Padraig Regan.

Free Admission

Tenx9 - Belfast Comedy Festival

Recapture special experiences, memories, interests and skills during a packed programme of captivating cultural events and workshops. Booking required as places are limited. Drop in and enjoy new poetry, short stories and theatre, with topics and performances for and by older people.

Free Admission (www.belfastcity.gov.uk).

Black Box Belfast • 23 September, 7:30pm- 9:30pm Partnering up with the Belfast Comedy Festival to bring you a variety of the funniest stories of the past year of Tenx9s... for a night of LOLs, LMAOs and maybe even a few PMSLs. Free Admission

Literary Lunchtimes: Trio of Poets Ulster Hall • 21 October, 1.00pm

Reading Group: New Grub Street by George Gissing Linen Hall Library • 24 September•1.10pm

Literary Lunchtimes: Thomas Morris Ulster Hall • 28 October, 1.00pm

New Grub Street (1891), generally regarded as Gissing's finest

novel, is the story of the daily lives and broken dreams of men and women forced to earn a living by the pen. The Reading Group meets on the last Thursday of each month.

Free Admission

Reading And Writing Poetry Verbal Arts - with Ruth Carr Crescent Arts Centre • 12 Week Course - (Tuesdays / Fridays) For those already engaged in writing poetry who would like to develop their skills. An opportunity to read and discuss a range of poems, and learn by practice from their fine example.

Visit www.crescentarts.org for details.

An Introduction To Scriptwriting: Verbal Arts - with John Morrison Crescent Arts Centre • 12 Week Course - (Tuesdays / Fridays) This class is aimed at those beginning to write drama for radio, television or cinema, or for those moving into this field from other areas of fiction who would like to expand into scriptwriting.These interactive classes will look at the basics of story structure, character development, scene design and dialogue.

Visit www.crescentarts.org for details.

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Purely Poetry Open Mic Night

Ulster Hall • 23 September • 1.00pm A Shadow in the Yard, the latest novel by the acclaimed Canadian born novelist, set in Ireland, centres on the lives of two women, a mother and daughter, cast in the shadow of dramatic political upheaval and a changing nation. £5 Admission

Spend a relaxing hour in the company of Olive Broderick, Paul Maddern and Kate Newman - three of Northern Ireland’s most exciting contemporary poets - as they read from new work and old. £4 Admission

Dublin-based Thomas Morris is editor of The Stinging Fly magazine. Dubliners 100, a short story anthology devised and edited by Thomas, won Best Irish-published Book at the 2014 Irish Book Awards. His début story collection, We Don't Know What We're Doing, was published in 2008. £4 Admission

Peggy O'Brien- Literary Lunchtimes Ulster Hall • 04 November, 1.00pm Captivating readings by popular writers and specially themed literary events. Peggy O’Brien has published three collections of poetry: Trusting Ice, Sudden Thaw and Frogspotting. She is the author of Writing Lough Derg: from Carleton to Heaney and editor of The Wake Forest Book of Irish Womens` Poetry.

Free admmission, booking required - call 028 9033 4455.

Literary Lunchtimes: Poetry Picnic - Lunch with Belle and Sebastian Ulster Hall • 11 November, 1.00pm Explore the literature which has influenced this great cult Scottish band! Bring your lunch along for this hour of music, prose and poetry inspired by Stuart Murdoch and the gang. £4 Admission

BOOK REVIEW REVIEW

The bones of It

Aloysius Tempo

Author: Kelly Creighton Publisher: Liberties Press

Author: Jason Johnson Publisher: Liberties Press

KELLY CREIGTON'S debut novel, The Bones of It, takes place after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. This psychological thriller is not only a crime book, it’s an exploration of a loner, whose loss and rejection lead to a catastrophic chain of events. The lead character, Scott McCauley, is in his early 20’s, introverted and deprived of love and friendship which we learn of in a series of diary entries. Scott has been thrown out of university for joyriding and has to return home and live with his father, Duke McCauley, an ex-prisoner and paramilitary, now councillor and ‘pillar of the community’. Duke loves a funeral knowing one day he will be ‘The headliner’.

IT’S ALWAYS nice to have the first chapter of a book fly in. And with Northern Ireland’s Jason Johnson’s fourth novel, the pace from the start to the finish is break-neck. In a weaving plot including the CIA, MI5, assassinations, paedophilic priests, questionable accidents and a thrilling car-chase, what you have is a good thriller. But all the above do not catch the imagination as much as our protagonist, Aloysius.

Scott is both in conflict with his father and at war with himself, much of this centred around the shared affections he and his father have for the mysterious Klaudia. Tensions rise and plots twist as this finely written thriller keeps the reader gripped and intrigued. Creighton delves into the mind of a complex, troubled young man shining a light on the impact of a culture of violence – domestic and societal. The themes in The Bones of It include masculinity, conflict and nature explored in 'Norn Iron' slangs and slagging. The book displays the unpleasant residue that persists from the Troubles; it is a meaty, fascinating work of fiction.

Lara Crossly

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In this first person internal monologue, we are invited into a maze of a mind of a small time paparazzo with a chilling secret and a willingness to go that extra crucial step. On the other hand, Johnson’s pen shows the reader another, more obliging and easy to understand side. Or, should that be sides? Brett Easton Elis’s American Psycho was hard to like, to empathise with; Aloysius is a different fish. A past is hinted at, a promise made to reveal no more is broken as we walk behind the fish-eye lens revealing the little details that make an individual intriguing. There’s humanity in his observant, introverted idiosyncrasies, even if the ‘Hard Solve’ is part of the equation.

The ending is pure cliff-hanger, with the jury out. I know after reading this I’ll be back-tracking Johnson’s earlier works, and I imagine, if you pick up Aloysius Tempo so will you.

Conor O’Neil

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LIVING TOGETHER Education at the heart of a shared future

Living Together is an innovative project involving schools and children. The idea is to encourage children from different backgrounds to talk to each other and share knowledge and ideas through games and other activities. The next session will be held at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum on 30 September as part of Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week. Madeline McGreevy, Education Officer at the museum, has been proudly running the project for the past 25 years.

Sometimes the simple things are the most effective in moving forward. Education is central in terms of building a shared future; it gathers everyone under the same goals. Where equality is still problematic in some places in Northern Ireland people decided to take the initiative to go forward. Living Together is in that spirit and is a fabulous initiative. Madeline explains:

“The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum has been involved in Living Together for 25 years, changing depending on the situation in Northern Ireland. So it has changed in the past three years and we still have inter est from the schools to come here and to look at the cultural diversity, especially now as we have other ethnic groups coming to live in Northern Ireland. We need to find a way not only for Catholic and Protestant to live together but also other nationalities”.

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There are six themed workshops and children are grouped together to make sure there is a mix of nationalities and religions. It's a way to discover more about themselves and who they are and interact and learn about others all while enjoying a new activity in the interactive workshop. Activities include baking, candle-making, papermaking, quilling, weaving, rug making and felt-making.

Some groups will learn how to make traditional Irish soda bread. Cooking is a universal skill that everyone needs to learn.

“It doesn't matter where you live in the world you have to cook, so we send them out to our exhibit buildings and they learn how to make a traditional Irish soda bread over an open fire the way it would have been done one hundred and fifty years ago. So for half a day they are involved in interactive workshops so they have to talk to each other in a non-threatening setting and do something together, producing something together and solv ing problems.”

Living Together is a great opportunity for anyone to rethink prejudices, cultures, education and the perception of the others.

Ahmed Al Sarraf

Stories of Migration

OLD AND NEW

W

hen I first arrived on this island in 1985 at the age of 18, many of the friends I made were hoping to leave – to find work and to live somewhere else, preferably the States, Canada or Australia. Coming from Chicago, I often described myself as a reverse migrant who, attempting to return to my ancestral Poland, could only afford a flight as far as Dublin. Now that I live in Belfast, I joke that I made the correct decision since I have nearly as many Polish friends as locals and I haven’t had to learn the language.

Chicago has been known to be the second largest Polish city in the world next to Warsaw. Polish Chicago, sometimes referred to as Polonia, is the result of three distinct immigration periods. The most significant numbers of Poles started arriving in Chicago in the 1850s and this continued consistently to the 1920s. A second phase of immigration happened after World War II and the third occurred in the 1980s. All were related to political and economic shifts and hardships in Poland, similar to the causes of Irish emigration.

When we look into migration, it's clear that there is nothing new about it. The first migrants arrived here about 8,000 BC but settlement was slow due to glaciers in the northern parts of Europe and the absence of Ryanair and easyJet flights. Seven and a half thousand years later, the Celts arrived, themselves a mix of tribes and traditions, followed 1,300 years later by the Vikings. In 1167 the Normans migrated over which was about 430 years before the plantation of Ulster that started in the 1600s.

In 1685 the Hugenots began to arrive from France which was around the same time as 6,000 Irish men and women were sold as slaves in Jamaica and Bermuda. From 1680 to 1740, thousands headed to the American colonies, mostly Protestants from Ulster. From 1791 to 1867 over 50,000 Irish avoided having to pay their way to Australia

by becoming convicts and being sent there. In the late 1800s nearly the same number went to Argentina seeking their fortunes - yes, 50,000 migrated to Argentina. Most of you from here reading this will have relations in the U.S. or Canada and the story of emigration from the time of North American independence onwards can be experienced during the month of October in the Linen Hall Library, Belfast. The library is hosting free public events and workshops for children entitled, 'From Here to Home: Stories of Migration, Old and New' with extracts from letters from the late 18th to the early 20th century from those who left Ireland for North America as well as the from the families that were left behind. These letters are contrasted with interviews with young migrants and locals during 2012-2014 from Armagh, Belfast and Donaghmore.

Migration is a fact of history and a fact of life. Even if you haven't travelled more than 10 miles from where you were born, you will still have an insight into the migrant heart as the experience is always one of moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar. Migration to another country shares similarities with the first day of school or the first day on a job – there is uncertainty, often fear, much excitement, hope, expectation and a need to establish connections and security.

Reading the letters from the past and comparing them with the recent experiences of migration to Northern Ireland should show that while the causes and the people groups may change, their stories remain largely the same. A visit to the Linen Hall Library may help you appreciate the continuing movement of people throughout our world – some fleeing persecution and violence, some seeking new and better opportunities, all wondering what type of welcome they will receive when they arrive.

It is interesting to note that a son of a Syrian migrant to the United States was the creator of the means for CultureHUB to brings these words and images to print – his name was Steve Jobs.

Scott Boldt 47

Keeping it real INTERVIEW WITH RAY MULLAN Amidst the thrall and enthrall of co-ordinating another Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week, Ray Mullan (Programme Director of Communications and Learning Resources for the Community Relations Council) conversed with me about this unique phenomenon.

First started in 2003, the idea of Community Relations Week began in 2001 with the ending of the European Union Peace I programme and the showcasing of local projects. In 2003 the Community Relations Council wanted to promote wider public involvement and encourage others to engage in this work by highlighting EU funded projects and other work supported by the CRC. That first year saw some 50 different projects participate; twelve years on, there are 172 events and counting.

Ray explained to me that the themes over the years have changed; however, the overall focus has remained the same – concentrating on genuine outreach and dialogue, providing examples of what can be done in community relations and keeping a balance between celebrating diversity and recognising that there are “real problems and real issues that need addressed”. He cited three examples - 2009 'Work in Progress: Toward a Shared and Better Future', 2010 'Time 2 Change the Conversation: A Shared Future 4 a New Generation' and 2011 'Division: No Quick Fix' – and stated that regardless of the theme, “relationships and interaction are the key”.

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It was clear from the interview that the Community Relations Council is grounded in the realities of the North. “Simply knowing about differences between communities does not lead to acceptance of difference. People need to engage with each other. Sectarianism is still the core problem”. Ray is in favour of inter-culturalism as opposed to multi-culturalism. He made this distinction saying that multi-culturalism is merely a recognition that different cultures are living side by side “and we might respect them or know something about them”, whereas inter-culturalism, “... involves positive engagement between cultures. Culture is a growing thing and diversity is something natural; you can't get away from it. Our own culture is enriched and develops as people from different traditions and backgrounds interact”.

Ray emphasised that CR Week is “not a community festival” rather it is a time to “energise local communities and promote public involvement so people can see what is possible”. He felt strongly that community relations is about addressing fundamental issues. In this way the events during

the week offer opportunities for dialogue, discussion and debate. “Anger is present in our society and we need to be able to have hard-edged discussion; it is about how we deal with disagreement”.

Interestingly, Ray observed that many groups are more content to organise or participate in events around minority ethnic diversity than to engage with sectarian issues; however, he believes that, “sectarianism and racism are two sides of the same coin. Of course”, he continues, “racism has been there since we started and we need to recognise the wider cultural diversity, but sectarianism remains the deep problem”. He feels that both issues can be turned into an opportunity and not experienced as a threat but that this can only be seen when people connect with each other in meaningful ways.

Ray is delighted with how CR Week has grown. It now covers all Council areas and “is an established feature on the public sector calendar”. “All public bodies are required under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act to promote good community relations” and he would, “... like to see greater ownership and see each new District Council co-ordinate (Community Relations Week) in future”. He indicated that Derry and Strabane District Council is a good model for this and also had much praise for how the Library Service has embraced and facilitated the Week through hosting talks, exhibitions and story-telling. Moreover, Ray hopes that as well as the public and voluntary sectors, libraries, schools and churches, that businesses can get more involved and participate.

ONE PLACE

Many People Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week 28th September – 4th October 2015

Scott Boldt

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ALEXANDRA FORD

INTERVIEW

WE all know her as Dympna from Give My Head Peace, but actor Alexandra Ford is much more than just dizzy eye-candy and stilettoes. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a love of literature, especially Shakespeare, plus possibly every other writer you’ve ever heard of.

Handbag Positive runs from 16 October to 30 October. For booking details phone the Waterfront Box Office on 02890 334455 or visit www.waterfront.co.uk

F

ollowing a stint as a teenager with the National Youth Theatre, Ford has rarely sat down. Along with films such as Wild About Harry and Fifty Dead Men Walking, Alexandra is an actor with many strings to her bow including Rosalind in As You Like It and radio credits.

Now she’s back to theatre and keen to discuss her latest show - writer Donna O’Connor’s, Handbag Positive. Alongside Christina Nelson (Mistletoe and Crime) Ford plays one half of a middle aged duo who during their youths bonded over the Bay City Rollers, bomb-scares and teenage secrets before being parted to lead very different lives. On her character, Alexandra told me, “I play a west Belfast stalwart, someone at the heart of the community, bubbly and gregarious who happened to marry the right fella.” Her former cohort, Attracta, moved to England and was less lucky in love. The fact the two meet in A & E brings a new edge to unlikely reunions.

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With the Roller’s theme running through, Ford says: “This is not a musical, but there’s lots of music in it.There are also poignant moments and a lot of laughs.” Speaking of laughs she adds: “It’s a very typical Northern Irish humour. I don’t think something like the TV series Friends could come from here. We have a much darker sense of humour.” With total faith in director Alan McKee (The History of the Troubles According to My Da), Ford says: “He knows where the funny bone is and will get laughs out of the script.”

Handbag Positive also sees the first

outing by Joe Rae Productions.

Those with a nose in Northern Irish theatre will know Rae has produced memorable shows in recent years; Fifty Shades of Red, White and Blue as well as brilliant productions

of must-see Christmas pantomimes are just a couple examples of his talent.

Alexandra says: “Joe, Donna and Alan have put a lot of faith in us and we don’t intend to let them down.”

Music, laughter, jealousy, memories and the setting in A & E should lead to a great night out.

Conor O’Neill

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