Issue 11

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ISSUE 11 FREE

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AUTUMN

2017

3000 plus items, take a look at our extensive collection online.

Whether it’s contemporary, digital, or children’s illustration you’re looking for, we have it fully covered.

• Original work • Printmakers • Photography • Ceramics • Children’s Illustrations • Travel & Film Posters • Gifts Prices to suit every pocket £10 to £2500

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We are thrilled to bring you Issue 11, the Autumn edition of a re-vamped CultureHUB Magazine; NI’s freshest culture magazine delivering forward thinking ideas and cutting edge articles.

From the team at CultureHUB Happy reading folks and welcome back!

Editors: Fionnula Bartley / Anna Wherrett Sub Editors: Scott Boldt / Gemma McSherry Creative Director: Anna Wherrett Assistant: Monika Zygadlo Cover Design & Layout: Anna Wherrett Front Cover Photography: Michael Barbour

CONTENTS ARTICLES

4 •CultureHUB - Coming of Age 6 • Interview with Anthony Tonor 8 • TENX9 10 • Go Girl 12 • Ulster Fry Book review 13 • Joshua Burnside 16 • Its getting harder for me 18 • Album Review - Editors Choice

Journalists: Scott Boldt, Sebastian Bradock, Melanie Brehaut, Conor Charlton, Ciara Conway, Stacy Fitzpatrick, Cara Gibney, John Patrick Higgins, Gemma McSherry, Kerry Scott, Conor O’Neill, Kerry Corbett.

Photo Credits - Front Cover: Michael Barbour Tremaine Gregg, Bernie McCallister, Conor Kerr Conor Kinahan CultureHUB Magazine Ltd. Merrion Business Centre Office 6a, 58 Howard Street Belfast, BT1 6PJ Tel: 02895 43 4060 www.culturehubmagazine.co.uk info@culturehubmagazine.co.uk

19• Glen molloy - Grafitti Artist 22 • Dying for Treatment 27 • Bronagh Gallagher 30 • Beverly Healy 32 • IAM Models 34 • Doran Browne 36 • Slugger O’Toole

facebook.com/culturehubagazine

38 • Ulster Fry

@CultureHUB1

40 • Tom Johnson - Private Eye Cartoonist 42 • Album Review 43• Sam McCready 46 • Anna Lo - The Place I Call Home

© 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.

48 • Fly Fising - Identifying the Benefits 50 • Trad in Belfast

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COMING W

of AGE

e are thrilled to welcome you to the Autumn edition of a re-vamped CultureHUB Magazine; NI’s freshest culture magazine delivering forward thinking ideas and cutting edge articles.

Firstly, we would like to say a sad farewell to director Dr Scott Boldt who resigned due to family commitments. We pay tribute and thank him wholeheartedly for his commitment in setting up the magazine and subsequent hard work. We wish Scott all the very best in the future; he will be greatly missed.

A few months ago, the clock struck change and we took a short a break to restructure the publication. We were nominated for two categories in the Irish Magazine Awards: ‘Design Team of the Year’ and ‘Consumer Magazine of the Year’. This chimed a coming of age for us; the transition from a young magazine to a more mature publication. It’s been a gritty period, with weeks of meticulous planning. We are now delivering the most contemporary, cutting edge and forward-thinking publication that has graced these shores, and are very excited to welcome you into this next chapter.

We have looked through a magnifying glass at our ethos and what we stand for. CH will continue to be heavily arts based. However, we are predominantly a culture magazine. In the turfy North we want to dig deep and publicise the less well known facets of culture. We intend to provide a platform, that contributes to a society where everyone’s talents and culture are appreciated in equal measure.

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A close and more thorough inspection of our previous issues highlighted anomalies; not all culture is ‘high brow’.

There is, for example, street culture and other underground subcultures which merit public attention. Also, from this issue onwards, we will be shining a light on societal topics, ingrained within our culture that demand awareness. This issue’s report focuses on the growing heroin problem in Belfast and the hurdles experienced by those seeking rehabilitation.

The magazine’s quality is something that we will never compromise. You may notice that there has been an overhaul on design. It is unusual for a free magazine to be of such professional design and quality. It has, and will continue to provide the best possible user experience.

Our monthly TV programme is similarly going through a sparkling transformation. Derry’s Stacy Fitzpatrick will be manning the sofa throughout the new series. Also, Eclectic Media has been launched in partnership with CultureHUB. You may have seen on social media, the fabulous Out to Lunch, Science Festival and CQAF videos whizzing round.

Eclectic Media offers graphic design, animation, video, filming, journalism and photography services. For more info please visit. www.eclecticmediani.co.uk.

The winter edition of CultureHUB is now accepting advertising. those who wish to enquire about rates please email: media@culturehubmagazine.co.uk Issue 12 - WINTER EDITION : 01 DECEMBEr 2017

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INTERVIEW

ANTHONY TONER

“I’ve been lucky since then to have a pretty full diary, and I hope that continues. I still find myself running from one project to the next, and fitting song-writing in between meetings; but at least I’m doing it on my own timetable and at my own desk.”

SINGER / SONGWRITER

“I had a full year of creative drought,”

CARA GIBNEY • PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL BARBOUR

... Anthony explained about where the album came from. “I was backstage waiting for show time somewhere, footering with a chord progression, and an entire verse just came out of my mouth, without me thinking:

S

inger songwriter Anthony Toner spent 17 years as a journalist whilst moonlighting as a guitarist and singer, travelling constantly, honing his skills, gathering characters, stories and experience for his songs. In 2002, he released Eventually, his first album, but it was his 2010 single ‘Sailortown’ that really started to capture our attention. There has been a series of roads well-travelled, and albums well-released, since then. With wry and perceptive words, and soulful delicate music, his songs cover the gamut of life’s events. From teenage loves to the most final of goodbyes; Anthony Toner is developing one of those back catalogues that has a song for whatever it is that is happening to you.

His latest album Ink was released in March 2017. It has the same stripped-back approach of 2015’s Miles and Weather, “but this feels closer to the way I want to express myself”. Toner explained of an album that mines deeper than ever for the right words, the right message. “At the time of the last album, I had just left Flowerfield Arts Centre, after nearly 12 years, and started with EastSide Arts in Belfast...

My father had gone into care with Alzheimer’s the July before and my mother had passed away the November before. It was a time of enormous change, and that album just got ... everything away from me. “ ... I was overwhelmed by everything. Since then I've gone freelance, working on my music and other arts projects; that is new for me, after years of making music while having a day job.

“‘When I hug my father, we hold on tight. If he forgets who I am, well that's all right, A is for Alzheimer's’.”

“... I have no idea where it came from, but I was suddenly off and running with new material. It happens like that sometimes - one song steps out of the shadows, and the others seem to follow the leader.”

“‘I is for ink’ is one of the lines in 'An Alphabet',

You write or you type it, but you get it down; it’s all there'll be left when you hit the ground', and that's one of my abiding beliefs.”

“ ... You can talk all day about your plans, pump yourself up all you like on social media, but the work is all that matters eventually. Also, I've always been interested in printing, old typewriters, fountain pens, all of that.”

“All of the guitar parts were recorded at home, which was also a first. I played lap steel, banjo and percussion; it meant that the 'shape' of the project was in place really early. I recorded with keyboard player John McCullough at his own Piano Shack studio in Castlereagh. Then all of that material was taken to Clive Culbertson's studio in Coleraine, where Clive played bass and sang harmonies. Peter McKinney came in and played drums on four of the songs too, otherwise it’s me and an acoustic guitar a lot of the time.”

INK is available to buy now.

Check out the full interview and upcoming live shows at:

culturehubmagazine.co.uk/anthony-toner

His guitar playing shines on the song ‘The Night Prayer of Saint Augustine’. The guitar opening is repeated as it dances the scales, then layers what is being said and being heard. “My mother went through many major operations in her last three years,” Toner explains, “and at one spell she needed morphine to get through the pain. It gave her terrible nightmares. After one of these spells, I was teasing her that she was, you know … still in orbit, and asked her to prove she was coherent. She smiled and recited all of the books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, in about fifteen seconds...

Anthony is an artist who has single-handedly changed and inspired my own music and how I think about it. He's an encyclopaedia of musical knowledge and one of the sharpest songwriters I have ever seen or heard.”

Ciaran Lavery

It was extraordinary - a memory trick from “ childhood - and it stayed with me and was the starting point for that song.”

Ink was launched at The Lyric Theatre in April, where he was joined by singer/songwriters Ciaran Lavery and Eilidh Patterson, with John McCullough on keys.

We’ll end this with one songwriter’s words about another - Ciaran Lavery on Anthony Toner: “Anthony is an artist who has single-handedly changed and inspired my own music and how I think about it. He's an encyclopaedia of musical knowledge and one of the sharpest songwriters I have ever seen or heard.”

Anthony continues to perform live in support of the new album throughout 2017, with dates at Groucho's Richhill (18 Oct) The Duncairn in Belfast (20 Oct), The Portico in Ards (03 Nov) - and a full UK and Ireland tour as special guest of Barbara Dickson this autumn 2017.

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COLLABORATION

SEAN DORAN & LIAM BROWNE

SAMUEL BECKETT: JANE BOWN, 1976

The eruption of arts and culture festivals in Northern Ireland over the last few years has been staggering and seemingly never ending. From dynamic cross community projects such as the Eastside Arts Festival and the Belfast Mela, to projects with international stature and draw like the Belfast International Arts Festival and the North Down based Open House Festival; the sheer variety of opportunity to experience art across the country is as widely accessible as it is diverse.

O

extraordinary figure, which so far has been writers in the area of Fermanagh and Derry, the border counties, as a starting point and then go on to programme a festival across all the art forms, that are linked to their work and to their life.”

Speaking with CultureHUB ahead of their newest project: Arts Over Borders – The Northern Literary Lands, Sean Doran, one half of the genius behind this cultural force for change, explains the motivations and aims as well as the need for a project such as this one.

The major success of this Biofestival model, Sean tells us is in the appeal a festival like this can have on those who may not normally engage with a programme such as this.

“What we specialise in, and what makes our projects truly unique is that we employ a Biofestival model.

This is a new model for festivals where the most important thing about the events is that we take an

“By using places and spaces, both indoor and outdoor, from ruins to churches to pubs to school halls and community centres, we are making the environment in which the works are set much more familiar.”

ne project creating experiences that draw patrons on a global scale, from across the border to Europe, the States, Asia and beyond is the DoranBrowne partnership. This collaboration between Sean Doran and Liam Browne is responsible for some of the most internationally recognisable festival projects Northern Ireland has to offer, from the FrielFest: Brian Friel International Festival, to the Fermanagh based Happy Days: International Beckett Festival and the ground breaking Seamus Heaney HomePlace (12 months 12 books) the pair have been monumental in shaping the landscape of the Northern Irish arts scene since their meeting in 1992.

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By harnessing landscapes that are relevant to both the artist of interest and their work, DoranBrowne are able to ensure that the land and soil on which the works are carried out, are absolutely critical to inspiring the programmes. This means that the landscape is not only responsible in inspiring the location, an event, performance etc. but in actually inspiring the formation of any artistic endeavour that may take place. By knitting the programmes into the location, they form an equal dependence on one another.

“This offers a truly unique experience for those witnessing the works, offering more than a simple isolated event.”

DoranBrowne are utilising everyday spaces that they believe are not only appropriate for the works in terms of the intention of the author, but that offer a unique opportunity to shed a new light on these everyday familiarised locations. The Biofestival model not only employs the attention of the audience in terms of exploring the works, it also allows the audience to think twice about the relevance of place and time when experiencing art in any form.

This ground-breaking model has garnered attention for the work of DoranBrowne and the pair were approached

by Liverpool City Council, to curate an event response to the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. With an invite prompted by the international recognition, previous Biofestival events had brought about, combined with CV’s that include directing the Perth International Arts Festival and Belfast Festival at Queen's as well as artistic director at the English National Opera, it’s no surprise that their partnership is going from strength to strength.

SEAN DORAN

So how does an idea so complex, so dependent on the relationship between both artist and landscape, and so indicative of a move towards something completely new and diverse for the arts come about? After working in curation across the globe for many years, DoranBrowne became disillusioned with the current festival model and felt they had to strive for more: “We found, that ultimately the festival model can be very similar, whether it’s in Australia, Europe, USA or elsewhere. It’s become a sort of loose model where nothing is connected; there is a lack of coherence between the artists, the venues and the works.”

5 0 T H A N N I V E R S A RY

SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

With no engagement or connection with the place in which a work is housed, DoranBrowne started to think about ways to combine every single element of a festival to ensure cohesion between the artists and landscapes, and this is where the Biofestival model was formed.

“It works, in a way, as a direct take from the arts themselves, be it a sonnet, a symphony, or a sonata, form precedes the content and you then have to work within structures. This pushes both the artist and ourselves as curators to be more creative, and as a result we’ve found this hits home with the audience as they really engage with this sense of connectedness, within the programme and the content.”

You can find out information on all the events running as part of the Arts Over Borders – The Northern Literary Lands at www.artsoverborders.com.

Gemma McSherry

F R I E L F E S T: B R I E N F R I E L

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

INTERVIEW

re of CultureHUB had the pleasu nity mu catching up with poet/com adcast bro and a uam worker Pádraig O’T neers pio the , ran journalist Paul Do ng elli ryt sto lar of Belfast’s ever popu ide ins the event ‘Tenx9’. We get nt that scoop of what inspired the eve and x Bo would start in the Black back. d travel to the Sudan, beyond an

For those who mightn’t know what Tenx9 is, could you tell us a bit about it?

Paul: Tenx9 is where nine people have up to ten minutes to tell a true story from their lives. There are two rules: the story must be true and it’s a ten-minute limit. And the ten minutes, we keep on telling people, is not a target it’s a limit. Ten minutes is the outer limit, at which point we will then blow a bicycle horn (Pádraig laughs), a light-hearted way of saying ‘get on’. Most people are very good, and to be fair you have to use a bit of discretion, because you can tell when someone is coming to the end of a story, usually. If someone’s about to reveal their dying grandmother’s last words you’re not going to blow the whistle.

So how did Tenx9 come into being?

Pádraig: We started it in 2011, here in Belfast. People keep thinking ‘Oh it’s great you brought this thing from America’, ah no we didn’t, it was our idea! We came up with it at a wedding in Galway over breakfast. We’d been to a thing a few nights previously in Belfast and I had read some poetry, but Ruth McCarthy who runs Outburst Festival told a story about pop music during the 1980s and how it had sustained her. Paul was mesmerised by it. So a few weeks later I booked the Black Box and wrote 100 individual emails to people asking them to come … and then 30 people showed up at the first night. So it was that morning, the name, the format, it all was hashed out over that breakfast in Connemara. Nine people, ten minutes each, a true story from their life. I wanted to call it nine by ten.

Paul: I was having none of it.

Pádraig: He said Tenx9 sounds better. And I agree it does.

Yeah, that’s where it all started.

And it’s been in the Black Box ever since?

Paul: Yes, the Black Box is a great venue. We started in the Green Room. I mean there were thirty people for the first few and then it just grew. And then we made the leap into the big room.

But people can’t just get up and tell whatever story they want, can they?

Paul: (Chuckling). Oh no, no, no. It’s not an open mic. It’s a curated evening.

Pádraig: With editorial guidelines. It’s an arts night!

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it’s always

free

Paul: Though it is storytelling, a lot of traditional story tellers would look down their nose at us. If people want to write out the stories, they have to provide us with a draft, but we’ve been really keen from the start that we want people who have never told stories before, who never thought they could tell stories. They may be revealing things they’ve not told any living person and in order to get those people you really have to allow them to read. While confident, accomplished storytellers are welcome, in among all that, we want the person who has never had the nerve to stand up in front of a crowd, or in front of anybody, or never thought they could.

So you’d have to allow them that security blanket of the page.

Pádraig: There is a democracy of participation; that you might be sitting there and then the person sitting next to you gets up to tell a story and then they’re coming back down and sitting next to you. We don’t have a green room and we don’t have a place where all the speakers sit because the whole point is that it is an audience listening to the audience. We’ve tried not to use any elevated stage and to have the speaker on the same level as the audience because it provides a sense of 'it’s a community storytelling night'. But in terms of it being an arts event, we need to know that you have a story rather than a talk, an opinion or a live blog post.

So there is an official set of editorial guidelines?

Pádraig: Yes on Tenx9.com/editorialguidelines. Fairly soon after we were running, maybe a year or two, people who might have been here for a university degree or doing a masters or whatever, said ‘oh I’m moving back home can I start it there?’.

So we got a bit of money from Greenbelt Festival to put a manual together so that people who want to start them can do, but that we have a very clear, pretty strict set of guidelines that it’s always free, we always have the same kind of logos, same format for twitter, that there’s a recognisability.

And these guidelines have been followed in locations around the world?

Pádraig: So it started up in Nashville around four years ago and that’s become a big night too, about 120 people come every month. It’s in Montana, it’s in Chicago, in Balham in London, in Glasgow; there’s three in The Netherlands. There was one in

FLAU NT IT "There is a democracy of participation"

never fear if you’ve missed a Tenx9 event: we’ve been told there’s a podcast in the pipeline!

Valdivia in the South of Chile.

There’s one that just started in Winnipeg, it’s started in Adelaide, there’s one that’s starting in Melbourne. And Sudan.

And is there a particular reason for it being free?

Paul: There is. The idea behind it is that we want to create a space where people can say whatever. We don’t want to filter their true story, but we also feel that people have a right to fail and that they shouldn’t feel under pressure to provide entertainment. If people have paid in, they’ve a right to expect a certain level of return for their money. And I don’t think that’s a fair pressure to put on someone. So it’s always free and we’ve used other means to raise the revenue that covers our costs.

Pádraig: We’re going to move towards having one special one a year, a comedy night that will be the funniest stories of that year and that one will be a fundraiser for it. We’re interested in creating an economy of listening and storytelling rather than an economy of money. Money obviously has to serve that but money is not the first thing.

Paul: Still want to get one on the way in Derry, that would be my ideal.

If you have a story to tell, please submit your draft to Tenx9.com. It will be Paul or Padraig who receive and proofread your draft. I cannot stress enough how truly welcome your narrative endeavours are.

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O p en i n g h o u rs: 9.0 0a m to 5.3 0 p m M o n day to Fr i day H ea d O ffi c e & S h ow ro o m • 1 1 B ru c e St r eet elfast es • BT2 • T:n0at 28i9o033 343o5 m i nB fo@d ks i7JnDt er n a l.c

Read the extended interview at: culturehubmagazine.co.uk/tenx9 interview: ciara conway Photography: Bernie McCallister

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WWW.d es ks i n t er n at i o n a l.c o m

BOOK REVIEW Holywood, a spide from Rathcoole or a culchie from Dungannon … you’re going to get the bake ripped clean off ya. But fear not, if you can take a good look and laugh at yourself then this is the book and website for you. Prince Charles, Conor McGregor, dyslexic TUV voters, Belfast Bikes, Edwin Poots, Stephen Hawking, the Balmoral Show, Gerry Adams, Balix, GAWA, David Cameron’s pig, the Larne Crown, Craigavon’s roundabouts, The Fall, Sporting Lisburn, Barry The Blender Henderson, Pamela Ballantine and too many others to mention all get the gleeful wrath of The Ulster Fry.

The Ulster Fry: The News As It Should Be Author: Billy McWilliams & Seamus O’Shea Publisher: Blackstaff Press Those unfamiliar with The Ulster Fry should stop reading this immediately and visit theulsterfry.com and immerse yourself in the intensely funny world of Ciaran ‘Seamus’ Murray and Ivan ‘Billy’ Minnis. In 2014, these two teamed up to start raking through the mishaps and happenings concerning the silent majority of the North of our wee island. Two years later and Blackstaff Press picked up the ball and selected some of the best of the irreverent side-swipes at both the establishment and the ‘average’ man and woman on the street.

Be warned though, if you’re a beard-sporting trendy, hanging round the stylish bars of Belfast drinking craft ales from jam-jars, a sophisticate eating seared sea bass off a roof tile in

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Divided into four seasons, the articles run from the satirical to the pure ridiculous and if read by someone from elsewhere on the planet, would make little or no sense at all.

Thankfully, though otherwise divided, the humour here is pure Norn Iron, the one thing that unites us. Apart from some of the great and not-so-good mentioned above, what is quite gorgeous about this little book is the little things and people that get an airing here. One sample picked at random looks at the pastry giant Greggs plans to open shops here.

The article details Gordon Snowball from PASTIE (Protestant Association of Stuffing Tastiness Into Everything) getting in touch with Paddy Jampuff from CAKES (Catholic Agency of Kreme-y Edible Stuff) to try and stop the encroachment of the British giant by forming Fleggs, a cross community mega organisation. Believe me, it reads a lot better than my description. And the book is simply choc-a-bloc with dozens of other little fancies, including the headline ‘Local man who leaves door open was actually born in a field’, ‘Donald Trump to build a wall around Lisburn’ and characters such as Fred Zeppelin, Hans, Luggage, Ali Minium, Dawson Creek and Professor Killjoy. All are guaranteed to bring a smile and giggle to your face.

The website is great with regular updates and a Readers’ Club option and divided into sub-sections depending on your interests, but it’s nice to have these little laughs in book form. So take action, ‘pipe the fuck down’ or you’ll get a ‘wile kickin’ and buy this hilarious and too-close-to-the-funny-bone book.

Conor O'Neill page 40: read the in-depth interview with The Ulster Fry.

Attention to Detail I have a book – I can't find it – and I can't remember where I first picked it up, but it's called The Grace of Great Things by Robert Grudin. As I recall, it's a philosophical exploration about creativity and I am reminded of it as I write this piece on Yard Gallery in Holywood for a couple of reasons. First, Grudin said that creativity is not a solitary act but a social thing – an offering to society. Secondly, he emphasised that creative people or creative acts (I can't remember since it's been a while since I read it) have integrity, are open to learning and scrutiny, are not afraid to fail and possess a love and a passion for beauty.

Yard Gallery is a business but it is also an offering to society. Yes, they provide great coffee as well as fine food (in fact, I believe they were the first cafe/gallery on this chunk of land), and they have a unique and extensive collection of fine and varied art, but there is something more. Is it the thoughtful architecture or the solid artisanry? It must be the friendly staff who so obviously enjoy working there or, since so many of them are designers, illustrators and artists, perhaps it is the way they are enabled to use their gifts in drawing some of the signs or a sketch on the wall? Maybe it is the ongoing changing of the artwork displayed on the walls and how thoughtfully it is sectioned?

The place has an integrity to it. It is large but feels intimate. There are babies and children, business meetings and art discussions, people admiring art, people purchasing illustrations; however, the layout and ethos of Yard make each feel welcome and that this is their place. As with the grace notes in music, Yard Gallery has those gracelets that are little gifts of quality – many unnoticed by the majority of customers yet they are experienced in the atmosphere that has been lovingly created.

Some things are simply done well. Did I mention the printers' block letters carefully composed to form a whole wall? Did you see the hand illustrations of the food rather than tacky photos? And the live music on Saturdays, have you had a chance to check out who will be next?

Take a look at www.coffeeyard.com/events.aspx. I'm not telling you any more – High Street, Holywood.

102 - 104 High St • Holywood • County Down • BT18 9HW • 028 9042 7210 info@yardgallery.com • www.yardgallery.com / www.coffeeyard.com 9

Echoes Ballynafeigh Community Development Association: 20 March, 2pm-4pm A shared reading workshop for women with Paula Matthews Free Admission

Verbal Arts Workshop with Rosie Pelan Cresent Arts Centre: 20 March, 11am-1pm Practical acting workshop focused on one of the most exciting and original voices to emerge in modern Irish theatre, Marina Carr.

16+ yrs, £16/£14 Admission

LANTERN

THE

DINING AT THE L ANTERN , BELFAST A fantastic Bring your own (B.Y.O.) bistro in the heart of Belfast City Centre. High quality Northern Irish ingredients create a varied menu with the focus firmly on great seasonal produce. An established favourite in the hearts of locals, The Lantern is the perfect place to catch up with friends or celebrate those special occasions.

Mark Thomas: Book Reading and Swearing for Equal Marriage The Black Box: 23 March, 12.45pm-2pm

THE

LANTERN

The activist, political satirist and author is doing his bit to support the campaign for Equal Marriage in Northern Ireland. £10/£7 Admission

EXC I TI N G RE S TAU RA NT I N THE HE A RT OF BEL FA S T C I T Y CENT R E

Linen Hall Library Reading Group - The Grass is Singing, Doris Lessing.

Linen Hall Library: 31 March

EXCELLENT SERVICE

B R I N G YO U R OW N

LISTED IN TOP 10 ON

Meets on the last Thursday of the month at 1.10pm to discuss chosen books.

Free Admission

Alternative Words: Poetry and Jazz Soul Night Voodoo: 31 March, 9pm Featuring poets Colin Hassard and Jason Ashford, and DJS CRT and Pete Brady. £5 Admission

Manila

Literary Lunchtimes - Shakespeare and Music with Samantha Lin Introducing the Filipino productsTO toBELFAST Belfast INTRODUCING FILIPINO PRODUCTS Ulster Hall: 13 April, 1pm

This Literary Lunchtime discusses several Shakespearean passages People about music and explores how composerstravel have, in turn, responded from all over to Shakespeare`s plays .

Northern Ireland Free Admission to visit Manila, the Filipino Store

PRODUCE LOCALLY SOURCED A SELECTION OF MENUS TO CHOOSE FROM

Literary Lunchtimes Ulster Hall: 27 April, 1pm

MENU

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Danielle McLaughlin and Jan Carson in conversation £5 Admission Filipino e cultur

A friendly family run business offering a wide variety of Filipino foods showcasing amazing cuisine

SAMPLE

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

LUNCH ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Sandwiches - £5.50

with soup or skinny fries

Caesar Salad - £6.00 Crispy chilli chicken - £6.95

with sald, thai dressing & choice of fries

Filipino

Burger - £7.50

with bacon, cheese, Belfast bap, rocket, relish

PRE-THEATRE ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

DINNER ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Goats Cheese Spring Rolls Salt & Chilli Squid

Prawn Ginger - £6.50

Sirloin Steak

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Joshua

Burnside J

oshua Burnside has been bubbling underneath the musical radar for some time now, and 05 May 2017 saw the release of Ephrata, his full-length debut album. Judging by the singles, ‘Blood Drive’ and ‘Tunnels Pt 2,’ and a new Hollllllogram EP featuring Alana Henderson, Joshua is set to become an even bigger household name. Over a pint of the black stuff, we discussed his journey so far, one that took him to places as far-flung as Colombia.

Starting with a love of Paul Simon and Fleetwood Mac inherited from his parents, this bloomed by his teenage years into an appreciation of the songwriting talents of Ben Gibbard and Conor Oberst. These influences can be traced back as far as early single ‘Black Dog Sin’, which brings to mind the Fevers and Mirrors era Bright Eyes.

On this comparison, Joshua is happy to go into detail - “I could really relate to his angst and he made me really think about lyrics for the first time and what a song really means. Telling a story and creating an image in a person’s head, as opposed to just a catchy melody to sing along to.”

••••••••••••••••••••••

“I feel like I’m always treading a line between a stream of consciousness, psychedelic style of writing and a more structured simple kind of storytelling, one where you don’t really know what is going on, creating a mood more than anything.

I like songs that have a keyhole, voyeuristic, snapshot sort of thing to them, and a mystery.”

••••••••••••••••••••••

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••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A

listen to the most recent single ‘Blood Drive’, which has cracked national BBC Radio playlists, will tell you that the preferred mood is often lilting, yet equally the upcoming album contains more paranoid moments such as ‘Tunnels Pt 2.’ And yes, there is a part one. Technophobia is a theme that cropped up for Joshua in the writing process.

An even stronger influence for Joshua was his trip to Colombia last year. His three-month sojourn was one that in many ways birthed Ephrata, as the majority of the new album was written there during his stay with his cousin and her husband.

•••••••••••••••••••••• “I had been stuck in a rut in Glasgow, drinking too much. I wasn’t writing very much and I just had to get out,” •••••••••••••••••••••• ... he admits, while reassuring me it is one of his favourite cities.

“In Colombia, I listened to a lot of cumbia and vallenato.

Some of it is very accordion-based. The singers just kind of belt it out, and it is very raw and strained, but beautiful.

There are so many rhythms, it is great, that is what attracted me to it. I got to play with a local band and they showed me a thing or two. I’d love to go back and record with a few musicians out there, maybe for the next album.”

The aforementioned ‘Blood Drive’ is one that has certainly got his time abroad written all over it, with its insistent forward momentum and what Joshua describes as a “bouncy Latin-esque rhythm”.

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•••••••••••••••••••••• “I sang it in the cupboard to get a really dry sound, and I found the quieter and lower I sung it, it just worked with the vibe of the song. I kept tuning my guitar lower and lower too.”

•••••••••••••••••••••• To add to the album’s globe-trotting theme, the title of Ephrata is derived from the name of a small town in Pennsylvania he visited while touring with his band.

•••••••••••••••••••••• “It was a mad experience, kind of an Amish town started by a mystic order. I’ve always been drawn to mysticism.”

•••••••••••••••••••••• “ ... We were living with this guy whose father had recently passed away. He was a minister; he let us stay in his father’s room, which was a bit surreal as nothing had really changed since he passed away. There were fire engines going past the whole night because the local market was on fire.”

On a more local slant, with a song called ‘Red and White Blues’ released earlier this year, Joshua doesn’t shy away from political inspiration. Lyrics reference a “grandad in the DUP, but it never meant that much to me”.

While his work can take on an elusive quality, his current frustration on this topic is evident - “Symbolism of flags and red, white and blue pavestones is like dogs pissing on their territory, isn’t it?”

With a turn of phrase like that, I suggest writing a whole album’s worth of political songs, but we agree that one will do!

Touring in the UK and Europe is already well underway, before Joshua hits the States again next year, including SXSW in Texas. As for the new Hollllllogram EP, out on 15 September 2017, it features two new songs, ‘Grapes’ and ‘Dinner’, and we can expect “heavily layered electro-folk” and “distorted vocals” from the new stuff. Anyone familiar with Ephrata will know these are very good things. Album number two is mooted for possibly as early as next year, and may bear the fruits of Joshua’s growing experimentation with coding software.

•••••••••••••••••••••• “I’m kind of obsessed with it.

It’s all I really think about.

For everyone else is the new album, but for me it’s the old album!”

•••••••••••••••••••••• Based on the sessions for Ephrata, a flurry of instrumentation can be expected too. In the four studios visited Joshua picked up a guitar, banjo, accordion, and piano.

Oh, and a bicycle.

“For a song called ‘Unrequited Kind’, there was a bike sitting about in the studio, and we thought it would sound great if we span the wheels and held a stick to the spokes.

The engineer was laughing, as it was the first time anyone had recorded a bike in the studio.”

If you’re looking forward to how that sounds, Ephrata is out now on the Quiet Arch label.

Interview: Gerry Walton • Photography: Conor Kerr

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It’s getting harder and

harder for me T

he second collaboration from the illustrious and independent pens of Sarah Baxter and Alice Malseed, follows their critically acclaimed Jellyfish with an equally lyrical effort, centered on Belfast’s Ormeau Road. Tracing the interrelated lives of three city women, It’s getting harder and harder for me promises a pointed yet darkly humorous indictment of the loneliness and drudgeries faced by its principal protagonists.

Going about their quotidian affairs both domestic and professional, lurching from crisis to crisis and boredom to boredom, all three women find their lives upended by an apocalyptic chance encounter on the way to a communal ballet class.

In anticipation of the release of their sophomore effort, writer and co-creator Alice Malseed, winner of the Wild Card Award at the Dublin Fringe’s 2015 edition, was kind enough to respond to several questions in order to expand on the play’s thematic content and inspirations: How important is it, that it happens to be Belfast, and Ormeau Road in particular, which provides the setting for It’s getting harder and harder for me? In other words, do you see Belfast as being both something of a crossroads and at a crossroads?

Belfast is intrinsic to the play. The rhythm of speech, the nuance of language, the jarring and jumping and the way people naturally mess around with words and speech in the

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city is at the crux of what Sarah and I were thinking about when creating these characters. The physical location of Ormeau is really interesting to me - the mixes of classes, of nationalities, and the influxes of new people; from gentrifiers and the coffee shop crew, to the Roma community. It's a really interesting mash up. I moved back to Belfast 3 years ago after 8 years away. I think you can always see things more clearly with a bit of distance. I don't know if Belfast is at a crossroads or is a crossroads, I see it more as being at a threshold. Whether or not it will get over the threshold is another story.

You mention urban alienation quite a bit in the press release.

Do you think the psychogeography of the urban space necessarily lends itself to alienation and loneliness? Or is it more subtly an indictment of how urban planning occurs all too often at the expense of the lived experiences of those who have to suffer it?

I definitely think that the psychogeography of cities lends itself to alienation and loneliness. How can people feel part of a city when they can't afford a piece of it? Or when marketing images show only a certain type of person, i.e. clean, young, and affluent.

But the characters in It's getting harder and harder for me experience this alienation and loneliness for a whole array of reasons; everything from being a stay-at-home housewife from a traditional community which has broken down, to drugs

drugs, alcohol and social media. Despite this, they're full of a raw energy that I think is specific to Belfast. They're not shying away telling the audience that life isn't rosy, but they're still great craic.

What other alienations and oppressions do you think the three protagonists face which the audience may readily identify in their own lives?

The play spans generations and ages, leading to a really well-rounded picture of the ideas in your previous question.

The biggest issue I wanted to explore, when writing the play, was the lives of women. The three protagonists are women, which means they're more likely to be living in poverty, to be unemployed, and to be dealing with mental health issues than their male counterparts. The play is by no means 'preachy' about feminism, but it definitely speaks loudly and clearly about the lives of three women in Belfast today. Their experiences of alienation and oppression sit on a binary scale; I mean, they're not homeless, they're able-bodied, they have some degree of disposable income and they can all afford to go to the pub or to a cafe. But they're also victims of successive governments who've done very little to invest in social infrastructure, and who've driven austerity. This isn't a piece about that in isolation; it's not a morbid piece. It's a piece about three women living in Belfast who are linked because they live on the same road and they experience a collective and an individual trauma. But it's got that frank, dark and playful Belfast humour. Despite the weight of the women's worlds, it's very dry-witted. Sarah's directing style is incredibly playful, honest and fun.

Dublin Fringe Festival 9—24 September 2017

Touring our previous work, Jellyfish, showed us that no matter what the story or the character's experiences, people have all felt moments or times of isolation, unable to reach out or feel unheard. Those feelings are universal. That's what we're doing with It's getting harder and harder for me.

Sebastian braddock

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ALBUM REVIEW

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Electric Octopus Driving Under the Influence of Jams

E

lectric Octopus is a Belfast three-piece dedicated to long-form explorations in the field of improvised rock music.

Their most recent album, Driving Under the Influence of Jams, released in May,

continues in the rich vein which has seen them release nine albums since June 2016’s debut, This is Our Culture. All the hallmarks and reference points of their sonic signature are present; the taut, tight and ever shifting funk backbone, the intricate interplay between guitar and bass, the musical nods to the Grateful Dead, the late 60s golden era of psychedelia, the abundant blues and jazz inflections, remain intact. Rather than seeking to alter or evolve on a fundamental level from their previous efforts, Driving Under the Influence of Jams sees the band take what makes them unique, to its absolute limits.

It would be a mistake, to dismiss Electric Octopus as retro fetishists, the musical equivalent of evolutionary anomalies such as The Mudskipper, entirely at odds with the modern world. For Driving Under the Influence of Jams is first and foremost a product of the internet. The vast expanse of the music, the completist approach to releasing recorded material, the apparent lack of any editorial decision regarding which jam to release and which to consign to the archive, would be regarded as an indulgence in the era, where recorded music was expected to fit into neat compact packages. This is the proof that Electric Octopus, stylistic leanings of yore aside, are a thoroughly modern phenomenon.

Opener and album highlight ‘Cobra Super Kek’ sets the template for the album’s later experiments. There remains an undeniably snakelike quality to the song’s sinuous grooves, as well as its random spontaneous shifts in direction and emphasis. The careful artifice only revealed in comparison with the tracks explicitly labelled as jams. ‘Cobra Super Kek’ also distinguishes itself by the presence of an expanded instrumental, with the appearance of a mellow electric piano; yet another creative nod to the early 70s. The opener remains indicative of what is to come. It demonstrates perfectly that where other artists use key changes or modal shifts to inject variety into their jams, Electric Octopus shift tempos.

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The cumulative effect of executing so many tempo shifts, is that they have acquired a seamlessness execution which is masterful, allowing the shifts to overtake the listener by surprise. By the time the shift has registered, several bars have passed by.

Tempo changes are far from Electric Octopus’s only musical point of difference. The minimalist one riff, one song approach to composition as in ‘New Jam #1’, takes its cues from the less prog-rock oriented corners of Phish’s discography. Tweezer’s characteristic descending guitar line would be the most obvious point of comparison. Besides the fact that ‘Moments’ seems to rip off the bass lines of both Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ and the Temptations’ ‘My Girl’, Electric Octopus nonetheless manage to use the themes merely as a springboard, to possibly the most meditative of the album’s tunes. And whilst it takes a long time for us to arrive at the noisier, primal, thumping sections which impress so much live, when we do, as in ‘New Jam #3’ (the pick of the explicitly improvised numbers), the sheer intensity translates well through the recording.

At 3 hours 53 minutes, Driving Under the Influence of Jams clocks in at the sort of expanse usually associated with Autechre releases, classical symphonies, or a live Bruce Springsteen concert. A literal interpretation of the album’s title would suggest that the music is intended for an extended car drive. The album is more suited to a piecemeal listening approach than the traditional end to end sitting. Given that four out of the nine tracks clock in at over half an hour, it makes more sense to conceive of the release, as a collection of self-contained musical suites to be listened to and appreciated separately, much in the way that one can indeed appreciate Wagner’s Siegfried without sitting through Das Rheingold and Die Walküre first. This is not to denigrate the album; its mode of release is simply an acknowledgement that the album as we know it is, if not dead, at the very least diminished. To judge a four-hour long release on the basis of our attention spans would be unfair. Those inclined to give the album a spin and dip into its improvised musical landscape, Driving Under the Influence of Jams proves to be endlessly rewarding.

Sebastian Braddock

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Glen Molloy In t erview w i t h g raffi t i art ist

t would be hard not to have seen the work of Glen Molloy cropping up over the city recently, with a range of paintings including a portrait of Carl Frampton and a much talked about homage to the late George Michael. Bringing more than just a fresh lick of paint to deprived areas, Glen is on a mission to bring to the surface the under-represented communities of Belfast. Glen speaks to CultureHUB Magazine about what inspires and motivates him and of course, about just how he feels about being branded the ‘Belfast Banksy’.

When did your interest in graffiti art begin?

The area I grew up in, Bloomfield, East Belfast, didn’t have any political paintings on the walls and from what I can remember it was a series of super hero paintings on the lower Ormeau Road that had really inspired me as a child. I had seen them on the news and my parents took me over late one Friday evening to drive by them and it totally just blew my mind - gable walls top to bottom in full colour! Something positive in the midst of such negative times, this really was something special for me. It wasn’t until my later teens when I started to travel across the city that I really started noticing the political paintings. To be completely honest, it was always the notoriously bad standard of the loyalist paintings that drew my attention to them. Therefore, I never focused on the message; it was always just the standard of the artwork, which gained my interest; mostly as it used to annoy me.

to paint controversial stuff. My art is to hopefully be enjoyed; I’m not trying to make a statement about myself with the art. It’s almost as if there are different communities on the street. You have the people during the day, then you have the revellers and you have the people that live on the street, then you have me who is painting on the street. So, I could take what I am doing and just glorify it all for myself and be pretentious, obnoxious even; but it’s not about that. At the end of the day I want to paint on the street. I want to paint in loyalist areas, in nationalist, republican, city centre, wherever; I just want to continue what I’m doing.

What is it like to be changing the image of Belfast towards one of positivity?

For me, I am truly blessed to be part of this new wave of street art that some parts of the city are now embracing with open arms. That said; the reality is it still has a long way to go. The city centre, where most of the paintings are now appearing never had political murals in the first place. I honestly feel that the art has more value and potential for impact if it is taken out of the back streets and car parks, and painted in the actual areas that will benefit the most from positive images on the walls.

How would you describe conceptually what you do? Where do you get the ideas for your pieces?

It really just depends on what is going on around me at the time. It can be the beauty and pain of everyday life, like with the ‘Homeless, No Less’ or the ‘Kes’ paintings. They are essentially paintings to do with struggle, pain and neglect and are intentionally thought-provoking images. I spend a lot of time researching with endless hours spent trawling through, what sometimes seems like, thousands of images looking for that special something that will make a good painting. The locations play a big part in the idea process and what I feel will stand out and make an impact, so it’s usually the location that starts the ball rolling with regards to the thought process. I would never just turn up to a wall without an exact plan.

There’s a fine line to what I am doing; which is waking people up. The flip side of things are that I’m trying to paint things on the wall that are positive or should be addressed; I don’t want

I travel across the city daily, looking for new sites to paint and from what I see in the housing estates nothing has changed. In fact, in some places it has become much worse, with fresh political murals appearing regularly. This is what needs to change, and I hope that with my paintings I can help. We (graffiti artists) have the great gift of freedom of not having to fit into the

mainframe of what is going on around us, we just find a wall and paint it. At the same time, I didn’t go to art college and get a degree in illustration or a Master’s degree in fine art; I’ve learnt this on the street.

The media branded you the ‘Belfast Banksy’ – how do you feel about that?

At the start – I was unemployed, so it was good to have something positive like that. I was trying to better myself; but the reaction wasn’t good. For a lot of people, it really got on their nerves; at the same time, if it had of been any of them, they’d literally have been walking round with a ‘I’m the Belfast Banksy’ T-shirt on. You know, Banksy isn’t doing anything that nobody else has ever done, as in graffiti and street art.

He’s prolific and has parallelism; but that’s the way that the culture is. Street artists are trying to create the best quality or the most thought provoking work of art that they can; that’s what I was trying to do. Although I’ve been dogged that name, there were elements of Banksy I suppose; as in I was doing these anonymous artworks and nobody knew who I was.

How do you deal with negative reactions to your work? For example, your George Michael piece?

The negative reaction to the painting wasn’t directly regarding George’s sexuality and my work was definitely not a political statement. The negative reaction was more of an attack on my own personal beliefs and why I was painting a gay icon. At the time when George died a lot of people were

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truly gutted, including myself, and so the work was to show love in its purest form; a tribute from the heart to one of the most talented, kind and charitable individuals whose music had touched so many people’s lives. It was painted without prejudice with the aim of being received that way.

It’s clear that not all the street artists are working together on initiative projects here?

I would have liked to have met other people that were painting; but at the end of the day, it seems that most of the people have given me the cold shoulder. Street art is essentially made up of people that are coming from deprived or marginalised social backgrounds. They are coming from council estates, or they are coming from a history of illegal graffiti; hip-hop inspired, painting trains, and tags etc. So, in essence have what you would personify as a traditional street artist,

would personify as a traditional street artist, coming from obscurity, working under anonymity and basically being non-funded. Most of the prolific street artists were graffiti artists first and foremost. I paint mostly at night-time. All these elements running concurrently: very poor quality lighting, in the middle of the night, by myself and people manage to criticise this.

alias, because if you write your own name, you are going to get into trouble. You have to develop an alias, it’s a stamp, it’s a brand and it’s an identity. My identity doesn’t have to be eligible to 99.9% of the public; I’m not writing for the general public - I’m writing for other graffiti artists; I’m writing for the opposition. It is saying ‘my stuff is more technical than yours. I can put them in higher risk places. I can do it bigger.

I can do it bolder’.

Is modern day graffiti losing some of it’s authenticity?

Graffiti - street art in its purist form is done under the cover of darkness, not funded by community or the arts council or anything like that. There is a difference; climbing over a fence, trespassing and criminal damage - I’ve done all those things. When I started doing this, it was illegal, but it has now turned into a career. Ten years ago, people were calling this vandalism. Fifteen to twenty years ago - people just didn’t understand it at all. Those people that are now thinking it’s ‘cool’, were saying ten years ago that it was vandalism; they are now there sitting - thinking they are critics on it. Unless you have stood in the middle of the night, negotiating with the above-mentioned factors that could result in you being arrested, you don’t have the right to comment on what I’m doing. It’s not just about the art, there is an amount of organisation that goes into it. Regardless of where you are working, you’ve got to make sure the area is safe - like who is there to protect you? Belfast can be a very dangerous city, no matter where you are. You could be in a very affluent area and it’s still dangerous. There are many factors that I have to take into consideration; the last thing on my mind is essentially what I’m going to be painting.

You do a crap piece of street art and it can be something controversial, it can be gory, and something that is in really bad taste. And then it’s all this, ‘oh that’s fantastic… I can see what you are doing’. The reality of it is, that someone can do the most finely executed, freshest, technical and imaginative piece of graffiti, it can be absolutely fantastic, but it can be deemed as vandalism because it goes into libel, just because of its context. With graffiti, you have to adapt to your own

People say,

make your mark

in society graffiti is about

making your mark

ON society

So you can’t just go and spray over the top of someone else’s artwork? Is graffiti somewhat a war of egos?

It’s quite aggressive, because it is graffiti in its purist form and it’s illegal. Once something becomes illegal, it then falls into its own subculture, and then falls into its own codes.

These people try to claim these codes but they don’t respect them. There are rules, there are basic steps; you know ‘this goes over the top of this’.

In this publication we have a report addressing a very serious topic regarding heroin addiction in Belfast, would you find you identify with this issue?

It influenced me enough, to paint a heroin mural depicting a half human half skull. It was my response to my negative perception to somebody’s addiction.

I’m on the streets and they know me, I could name you five or six of them. They would come and speak to me, tell me what their story is; I know what they are from and what they are experiencing. I know that the homeless situation is now intertwined with the heroin epidemic. My art is on the street, and these people are on the street. I could sit back and ignore them, the way everybody else does or I can raise awareness.

There are projects getting pushed in the city centre that are nowhere near as important as the people that are on the street, the people with nowhere to live, people with heroin addiction. So, the reality is, if people are shooting up around Belfast in broad daylight, in the city centre, that’s more important. It’s more important than any other issue that people seem to get their bee in a bonnet about. Addiction/heroin doesn’t discriminate, it’s been here for years; it’s just the addicts weren’t allowed to come onto the streets. You couldn’t get it on the streets – you had to go off the street to get it and it’s not like that now. The point also being, that some of these people on the streets aren’t actually homeless, they have a home but they just can’t function in that home.

What are your plans for the future?

I’m just going with the flow. Much of my work really has taken its own direction. I am very fortunate with the amount of coverage my artwork has been receiving. I am very humbled and truly thankful. So, in terms of the future, the sky is the limit really. It’s about making your mark. People say, ‘make your mark in society’; graffiti is about ‘making your mark on society’.

Interview: Gemma McSherry & Kerry Westwood Photography: Conor Kiernan & Tremaine Gregg To read the extended interview visit: culturehubmagazine/glen-molloy

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Dying for

Treatment TH E I NCON V ENIE NT TR UTH

REPORT: KERRY CORBETT (Above) Michael McDowell, a member of Belfast Experts By Experience (BEBE)

PHOTO: TREMAINE GREGG

There was much consternation at the news of a half-naked man 'shooting up' in some toilets at Belfast City Hall on an otherwise normal Tuesday lunchtime in June. As reported by the Belfast Telegraph, local councillors were simply aghast, falling over themselves to call for further security measures to be implemented to deter people who "have no business being there," in the words of the High Sheriff of Belfast, Tom Haire (DUP). The fervour in Haire and his colleagues' reactions is appropriate, but the direction, which seems mainly driven towards ridding the tourist attraction of eyesores, is misguided. tark images of someone injecting heroin in the city centre in broad daylight, or dead from an overdose in the toilets of a fast food restaurant are certainly not palatable, but must serve as a warning that the heroin problem in the city is in a state of flux and can no longer be brushed under the carpet or out of tourist areas, as the case may be. This is confirmed by Jo Daykin-Goodall, Director of Operations at The Welcome Organisation, which was set up to help the homeless in Belfast, who says that in general,

“drug use in Belfast in general is on the rise.�

Their statistics reveal that over 50% of service users have a drug problem.

It often seems, however, that heroin is a drug which is more conveniently kept on periphery from the perspective of the public (I have certainly been guilty of this), as well as those in power and sometimes even those responsible for helping people in the grip of the drug. If we think of heroin at all, we tend to conjure up iconic (albeit grim) scenes from the film Trainspotting or the seductive tones of the Stranglers' surreal Golden Brown rather than contemplate the devastating reality of heroin abuse. Many people who consider themselves regular dabblers in recreational drugs and who may experiment with a wide range of drugs, from a wide range of legal classes, nonetheless see a thick red line to be crossed before touching heroin. This is predominantly due to its association with injecting, needle-sharing and the consequent links to the spread

clear that the red line is thinning and the necessity for a change in policy towards heroin users is undeniable.

While participating in a weekly service-user meeting in the Belfast Trust's Drugs Outreach Team (DOT) premises in Murray Street, Belfast, one recovering addict, who prefers not to be named, stressed to me she had never before seen heroin use as widespread as it currently is in the city. She added forebodingly,

“We could be the new Dublin.”

An observation not to be taken lightly for those of us who are aware of the proliferation of the heroin problem in Dublin over recent years.

Of course this resurgence is not only manifest in Ireland, it is reverberating around the British Isles and Europe. The EMCDDA (EU Drugs Agency) European Drug Report 2017 encompassing data from the current 28 members of the EU, as well as Norway and Turkey, has reported an increase in drug overdoses for three consecutive years. Almost one in three of those overdoses occurred in the UK (31%, with the second place going to Germany which was far behind at 15%). According to the study, the UK can also claim to have the highest number of heroin addicts in Europe.

WHY THE RESURGENCE? The revival is the product of a rather complex web of social, economic and political factors. Heroin has typically reared its head in times of financial hardship; the most mythical backdrop being the bleak post-Thatcher years. The past seven years have been dominated by Thatcherite cuts to welfare, felt as much in Northern Ireland as across the UK, which are behind the sharp increase in unemployment and homelessness, and more people using drugs like heroin to escape temporarily the harshness of daily life.

A simple rise in availability is also a factor, as Michael McDowell, a recovering addict and now a member of Belfast Experts By Experience (BEBE) explains,

“Heroin has flooded into Belfast from all over and this rise in use has triggered organised crime to take note and want their piece of it.”

This corresponds with a spike reported by the UNODC in opium harvesting in Afghanistan, which accounts for as much as 90% of the world's heroin .

Michael also points out that we should be concerned about changes in consumption styles, describing how older users have detected a tendency amongst the younger generation to seek to 'get obliterated.' In his opinion, this could stem from the excessive habits in taking so-called legal highs which may have 'spilled over into the way other drugs were used.' He added that it is also increasingly common to use heroin with other drugs or alcohol. The offshoot of these changes is a higher risk of accidental overdose, and at the very least, permanent irreparable damage.

The sharp increase in unemployment and homelessness, and more people using drugs like heroin to escape temporarily the harshness of daily life.

WHAT IS BEING DONE? Not enough is the short answer. The frustration amongst those seeking help was palpable in the service user meeting at the DOT base. Not only is there a continuing sense of marginalisation and persecution by the general public and mainstream media who have never been shy in demonising addicts, this same attitude seems, shockingly, to be present in bodies responsible for treating addiction.

Here in Belfast, the key stumbling block to recovery (and indeed survival) according to this group is the length of waiting times in the Belfast Trust to move onto a substitute prescription programme, which typically involves prescribing methadone to a patient in order to be gradually weaned off heroin. This is echoed in the Welcome Organisation's statement acknowledging, 'there is a problem with waiting lists in Belfast for people accessing substitute prescribing services and this is causing difficulties for individuals who need this particular help'.

'Difficulties' appears to be an understatement. As things stand, a patient has to wait 18 months for that prescription, however, I am told this is more likely to be 2 years; astounding when we consider that in other Trusts in Northern Ireland the waiting time can be as little as 2-3 months. This vast disparity creates an unfair situation where those in Belfast suffering addiction and seeking help are divided into three groups. First, those who can avail of family finances to be 23

treated privately (few and far between), those who are able to relocate to other trusts to be seen more quickly, in either Northern Ireland or England (if they are lucky enough to have family there), and those who simply have to bear the wait, or die trying.

An official waiting time of 18 months would indicate either a lack of resources or a mismanagement of resources which are available, or a bit of both; however, the group expressed the feeling that the Belfast Trust has ignored the heroin problem. Michael says, “We warned them 10 years ago that heroin was going to get big, but they never took any action.

Our current situation with the waiting times for methadone maintenance is a shining example of how badly they are managing the human side of it all.”

When asked to comment on the burden of this wait on addicts, the Trust responded evasively by saying,

If things are getting

to you

“The Belfast Trust appreciates the waiting times are difficult for service users, and while we are working to address these, we would encourage service users to engage with the Drug Outreach Team for support and harm reduction care.”

Once more, 'difficult' belittles the true hardship. It also begs the question of what work really is being done, when this waiting list mess is nothing new, and much worse than experienced in English Trusts which have many more addicts on their hands.

A COLLECTIVE APPROACH

e you like, Talk to us any tim about in your own way g to you. whatever’s gettin

Unsurprisingly in these circumstances, too much pressure falls on the DOT, as hinted above, as well as community groups and charities specialising in homelessness and/or addiction. By and large these bodies are doing a stellar job with limited financial backing, yet as Jo Daykin-Goodall of the Welcome Organisation, relates,

“Communities cannot address very challenging drug related issues alone.”

3 2 1 6 1 1 0 FR This number is

EE to call

jo@samaritans.org samaritans.org

She identifies the crucial need for a collective approach.

Such an approach would encompass those community-led grassroots groups, along with public addiction services, but it is vital that it include dialogue with those who know the plight of addiction more than anyone else - current and past sufferers. Nonetheless, nothing can move forward without the understanding, will and cooperation of policy-makers, and this is a particular struggle in Northern Ireland. At present, of course, Stormont is in a state of suspension, but even when it has been sitting, recovering addicts insist, politicians generally have not wanted to hear. If the current state of affairs continues, they will soon have no choice.

Politicians in Northern Ireland could benefit from taking note of the progress made in recent times by their southern counterparts. Amongst various figures, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

We warned them 10 years ago that heroin was going to get big, but they never took any action.

“We warned them 10 years ago that heroin was going to get big, but they never took any action.”

(Above) Michael McDowell, a member of Belfast Experts By Experience (BEBE), a service user peer support and advocacy group.

(Labour), who served as Minister of State for the National Drugs Strategy, has been a formidable proponent for change in drugs policy, recognising the need for realistic measures such as supervised injecting rooms, which would eradicate many of the risks which accompany taking heroin on the streets. Ó Ríordáin has passionately advocated for destigmatisation of addiction. Speaking last year to Hotpress, he said, “There’s a victim-blaming approach in that, at some level, it’s his or her own fault. People talk about the ‘n’-word but we also need to get away from using the ‘j’-word, junkie. ”

THE ONLY WAY FORWARD

Decriminalisation of possession for personal use is a no-brainer; the only worry is how long it will take us to reach that realisation here. Without a more open collective dialogue on heroin addiction and other forms, combined with momentum towards change, we will remain stagnate with years more side-lining of addicts and unnecessary suffering and deaths to follow.

This piece is dedicated to ‘Mim’. She was a devoted member of BEBE, who generously contributed to the writing of the article. Mim very tragically passed away before it was published.

Ó Ríordáin hits the nail on the head. Re-framing addiction from a criminal matter to a public health matter is not only the right thing to do; it is the only way forward. The proof is Portugal: in 2001 Portugal decriminalised possession of all drugs, so long as it is under what would be considered a 10 day supply (important to note as it means traffickers and dealers do not escape the law). The gradual lessening of stigma which has ensued has made it easier for individuals suffering addiction to seek help. The impact of the policy overhaul is reflected in statistics; drug related new instances of HIV infections have fallen by over 90%. Death by overdose has been steadily decreasing as well and at 3 per every million inhabitants; it is now well below the EU average of 17.3. On the flipside drug use has not skyrocketed, as critics of decriminalisation predicted: across the board drug use has in fact decreased, with less new users every year according to drugs think-tank, Transform. And of course all this has led to law enforcement savings which can be redirected more effectively to addiction services and health and public services more broadly.

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h g a n o Br r e h g Galla

W

e were having a short exchange of emails about Spike Milligan.

Turns out that Bronagh Gallagher’s mother read Spike Milligan to her children. Spike Milligan, Roald Dahl, Raymond Briggs, Seamus Heaney and interestingly, Delia Smith, to name a few of their preferred bedtime reading choices. “She also had the best collection of Vogue magazines that I've ever seen,” continued the singer and actress who first sprang to our attention as Bernie McGloughlin in The Commitments, way back in 1991 when she was just 17 years old.

After The Commitments she was seen proudly sporting a Frames T-shirt during that infamous Pulp Fiction scene with Uma Thurman, the heroin overdose and the adrenalin shot. Then there was Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and over the years a myriad of roles shifting from TV, to film, to stage - from Holby City, to Sherlock Holmes, to National Theatre's War Horse; however, acting is only one of the ships that Derry born and bred Bronagh Gallagher steers. She also runs her own record label, Salty Dog Records, on which she has released three albums, and likewise runs her own band as she follows a simultaneous music career.

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Bronagh Gallagher Music was there from the beginning, and a visible thread runs from Gallagher’s introduction to music at home as a child, and the singing - songwriting that she performs and records today. The immediate soul of her voice channels country, R&B, gospel and much more. “It was soul records, country records, the Beatles, and rock 'n' roll records that dominated the family home rather than literature,” she told me, giving a clear insight into those earliest of influences that set her on her musical track.

Gather Your Greatness, Gallagher’s third album

of original material, released last year, uses all of this mastery in a collection of songs that shines a light on the two ends of life’s spectrum – from the ideal, the happy, to the endurance needed when life rides roughshod over all of it. The album sources from events and situations happening around Gallagher, and while the causes, consequences, joy and disappointments of life unfold, Gather Your Greatness is grounded with a strong faith in the human being, in the capacity in each of us to endure, change, survive, and shine.

... she explained. “I believe the inner light is inner knowledge … Real happiness takes work, breaking bad habits. It can exist knowing that it doesn't come from outside influences; they should only enhance and stimulate. [They] should not be the reason that you find contentment in your life, that comes from self-respect and self-love and self-acceptance … Life is trial and error. Knowing what works for you, being around the right people, creating your own internal security, knowing that it’s an inside job.”

The album title is also about looking at nature. “How brave it is, how economic it is, and how no matter what (bar killer frost), every year the bulbs in my garden will push through the cold earth there and show their glory.

The seeds sewn by Gallagher’s mother reading Seamus Heaney to her kids resonate right through to today. “I love many of Heaney’s poems, but I love ‘The Ministry of Fear’. It reminds me of Derry, reminds me of growing up and the sense of inadequacy you had as a Catholic in Derry. But I was very lucky with my teachers and my family. They instilled the confidence to break the mould and move forward in the world of art.”

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She still applies Heaney’s poetry as she navigates through life and puts it to words in her music. Bronagh explained,

Indeed the beautiful 'A Sailor Like You' from Gather Your Greatness features Heaney's title ‘The Ministry Of Fear’ in the lyrics. “Well, every artist’s experience is different, but I can certainly relate to many of the questions Seamus asked about authority and religion.”

Those questions are ever present in the hard hitting ‘Heal Me', a blues-gospel testimonial that lists and berates us with humankind’s cruelty.

The depth of feeling in ‘Heal Me’ is matched in her explanation of the song. “I think it's important to speak out, to show support, but I always lose heart at the little effect you think you're having in the world … We have certainly got it wrong as human beings across the board. It's grossly upsetting that most of the world’s leaders don't care about human life no matter what they say. I do believe there are also good people in government, but alas greed, the dysfunction of power, and lack of care continues to outdo the good.”

But there is hope, and Bronagh Gallagher hasn’t given up.

Find out more about Gather Your Greatness and future shows on

www.bronaghgallagher.com “ ... And ultimately artists, musicians, and writers bring people together. That is why festivals and music situations are so unifying. It is the one language that we all can communicate with. The universal language of music, and love, and unity.”

INTERvIEW: CARA GIBNEY Photography: Michael Barbour

Location: Seamus heaney homeplace

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

to view the extended interview visit culturehubmagazine.co.uk/bronaghgallagher

Beverly Healy Artist

W

hen interviewers write up their piece, especially for magazines, they usually say that they 'caught up' with so-and-so who 'took time out' to talk to them. This seems to imply that the interviewee is very busy and in some way ahead of the journalist and moving fast as if they are trying to catch a train.

When someone 'takes time out' for you, it makes both people sound important; the person being interviewed for carving valuable moments to respond to a few questions and the skilled interviewer who has been granted access. When I interviewed Belfast-based artist Beverley Healy, she was unhurried and calm speaking at length to me without checking the time or glancing at her phone. We walked into a cafe at a similar, moderate pace and had a conversation.

In Belfast, she did a stint in a Simon Community Hostel and had been wondering for some time what the point of art and painting is when there are people in desperate circumstances who need practical help. A friend encouraged her to apply for a job she saw advertised with Arts Care and, as you might hear following a 'legs eleven' - Bingo.

Beverley was able to connect her creativity to her compassion. Arts Care is a charity that works in partnership with Health and Social Care Trusts throughout Northern Ireland. They believe in the benefits that creativity brings to well-being, so they facilitate workshops with both patients and staff using both artists-in-residence as well as project artists. Beverley describes that side of her work as being, “an artist working in a therapeutic environment not an art therapist�. She is particularly drawn to using her art in the area of mental health and has flourished in that role. Indeed, in 2007 Bev was the catalyst for the organisation winning First Prize in the Blair L Sadler International Healing Arts Award.

No stranger to awards, last year Beverley won the American Arts Award in the category of 'Portrait of Someone Not Famous'. This was a great encouragement as she has recently gone back to her portraiture which was how she started into art. In secondary school she used to draw pop stars and was recognised for the flair she displayed. She usually paints from observation and often works in egg tempera. If you're like me and don't really know what that is, it's some ground pigments mixed with egg yolk and water, which dries quite quickly and is fairly permanent.

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She moved into her imaginative art after a revelation of sorts. “I had always worked from observation but one time I was watching a documentary about this illustrator whose work I liked and I watched how she painted which was by just starting with some blobs of paint on the paper and seeing where it went. For some reason this inspired me to let go and allow a painting to flow and emerge.” Her imaginative stuff bears little resemblance to her precise and compelling portraits. It is vibrant in colour with a dream-like or other-worldly quality.

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Interestingly, Beverley shared how her faith is important to her and is often expressed through her imaginative pieces or inspires it. “... There have been times when I've done a painting or a sketch in church and it's communicated to people at a deeper level or spoken to them in a way that I wasn't intentionally doing.”

BULL & RAM BELFAST 44 University Road, Belfast, BT17 1JN

BULL & RAM BALLYNAHINCH To view more of RUA exhibitor, Beverley Healy's work visit: culturehubmagazine.co.uk/bev-healy She can also be commissioned for portraits.

Scott Boldt

1 Dromore Street, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AG

Telephone: 028 97 56 0908 Email Bookings: info@bullandram.com www.bullandram.com

INTERVIEW WITH ANNA LO and

BY MELANIE BREHAUT

ll Home a C I e e Plac

oir Th m e T her m f U o g n O i The writ ND

IN E F I L R HE

A

A

nna Lo is a woman of firsts. She is the first qualified minority ethnic social worker in Northern Ireland, the first minority ethnic MLA in Northern Ireland and the first Chinese born parliamentarian in the UK and in Europe. We can thank her for helping bring in the 5p plastic bag tax, affordable housing, foreign language books in libraries, and for being an ardent campaigner for freedom of choice regarding women’s health.

First of all, congratulations on your book. Have you been surprised by the level of interest in it?

As a novice in writing books, I really wasn't sure what to expect in terms of interest in my memoir but I had thought it would appeal to the general public, whether they were interested in politics or not.

My story is about a woman's journey through life, challenging cultural, gender and racial inequalities.

You draw a lot of similarities between the Chinese and Northern Irish in the book. Do you still see that likeness?

Yes, there were many parallels. My great grandfather left China during a time of famine in the 1860s to seek a better life in Hawaii, similar to what happened in Ireland about the same time. There were political echoes too in terms of Hong Kong being a British Colony, and the sensitive issues of allegiance and identity of the people of Hong Kong - they were neither British nor mainland Chinese.

Having arrived here seventeen years ago from Australia, I have had some experience in the culture shock that is Northern Ireland! It's a unique place in the world, isn't it?

It is a place of contrasts. People are generally very warm and friendly but yet the society is deeply divided.

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TICS I L O P OF

Your decision not to stand for re-election last year came as a shock to many, and was one I personally found very sad. How hard a decision was it for you to make?

ABOVE: Anna lo in interview with jo Egan (belfast book festival '17)

What to go into politics? Was it Are prompted you proudyou when you look purely to help the local Chinese back at your career, as full ofcommunity, or 'firsts' as it is? Did it feel like you was it something more?

were breaking down barriers at the time?

I had always been interested in Northern Irish politics having been married to a political journalist for 26 years. However, it was a big surprise that, out of the blue, Naomi Long from the Alliance Party asked me to stand in South Belfast. I had previously been a campaigner for racial equality and had lobbied politicians for policy development and services for ethnic minority communities for many years. The prospect of getting into government to effect changes instead of knocking on the doors of politicians to get heard was Your decision notcurious to stand for like me, cleartempting.

I was also if someone re-election last year came as ly from outside with no affinity to onea side or the other to many, was one I by the electorofshock the political divide,and would be received personally found very sad.

How ate. I was therefore pleasantly surprised that I was hard a decision was it for you to elected make?in 2007.

How hard was it to get a foot hold in the rampant sectarianism of NI politics?

Fortunately, I joined the cross-community party, the Alliance, which was founded with the objective to tackle sectarianism in NI. I was with the like-minded people who want to make NI a liberal, progressive and inclusive place, free from orange or green politics. I could not have joined any other party engaged in tribal politics.

I came into politics quite late and had always planned to step down at the retirement age of 65, taking into account that I Ieft school at 17 to work. I served two terms of a total of nine years in Stormont, and it is important to let in new blood and younger people to bring fresh ideas into the Assembly. There are too many dinosaurs who are stuck in the past in Northern Irish politics.

Life must be significantly more relaxing away from the Stormont pressure cooker! What are you up to these days?

I have been enjoying retirement to the full, although still very busy doing voluntary work on the board of a number of NGOs in the environment, art and ethnic minority sectors. In order to keep fit and in addition to regular swimming, I have joined a rambling group which takes me to all sorts of walking trails in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. I have taken up my paint brushes again, learning Chinese water-colour painting from a very talented Chinese artist, whom I am in the process of promoting to have his own exhibition next year.

Finally, what direction do you see NI politics going in the future? Do you think the times are finally a-changing?

With the current stalemate in Stormont, it is disappointing that cultural identity still dominates the direction of NI politics, leaving a vacuum in political leadership to run the country efficiently and effectively with pragmatism.

Interview: Melanie Brehaut Photography: Conor Kinahan

Despite being threatened and taunted by racial abuse, you always seemed so fearless. How did you maintain that throughout your political career?

I always believe those who threatened or made racist abuse against me were cowards. They sniped at me from the dark and my stance has always been that I would not be silenced by bullies.

Are you proud when you look back at your career, as full of 'firsts' as it is? Did it feel like you were breaking down barriers at the time?

I hope by breaking these glass ceilings, I would encourage other black and ethnic minorities and women to strive to reach their potentials. It is very satisfying to achieve what you set out to do despite obstacles on the way.

: book review culturehubmagazine.co.uk/10045-2

Meet the brand new, highly exclusive and immensely exciting model agency who have well and truly put our wee country on the map. Already making waves within the modelling industry not just in Northern Ireland and Ireland, but around the globe.

With over 35,000 followers on social media, their carefully selected models are appearing in shop windows, billboards and in magazines across Ireland. Their talent jet setting to the most beautiful locations on the planet. IAM Models have delivered some of the best up-and-coming talent to date, subsequently building up a very impressive reputation, both locally and beyond.

Not only are the team at IAM Models exceptionally embracing, genuine and personable, they are also vastly experienced, and are makers of an excellent cup of tea. They have worked as models, agents and creatives at agencies in London, including those within the AMA (The Association of Model Agents), which includes industry giants such as Models1, Storm, Select and Premier, the agencies that brought you Kate Moss and David Gandy. With these collaborations, IAM Models hold the unique privilege of being the first and only agency in Northern Ireland to ever send a Northern Irish model to walk at fashion week in London, Paris and New York.

Behind all the glitz and the glamour, there is a love story about ex model and founder of IAM Models, Ryan Alexander, who met a Northern Irish girl by the name of Alex Duignan. Ryan followed Alex back to the Emerald Isle where they will be married next year. The 6ft5, proud Scot quickly became besotted with Northern Ireland, though he wasn’t quite a complete stranger in these lands; his mother grew up in County Down and moved to Scotland when Ryan was very young. Ryan stated: “Northern Ireland is a home away from home for me and has always and will always hold a special place in my heart.”

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Ryan’s Northern Irish mother was an aspiring model in 80s Belfast, but felt like she was held back by the lack of opportunity here. “My mum’s dream of becoming a model has definitely had a huge part to play in why I am so passionate, about making sure there is a platform for Northern Irish and Irish talent, to have a successful modelling career both in Ireland and internationally”, Ryan said.

One of IAM Models’ biggest success stories is 20 year old amateur boxer, Ben Patton, from Dundonald. Ben’s life was flipped upside down after an IAM Models scout approached him while leaving his local gym. “I had never even considered modelling before; in fact, I didn’t actually believe them at first. One minute I was an unemployed, broke, amateur boxer, the next I am walking at London and Milan Fashion week”. Ben is now represented by major agencies in London, Milan, Paris, New York, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and Australia. He is working in a different country each week. “I still can’t quite believe it. Traveling all around the world is something I would never have dreamed of being able to do in a million years, and now it’s happening.”

Aside from working with clients such as CHANEL, ELLE Magazine and Topshop to name but a few, one of the things that makes IAM Models truly special is their in-house project: ‘IAM WHO IAM’. This is comprised of two main bodies. Firstly, IAM Models funds mental health research within Northern Ireland. “Northern Ireland has the highest suicide rate in the whole of the UK with six people committing suicide every single week.” Ryan said. “This is an issue that is very close to my heart and so as a company we want to do everything we possibly can to fight this issue.”

Secondly, IAM Models aim to work with local schools to discuss important issues such as mental health, body dis-morphia, the pressures of social media and self worth.

“As a modelling agency we are often seen to be telling applicants that they are not good enough. IAM Models want to redefine what it means to be ‘good enough.’ Modelling is a job like any other and with every job you must meet certain requirements to be considered for the position. Not everybody meets these requirements, but that certainly does not mean you are any less beautiful, any less valued or worth any less than anyone who does meet these requirements.”

Ryan reckons that the secret to the success of IAM Models is the family values that are rooted within his company. “The genuine love and care that myself and my team have for each and every one of our models resonates in and throughout all that we do”. Ryan said. “I am so lucky to be able to play a small part in shaping our young talent in to the amazing men and women that they are becoming. It’s a joy to watch and a pleasure to go to work everyday. We truly are a family”.

5 8 3 L I S B U R N R D , B E L FA S T B T 9 7 G S I A M M O D E L S A G E N C Y. C O M Bibs - Jakub Koziel (@jakub_koz) • Somto - Ryan Alexander (@shotsbyry) • Ben - Keith Archer (@keith_archer_)

Go Girl are a Belfast based collaborative creative community of women that believe in feminism, opportunity and inclusion. They hold pop up exhibitions, gigs (some producing a podcast), and have even been involved in TEDX Talks at Stormont, amongst many other things. They’re passionate about offering support to other creatives, raising awareness of disadvantaged groups and revolting against the elitist sentiments which prohibit entry into the art world.

F

rom pop up exhibitions to being involved with TEDxWomen talks, you’ve made quite a splash on the Belfast visual art scene and beyond, whilst managing to maintain yourselves as a community of artists that are very open and welcoming to new members and ideas. This is quite a unique and fluid approach for an artist’s collective. How did you form and come together to establish this community?

Cheylene: From the start it’s always been about meeting people, supporting each other, creating things and inspiring others. This has not changed, but the people involved and the diversity of creative disciplines have hugely increased. Which is amazing. We would never want to put Go Girl in a box. It is an open, supportive creative space for anyone who wants to use it and it’s constantly shifting depending on who gets involved!

Cheylene: The idea was born out of a few conversations between myself and Ciara McMullan, a music photographer based in Belfast. I’m a musician myself but we were talking about how we knew so little women in the music industry personally, most of our immediate friends and collaborators were male. So we invited any musicians who were female together to just meet up and hang out in February 2015. We all talked about our experiences of being women in the creative industry - the good and the bad. And we talked about how important and inspiring it was for us to see other women create music and art and be in charge. We wanted to create something that could be really inspiring as well as a place where we could all help each other to achieve what we wanted to.

Obviously, being based in Northern Ireland means that as women, we’re not subject to the same basic human rights as our sisters on the mainland. I think it goes without saying that you have an active political and feminist agenda running through your works and events. How do you ensure that as a collective you are operating under the same idealistic agenda without conflicting ideas?

Alice: I think all of us were feeling like that. There wasn’t a place for us; we didn’t fit in within the creative scene. As soon as Cheylene and Ciara invited some of us together it felt so exciting, and exactly what we needed. It just snowballed from there; it went from a cup of tea in Cheylene’s house to us putting on gigs and exhibitions.

Cheylene: Yeah! It just became ‘Go Girl’ and suddenly there were females from all over the creative industries meeting up, not just from the music industry. The more we all hung out together, the more ideas and projects materialised. We wanted to write songs together, teach each other skills, be in each other’s music videos and photo shoots, put events on together and just champion each other generally.

Catherine: I got involved last summer after Alice mentioned to me about Go Girl on a few occasions. I had seen a photo shoot they did with Vent Threads and wanted to become involved; it seemed an inspiring group of people.

I wanted to work with other women who wanted to get things done, who were positively looking for opportunities and actively making things happen for themselves. I’ve always been a person who tries to create opportunities for myself rather than hanging around waiting for something to come up. I wanted to find like-minded women and Go Girl was the perfect place for that.

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Gemma Mcsherry

Alice: Go Girl wasn’t ever set up to be intentionally feminist.

It is more about celebrating and supporting creative women’s voices. Creating art and music as female artists we’re naturally responding to our environment in Northern Ireland. Sometimes this is in a distinctly feminist or queer way because we’re unhappy with what we see. Like the fact that we don’t have the same human rights as the rest of the UK and how hostile the world can be for all types of females.

Cheylene: Yes, we are feminist who believe in equality. We create a lot of material together and talk a lot about art, music and crazy ideas. The experience of being female means feminism comes into what we talk about and what we create pretty naturally, because that it is our experience as females. But sometimes we just meet up, go dancing or go to local gigs together. We celebrate conflicting ideas and working together has challenged a lot of our ideas and opinions, which is wonderful.

It has definitely made me a prouder feminist and happier woman being surrounded by such incredible females who have different experiences from my own. But more than that I have been given great opportunities in the music and arts from collaborating with Go Girls. The friendships I’ve formed are incredible and that’s the best thing about it!

Northern Ireland is, and has always been, a hub of creative energy, however this has sadly been under appreciated for so long, on a global scale, due to the past divisions within the country. What do you think it is that makes our homeland so prone to creativity and the arts even at times of complete and utter political breakdown?

Catherine: I think that artistic practice is often energised by conflict. When you live in a situation that is actively difficult or unacceptable to you in your daily life, you’ll actively respond to it creatively; if that is how you choose to express yourself. Art and music are forms of expression that straddle all boundaries and can reach beyond language. You could argue that Northern Ireland which has been tainted through conflict in the recent past, resulted in people being silenced for a period due to the danger of speaking out. This silence in the arts fell through with the peace process and with it there seemed to be a massive explosion of creative output from the community that continues today. We understand the importance of the arts, now that we have the freedom to express ourselves without fear of reprimand.

Alice: These moments of unrest led to creative expression.

It’s great to see so many local artists and designers speaking out and being able to easily share their voices online and to know that others are feeling the same.

Cheylene: There is a sense of urgency with the arts here, you have to fight for it to be recognised, to be funded and to be attended. That makes it matter more to you and to those who consume it. The arts scene is so close knit and supportive because when one person succeeds, we all succeed. There’s also a lot of gaps in the industries here which means you can create projects and events that matter to the community a lot more easily, than somewhere bustling like London. Also it is extremely cheap to live here. It is actually possible to pursue a creative life without being chained to an exhausting 9-5 every single day of the week just to cover your rent.

I would honestly urge any struggling creative from around the world, to come to Belfast and start up events, projects, workshops or businesses. This city has given me so many opportunities. It’s a very rewarding place to live creatively even though the politics are ridiculous. Being a feminist artist community you are doing a lot to bring to the forefront women’s issues, as well as having a strong presence of other minority groups such as LGBT, non-binary and queer art, amongst others. It’s fair to say this is a time, more than ever, that keeping open a dialogue about disenfranchised groups is of vital importance.

Cheylene: Speaking from experience we know the power of females banding together. Go Girl is just a couple of dozen females and we have brought each other a lot of opportunity, solidarity, confidence and empowerment. Seeing how many people of all genders stood up for women recently was magical, a lot of us were at the Belfast March. If a couple of dozen creative women from NI can make a difference, millions of women globally is a force to be reckoned with.

Catherine: By existing we are making a stance, which is a little sad, in that it feels very necessary but true nonetheless.

But we’re not going anywhere! We are here to stay and make a difference in meaningful ways as much as possible.

What’s next for Go Girl?

We are currently preparing for our ‘Go Girl Space’ during Culture Night - we’re taking over the High Street Subway and making it a chill out zone with live music and art! We also have another collaborative exhibition coming up in the Black Box in October. If you want to get involved with Go Girl or collaborate with other creative women, message us, we would love to meet you!

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Photo Credit (top): Megan-Caitlin Dallat Photo Credit (bottom): Ciara McMullan

For extended info on go Girl visit: culturehubmagazine.co.uk/go-girl-1

Interview with Mick Fealty the blogger behind the award winning Slugger O'Toole

“Conversation, politics and stray insights�

O

n 11 July 1983 some bands were arriving off the boat in Belfast from Glasgow. In January 1994 at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania a student called Justin Hall started logging his diary entries onto his personal website. With some of his mates Mick Fealty took that boat the bands arrived on to head towards France for a holiday; later, he took up some voluntary work in Liverpool.

In 1997, Jorg Barger coined the word weblog, and on 01 April 1997, Dave Winer started the Scripting News which is probably the longest running weblog on the internet (if a weblog is understood as having posts that are sorted by date with the latest posts at the top and previous ones archived).

Mick went from Liverpool to the south of England for work. In 1998, a computer programmer called Peter Merholz introduced the term 'blog' by abbreviating and lowering the case of weblog. In June 2002, Mick Fealty started the blog Slugger O'Toole, setting it up as a resource to build an archive connected with his qualitative political research. Today, there are approx 100 million active bloggers around the world. Today, Slugger attracts 75,000 readers per month who are interested in learning about and commenting upon politics and news in Northern Ireland.

I had never interviewed a blogger before and imagined that bloggers were people with laptops who log their thoughts and insights in non-work type settings; like cafes, or on a beach, under a duvet. When I set out to interview Mick Fealty about the award winning Slugger O'Toole, I learned that he lives in Dorset, so I needed to request a telephone interview. His preferred method is Skype and after some to-ing and fro-ing on my part, we eventually connected. As it turned out, I asked him questions sitting at a desk and he responded on a beach in the south of England.

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Mick hails from Belfast but has lived 'over there' since 1983, although he has been back regularly every year since, to follow and pursue his interests and passions as well as his work - “I’ve always maintained a working connection”. Despite leaving in the 1980's, he did not do so to emigrate or escape 'the Troubles'; instead, he went travelling, volunteered and then found work and then a partner and a home and children.

The engine can overheat during elections or marching season or about highly controversial issues. A diversity of views and opinion creates a challenge, but conversation needs to be provoked and on Slugger we want people who swap versions of how the world sits with them.

Before 1983, Mick Fealty was working in the North to bring people together through conversation and he was concerned with how to promote participation.

Since 1983, Mick has been working to bring people together through conversation and he is concerned with how to promote participation. His first job involved working in schools and with local communities around Belfast, “using creative workshops and story creation”. He said,

“ ... The 'comment zone' can be a place for pushing and challenge and pulling things out of the normal context.” Mick went on to say that the 'comment zone' generates social data and that, “it is often there where you can find an unexpected story or piece of research”. He praises the contributors to the site and added: “Blogger quality encourages the enquiry into issues and stories to be diverse, and ongoing participatory enquiry means you find out the exceptions”.

It was community arts based and I was focused on what it takes to get people to work on shared problems without compromising their inputs.

In the course of our conversation, it was clear that the principles and underlying values that informed his early work have carried over into the culture and ethos of Slugger O'Toole. Slugger is a finely crafted, highly engaging and in-depth blog site with a varied range of insightful contributors, particularly its editor Mick Fealty who is prolific. Slugger O’Toole has composed, at my count, about 40,000 blogs. Mick’s first post was on 05 June 2002 and they have not stopped since. The big question for me is how does one moderate a site which is primarily about Northern Irish politics while allowing readers the option to comment.

“It took about six months to stabilise the comments, but people learned that it is rule based participation – you play the ball, not the man. In fact, taking a political position should not require a moderator. Rule based engagement is the key, along with consistency.

Some people fall foul of the rules, like in anything, but largely on Slugger there is self-policing. The enabling axiom is: Did you engage with the material of the story? You can tackle the ball hard but stay clear of the man. In other words, people have to comment on the content of what has been posted not on the person who has posted. Offending people doesn't really come into it; we're here to engage in and encourage enquiry.

I mean in the digital world, it's a multi-verse; there's not an overall editor but there is the rule, and the boundaries are there.”

Mick mentioned that there are certain instances when care is required.

Interestingly, Mick did not set up Slugger O'Toole as a vehicle for him to share his political views; rather, his intention from the start was to use it to complement his research and to create an archive of Northern Irish political discussion and insight. To his surprise and, “... very quickly, we had high powered senior political people reading our stuff”. Some of those have engaged on the site but he has learned that many use the blogs and comments to gain insight and to gauge opinion.

“It was interesting because when we started (June 2002) not many politicians (here) would have known what a blog was, but it took off and I know that we are a reference point. We started to publish long interview transcripts we had done with (NI) politicians and those were a key driver for conversation. In the early days as well, we were about breaking stories but Twitter does that now; in a sense, Twitter is micro-blogging, but we are about enquiry, participatory enquiry.

And now we have also become a useful historical archive. You can go back and read about the first Stormont Assembly collapse, what the issues were and what people were thinking”.

Slugger O'Toole is a highly regarded site voted the 'Best Political Weblog' for the European Weblog Awards and is known for finding and putting forth some of the best writing and research on Northern Irish politics. Not surprisingly, Slugger is a great place for journalists to get story ideas; “they use it to discover new leads and angles”. I don't think you'll find any 'fake news' in the 533 pages of Mick's blogs or from any of the other contributors, but you will discover a diversity of fresh insight, unexpected perspectives and challenging comment. For the extended interview visit: culturehubmagazineco.uk/slugger-otoole Scott Boldt • Photo credit: Bobbie hanvey

39 7

MISHAPS &

HAPPENINGS

IN THE NORTH OF THIS WEE ISLAND

yourself r Fry, immerse te ls U he T h it Billy w iliar nny world of fu To those unfam ly se n te in up to in the he two teamed T immediately a. he ’S O us concernd Seam McWilliams an h the mishaps and happenings ug land. The start raking thro ity of the North of our wee is t and ajor the establishmen ing the silent m th bo at es ip w side-s the street. best irreverent and woman on an m ’ ge ra ve ‘a the

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ittle bit of history - the two authors of the satire page, and as of last Christmas, book, The Ulster Fry, Ciaran ‘Seamus’ Murray and Ivan ‘Billy’ Minnis are real journalists. In my naivety, I assumed I could get answers back from the men behind the masks. Folly, pure unadulterated folly; instead, we were answered by the alter egos Seamus and Billy, though on closer inspection it may have been handed to a 16-year-old work experience Derry lad removed from coffee duty to try his thumbs at the keyboard. With these boys, ya never know.

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For those unfamiliar, The Ulster Fry was set up in late 2004 and proved to be an immediate hit with Norn Iron’s writhing masses, joyfully, from both sides of the barbed wire.

Everything and everyone is a target for their vitriolic tongues, including, it seems, a hack trying to get to the truth of the matter.

CultureHUB asks: You’re obviously well trained journalists, do you think the sting of your articles would be lost without proper training? Billy answers: “Nice of you to say so, but neither of us are proper journalists. It would be great to make stuff up like proper journos but sadly we’re just in it for the fame and glory. I studied old stuff at Ballywalter University, then turned to drink. Seamus pretends to know about computers because he once had a Commodore 64.”

Seamus butts in with, “I always find it amusing that real journalists think I’m a journalist too. Truth be told I’ve just been doing an impression of one for years, usually during lunch breaks from a real job. Does that make you feel bad?

It should do…”

With Brexit, Trump, the last election fiasco, etc. the HUB asks if satire is a way to get through to the masses or would their skills be better used by hard journalism being the fourth estate? Billy: “I don’t think the ‘proper’ press would come near us. There isn’t much space for satire.” “ ... Too much of our local press is about pandering to preconceived ideas and opinions of their selected readership and we prefer to challenge that, whatever way we can.”

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WARNING: MAY NOT WORK VERY OFTEN

Seamus adds: “On a personal level what’s going on is quite worrying and depressing; however, as a comedy writer it’s an absolute goldmine.” “ ... That said, our ability to cover world news is somewhat limited as NI readers want NI comedy, that’s why we had Trump building a wall round Lisburn, and Brad and Angelina splitting up in their caravan in Portrush.” See? There is truth in satire and ways of getting the best to unleash their chests.

As to how they met, Billy explains: “Like all great modern romances we met online. I’d admired his work on Pure Derry and Seamus liked the look of CSI Plumbridge. Eventually we met up for a hot date in a pub and agreed we could try a Northern Ireland wide page and came up with the Ulster Fry.” Seamus, again with a Sesame Street Sweet treat returns a sliding-back-under arm-drop-volley, “Actually, I came up with the name Ulster Fry; Billy said he had the same ideas years ago and tried to call it a draw. Chancer.”

With articles as libellous as screaming ‘Come on thunder Gods, ya lazy bastards’ while wearing a copper helmet during a storm on top of a transmitting tower, the HUB questions the Fry’s (we’re on first name terms now) approach to libel and the fact they publish stuff so close to the wind, do they have a lawyer who oversees their work before publication? Seamus: “Trained journalists with in-house lawyers? You really are giving us too much credit. We just wing it.” “... We’ve not been sued yet but there’s a first for everything.

We do give a fair bit of consideration to the implications to what we post though. Well, Billy does at least.

“I’ll probably get us sued eventually. I’m from Derry. It’s in my blood.”

More came and Billy continues: “Seamus always talks about satire kicking up, not down. We do have a go at politicians but we try to be balanced and fair.” Seamus: “Satire kicks all directions. I knew you weren’t listening. Do pay attention William.” Billy responds: “Either way, we don’t bother our arses having a go at self-appointed community representatives who feed off internet notoriety to promote their agendas.”

Like Billy studying in Ballywalter University, the Ulster Fry is famous, infamous, blasphemous, notorious and lightly frivolous with names; the HUB asks where they get their wo/man’s names on the street from? Seamus: “We get that a lot. Folks often tell us the funniest things about our stories is the names, which is quite dis-heartening as a writer when you’ve packed in so many valid satirical points and a few jokes.”

Billy pipes in: “Seamus wins the Ulster Fry name for Rhonda Civic in an article we wrote about cars. I have a secret formula fondness for making Shinner politicians by putting daft things into Google translate Irish yoke.”

As for the media post-Leverson, scrutiny beyond scrutiny, the fall of popular media over hash-tags, FB, Snapchat, and the inverted world we find ourselves in, the Fry has an answer - wisted as only the North can do. Billy replies: “We have the big three, the Tele, the Irish News and the Newsletter. I think a lot of people gave up on hard hitting journalism but the RHI – cash for ash – was driven by journalists, especially from the News Letter...

“On a wider scale the US election, Brexit etc. have shown the need for a more balanced media instead of the Daily Mail’s 'Asylum seekers stole our British summertime'.”

Seamus knocks in: “I think it’s a really dangerous and trying time to be a proper journalist. Most of the local media have a certain political bias of that of their paymasters … dangerously we have terms like ‘fake news’ and ‘post truth’ into the mix and they are very real and very scary...

“I honestly feel we have much more ability to tell the truth through fiction than many journalists can reach with apparent facts.”

As to Brexit and the losing of article 10 of the human rights act which many UK journos have used to protect their freedom of speech, Billy says: “I’ve no idea what article 10 is. Is it like article 50 only one fifth of the size and with less damaging implications?”

Seamus quips: “Maybe we should google it!”

As for plans for another book this December and the future?

Billy: “Global domination through stories about culchies and guides to round-a-bouts. Another book would be nice but that’s up to the publishers. Must give them a shout.” Seamus adds: “Some Christmas, but not this one...

“Our first book was two years’ worth of our best nonsense. I guess the next one, if it happens, will be the same. When you think about it, we just sell people what they’ve read before. That officially makes us hallions.”

There you go folks, two self-admitted hallions who laugh in the face of libel and still bring the Folks on the Hill to their knees.

Quare Hate Sweltered S’warm Wile Close Grand Caul Chilly

Conor O’Neill

Easy Ulster

Temperature

Guide

Foundered Baltic For extended interview and book review visit: culturehubmagazine.co.uk/ulster-fry

ALBUM REVIEW

Joshua Burnside Ephrata

Anthony Toner Ink

There’s a layer of the arcane just under the skin of Joshua Burnside’s debut album, Ephrata. Written within a space of weeks in northern Colombia, it's buoyed with subsequent South American influences.

European influences also feature, with synth loops, lingering indie folk, and the sounds and voices of the everyday - removed from their context and let loose to punctuate unwary songs.

Anthony Toner has made a welcome return with his seventh album. After scoring a local radio hit with ‘Sailertown’, here he brings a restrained but varied set of tunes and is sure to ease his way back onto the airwaves.

The obvious touchstone from Ink’s opening bars of ‘Let The River’ is James Taylor and his feel-good strums. The production on the album is warm and inviting throughout.

Burnside himself plays most of the instruments on the album, accompanied by the affecting vocals of Alana Henderson. With lightness and angst and foreboding, you hear stories contradicting the music they’re wrapped in. ‘Fightforfight’ for instance calls us from the savanna, complete with spaghetti western whistling and Henderson’s long distance vocals.

Burnside’s scuzzy voice is clipped, half spoken until the elated chorus kicks in; belying what is being said. “If you’re not careful you could easily wind up dead”, apparently. Pauses in the song give it a slight air of stage musical, it’s interesting all this; I’m just not sure what he’s so pissed off about. In ‘26th Street’ he boils on the story of Jaime Garzón, the peace activist assassinated in Bogotá, that one’s obvious; this all feels rich.

Ephrata is a change of direction for Burnside, and in it he has created a wide landscape of sounds and feelings; from the haunting and beautiful (‘Blood Drive’), through fast punching (‘Tunnels Pt. 2’), to disembodied unease (‘Tunnels Pt 1’). Ephrata deserves all of the accolades it has been receiving, Burnside is due to release his new EP, Holllllogram on 15 September; one to watch out for.

Cara gibney

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Anthony’s journalistic background is obvious; his ability to turn a phrase, the concept of ‘Alphabet’ is an interesting one. Starting from “A is for…” and running with that process for the song’s entirety, it’s in part a touching tribute to his father; a show-stopping standout of the album.

‘Sleep Like A Soldier’ is a nice bit of strutting soft-rock looking back on the “desperados” who frequent Anderson Park, and painting a brilliantly evocative picture of Coleraine after dark. Even better among the more upbeat numbers is ‘The Candidate’, which utilises banjo to great effect and is an amusing anecdote of blossoming boyhood political awareness.

‘Exit Wounds’ is a gripping spoken-word acoustic jangle about the first, and only, time Anthony held a gun as a young boy at his friend’s dad’s house. It’s a brilliant cautionary tale, and again is a showcase for his storytelling instincts,which really set him apart from the crowd.

The prevailing mood of Ink is of warm reminiscence, a dedication to songwriting craft. The last noise you hear on the album is Anthony laughing, a fitting close to such an easy-going listen. Ink won’t make Anthony a worldwide superstar, but this is an album that betrays utter contentedness; it deserves to sell many.

Gerry Walton

though I’m principally known as an actor, director and writer I trained as a painter at Stranmillis College and the Belfast College of Art. My painting, however, had for years taken a backseat to my theatre work, but in the last 15 years, after I retired from my professorship at the University of Maryland, I felt there was a void which had to be filled and I returned to my art.

“What I respond to everyday is the force of my imagination, a great well of creativity that bubbles up and has to be satisfied just as much as my body needs food and exercise.

Each day my fingers itch to put something on paper, whether it’s words or paint. When that is not possible I feel frustrated and negative...

“I have kept up this intense workload throughout my life and to work is as natural to me as breathing.” “ ... Sometimes, I feel I should go out more, watch movies, read books, not just because they’re a part of my work but for enjoyment. But there is little possibility of dullness when there is so much going on inside my head.”

And to have shared that head of his is wife Joan. McCready implores,

“When I met Joan I was blessed. Together we embarked on a life that has brought us wonderful pleasures, rich experiences and countless friends.” “ ... Central to that relationship has been our love of theatre.

Our relationship began at Stranmillis College, when I cast Joan as my wife in Happy As Larry, a play we performed at the Portrush Summer Theatre. The casting was prophetic and Joan became my wife-for-real four years later. She is a remarkable woman, generous, caring and

44

understanding, whose major concern at all times has been the welfare and support of our children and me. She is a tower of strength and of deep sensitivity, the same qualities she brings to her acting.”

In the mid 1980s Sam and family crossed the pond to America. I ask him his thoughts on the place?

“I have a love-hate relationship with the place but I have put down roots there and that makes it difficult for me to live anywhere else at my stage of life.” “ ... I have the other home in Belfast that is always calling me back but I have to say ‘Catch yourself on, you have a quality life here, you live in an idyllic neighbourhood with the best neighbours you could wish for. You have a son and granddaughter here who value you. You’re as happy as Larry here, what would you go back for?’...

“And I know deep down it’s not possible to go back.

Belfast has changed since I lived there, friends have moved on and I have moved on as well.”

“The smallness and parochialism of Belfast is sometimes tiresome to me and I just want to say to people, ‘Would you look outside your shores and realise what a quality of life is possible if you gave up those prejudices, the narrow-mindedness, and allowed others to live how they chose.” He continues, “That is what is so wonderful about the US. People as a whole respect ‘The other’. They don’t question your religion, your political affiliation, your sexual orientation.”

“Yes, there are prejudices and concerns about racial discrimination in some parts of the U.S. but the remarkable thing is that in a country with so many cultural and ethnic groups, the majority get along in comparative harmony. It

is the exception that makes the news, not the norm.”

“At the same time, I’m in despair about the current political situation in the U.S. While the majority of my friends are liberals, the last election has shown whole areas of deep conservatism of a variety that is exclusive and in contradiction to the values of those Americans I know well.”

Thankfully his love of the grand ole U.S. doesn’t wane his love for home. August brought Sam back in his place of birth; the East of Belfast. The Eastside Arts festival was treated to his new adaptation of Robert Harbington’s No Surrender. The book is a memoir of his growing up during the war. McCready says, “It took me ages to get permission to do it. It’s written by someone who was born in Dee Street, East Belfast who then went on to live on the Donegal Road during the depression of the 1930s. His father was a window cleaner who gets killed doing his work and the young lad is in a single-parent family struggling. His mother is working three jobs and eventually he’s evacuated to Enniskillen. For him it’s the emergence of an extraordinary talent.

“The book is there, it’s published by Faber and Faber but very few people know about it. I struggled to get a literary executor for me to get the rights to adapt it for the stage and finally I got them...”

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“It’s the kind of message I want to share about a boy who grows up in that Protestant background but has an epiphany which he recognises that there is the ‘other side’. That’s the kind of message I want to promulgate in the community.”

MEN

“ ... It’s still a very vital and lively piece of writing. I’m on a mission to get more attention put on this man.”

Mr Sam McCready; 80 years young and making people half his age feeling lethargic. Long may it continue.

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THE BENEFITS

F

ly Fishing is one of those overlooked activities that could be the perfect solution. Dr Pauline McClenaghan identifies with the benefits of Fly Fishing.

“It makes you so aware of nature. On the Faughan River, I just love being out on a lovely summer’s night. There’s otters and birds and other amazing wildlife such as dragonflies. The Faughan runs parallel to the town so within two minutes you are off that busy road and it’s so quiet, peaceful and lovely; so good for the mind...

“You become so aware of the environment and how beautiful and valuable it is. And with Fly fishing there’s always so much more to learn.”

Pauline, in her professional life, was University Lecturer and Researcher before taking her current position as Executive Director of The Lifestart Foundation which delivers an evidence-based child development programme for parents of young children. Initially, she did not intend to take up the sport but came across it through her father, as she explains.

“He did a little bit of fly fishing but not a lot … I went out with him a few times when we were kids, down to the Isle of Doagh in Donegal to do a bit of sea trout fishing. When he was in his seventies he developed epilepsy and he couldn’t drive. He said ‘I can’t give up the car because I’ll not be able to get to the river and I’ll not be able to get to the lakes’. So I said to him, ‘If you give up the car, I will take you to the river and the lakes. I can drop you to the river in the morning on my way to the university and come back for you in the evening.’ But of course when I would go back for him, if the tide was right he was reluctant to leave!”.

“On my birthday the following year, he bought me a spinning rod. So, I started going to the Faughan with him and started bait fishing and spinning and then when I was watching people fly fishing I thought ‘Well I would like to try that …’ So my husband Dermie bought me my first fly rod and I just started trying to teach myself by watching people. And I made a lot of friends on the river,” she reminisces.

Reflecting on the bond that formed with her father as a result of their shared hobby she says: “My dad died in 2000 and I kept it up. I got to know my father in a different way through fishing. I think he sometimes forgot I was his daughter.”

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STACY FITZPATRICK “ ... We just became very good fishing buddies and he used to tell me stories about his early life. We spent a great many happy years on the river together.”

As well as fly fishing being a deep loved hobby, Pauline also represents Ireland in the sport as part of the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association.

“I was looking on the internet for fishing clubs and I came across the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association. They run 4 national competitions a year and participate annually in a four-nations international competition involving Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. The first year I joined I fished in three of the national competitions and caught enough fish to qualify for the internationals which was in Wales.”

Further developing her love for the sport, she also is a qualified fly fishing coach.

“When I qualified for the international, I thought I better get myself up to competition standard. So, I went to see Ian Gamble of the Oaks Fishery. Ian is a qualified coach with the Association of the Professional Game Angling Instructors and he coached me for the competition. We became very good friends and he suggested I do the coaching qualification, which I did and I qualified as a single-handed instructor last year.”

Pauline also was awarded Sports Person of The Year Award 2014 by the Derry Journal after being nominated by her husband Dermie.

“I honestly didn’t believe I would get it because it is usually boxers or footballers or people like that. But the committee said it was a unanimous decision. It was a great privilege getting the award.”

Her reputation as a dedicated fisherwoman and sports-person is well known and respected in the fishing community, often being asked to give talks on the sport at events such as at the North West Angling Fair.

What exactly is fly-fishing? Essentially it is using an artificial fly usually to catch game fish, (i.e. trout or salmon). Pauline explains: “There are natural brown trout in our rivers and lakes and in the spring and summer salmon and sea trout come into our rivers to breed. Sea trout are a subspecies of brown trout but they live out in the estuaries only coming into the river to breed. Salmon are born in the river but they go out to sea, sometimes travelling 7

CARTOONIST

TOM JOHNSTON

The beginning of my conversation with cartoonist Tom Johnson is a troubled one, the phone pressed silently to my ear as I repeat “Hello? Hello?” into the void. Tom, it transpires, is under repeated canine assault. “Sorry,” he says, “I’m just back. He hasn’t seen me all day.”

A

I have had cartoons published in every British newspaper except the Daily Star. I caught the last few years of the old Fleet St, it was the 80s and a wonderful time. The pubs were all full and journalists from different newspapers mixed with each other. I was doing three times the work of any other cartoonist in the country, I had no quality of life although I was earning a lot. All of the ideas I had were being used; at one point I was doing 32 cartoons a week. Admittedly, The Sun wasn’t too bad then. Kelvin McKenzie rang me up and tried to get me to work for him exclusively. I was sat in his office and he had just sacked a load of people; one of them was on the roof outside threatening to jump! And during the interview he’d get up, open the window and shout “Well, you haven’t fucking jumped yet have you?”

Private Eye editor, Ian Hislop has been described as ‘the most sued man in English legal History’. Tell us about your work with the infamous publication.

I had my first cartoon published in Private Eye in the mid-seventies. I can remember how delighted I was because I went out and bought 5 copies of the magazine. I know Ian Hislop and like him very much. I am more friendly with Ian's writing partner; Nick Newman who is also a cartoonist. At a PE party Ian Hislop once told me that PE is not left wing. I think he'd stereotyped me as a ‘lefty’. I didn't think that PE was supportive of any political side; but to prove it to me anyway, Ian sat down at a piano and played and sang a rousing chorus of *JERUSALEM.

PRIVATE EYE MAGAZINE

I started doing cartoons in College, in Leeds. I just sent them out on spec, earning a fiver a time. Originally I could have wallpapered the room with rejection slips; but eventually I got one in The Mirror.

And from then on you started working for everybody: The Sun, Smash Hits, Sounds, Melody Maker, to name just a few.

PRIVATE EYE MAGAZINE

fter this hesitant start, the floodgates open. Tom loves to talk. Luckily, he has a lifetime of fantastic stories to tell.

What follows is not so much an interview as Tom talking and me saying “uh huh” and writing things down. I do get this early zinger in, however: 'Hi, Tom, how did you get started in cartoons?'

John Blake had the first ever pop column in a newspaper in the London Evening News. The cartoons were being done by older guys, people like Barry Fantoni. John rang me up and I got the job just because I was younger, really. I’m not a natural hustler but I was in the right place at the right time; the press called me the first 'punk cartoonist', which I wasn’t that keen on. I was in punk rock, though I was never really a joiner.

48

PRIVATE EYE MAGAZINE

How did you get into doing cartoons for the music magazines?

1979-1980: White sands, New Mexico

You were too punk for punk rock! How was it working for the newspapers then?

I was very pleased to have worked in the real Fleet Street.

I’ve read about the newspaper culture in the seventies and eighties. Was that a terribly boozy time?

A lot of my life has been a terribly boozy time! It’s gone, that world.

Cartoonists tell the truth and they (the newspapers) stopped liking that. All of the corporate people have taken over. The soul has gone.

The last paper I had worked on fired all the journalists so they could afford to buy apps to attract 18-24 year olds. All they want you to do is mention football as much as possible. Greed just makes them do stupid stuff.

Did you read comics growing up?

I read the boys’ comics: Hotspur, Victor, Wizard, that sort of thing.

Do you think it had any impact on your drawing style?

I bought them and I liked them but I wouldn’t be going to Comic Con. I’m not obsessive. The drawing is the least important thing when you’re doing a cartoon. You’re just trying to get an idea across.

Who do you like then?

I went to France and found this guy Jean-Marc Reiser. He was working for Charlie Hebdo and his art just looked like scribbles. I like it a lot – helped me to simplify my style. I also like David Austin who did Hom Sap in Private Eye. The other passion in Tom’s life is music. He has a radio show on Belfast 89FM called Tom Johnston’s Time Machine. I have to mention it, he says, they’ll rightfully be pissed off otherwise!

It’s supposed to be for sixty year olds but I just really play what I want, Wire, Beefheart, whatever. When I was younger the Melody Maker made the whole world exciting. The first time I heard the Beatles the whole world went into technicolor. You felt like you could have done anything.

You also played bass and managed THE THE in the late seventies and early eighties didn’t you?

I rented a place in Covent Garden – seventeen quid a week for the whole floor! You met someone new everyday. I was at a festival and one of the kids knew me because I was working for Sounds, and he handed me a demo tape. And it was Matt Johnson from THE THE’s demo tape. It was just rambling, synth music but you could tell there was something special about it. So I put them in a big festival in Covent Garden alongside Scritti Politti and PragVEC. So effectively you kick-started his career?

ORIGIN

AL: ‘THE MATT JO T H E’ H NSO N W ITH TOM JOH NSTON AT WITH BASSIST T H E RO C K GARDEN

Well, Matt says that I was the first person to spot his talent. I’m meeting up with Matt actually. Johnny Marr’s back in the band.

Do you think perhaps he’s looking for a bass player?

I'm way out of practice and wouldn't be up to it. The last time I played live with THE THE was on the stage of the old Marquee Club. Marc Almond joined us for that night and I was so pleased to get to play on the same stage where Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Stones The Yardbirds and Bowie started out.

Interview: JOHN PATRICK HIGGINS

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“The great thing about Belfast is that not only can you go out just about every night of the week and find a really good session if you are a listener, or a musician yourself, but you can actually go and have your choice,” Conor Caldwell explained, keen to point out the different strands of traditional music on offer.

“It is not just that there is one distinct group, there are lots of little subgroups. Each of them with their own musical culture, balance of instruments, guitar accompaniment and bodhrán styles. So there is a really multifaceted ecosystem going on in the city at the minute.”

Caldwell is a musician. He is also a musicologist, a Teaching Assistant at Queen’s University and a music tutor. All of which are roles that add multiple layers to his overview of the burgeoning traditional music scene in this part of Ireland.

From The Errigle Inn to The Fountain Tavern, and the countless other venues throughout the city, traditional music is rising in popularity.

“There are definitely different musical voices opening up in the city” Caldwell told me. “Like the gang who would be, say, in their 20s and 30s, who came up through the Andersonstown School of Traditional Music. They would have a much more contemporary attitude towards the repertoire. Then you would get the slightly older crowd, say 40s and 50s. They would be playing a lot of the classic stuff from the likes of The Bothy Band. Then there is a generation above that, the 60 and 70 year olds, who’ve been playing music since the early seventies in Belfast.”

The Friday evening trad session at The Garrick is a relaxed affair according to Caldwell, who regularly joins resident players Theresa Clarke on fiddle, and Gary Duffy on flute. For Caldwell there’s a special extra element to the Garrick session though. “If you play a tune in the session that the other musicians don't know, we tend to go away and learn [them] … and then those tunes are adopted into the more regular repertoire.”

This results in not only reel and jig tunes on the night, but added barn dances, hornpipes, waltzes, and maybe “depending on how noisy it gets, a couple of songs … a far greater variety of tune types played.”

This network, this community of musicians, stretches well beyond Belfast of course, and Caldwell lists multiple venues with a strong traditional music ethos throughout the north, and further afield. Take Hayden's Bar in Pomeroy for example. “Over the course of my time out playing tunes, there would have been bus loads going down from Belfast,” he recalled. Then there is The Crosskeys Inn in Toomebridge, which “is a national monument to traditional music ... My parents were going to sessions in The Cross Keys in 1972; it was always a big attraction to Belfast people driving out there to go to the Saturday night thing.

They would be getting people in from all over. From Maghera, from Dungiven, all around the local area.”

CARA GIBNEY • Photo: Tremaine Gregg 50