Belfast Exposed has on display an exhibition by Taryn Simon. Entitled Contraband, to view is a sampling of 1,075 photographs of items detained or seized from passengers (and express mail) entering the United States. The Belfast Exposed exhibition is in the main gallery, with a weekly lunchtime talk every Wednesday. I caught the last talk; … Continue reading Contraband at Belfast Exposed
Retaining "our shared Christian ethos" in shared education: DUP conference 2011 by Allan LEONARD 26 November 2011 With Northern Ireland's Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson MP MLA, providing a warm up act at the DUP annual conference, I attended a panel discussion on "Fixing Education": Michelle McIlveen MLA (Chair) Rev. Trevor Gribben (Transferors' Representative Council) Billy … Continue reading Retaining “our shared Christian ethos” in shared education: DUP conference 2011
Accommodating faith and diversity in Northern Ireland: @IFNetUK Inter-Faith Week 2011 by Allan LEONARD for Shared Future News 21 November 2011 OFMDFM Junior Ministers Martina Anderson and Jonathan Bell sponsored a panel discussion marking Inter-Faith Week, organised by the Northern Ireland Inter-Faith Forum: "Accommodating faith and diversity in Northern Ireland". The panel discussion was chaired … Continue reading Accommodating faith and diversity in Northern Ireland
Dr Gordon Gillespie, who is a researcher at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast, gave a presentation on "Graphic Portrayals: Northern Ireland, Graphic Novels and the Peace Process", at the Linen Hall Library. Gordon started with a clarification that he was going to talk about graphic novels/comic books, not cartoons, and material … Continue reading Graphic portrayals – Northern Ireland, graphic novels and the peace process
It was a pleasure to be among many guests for an after work reception at Ardnavalley, for former US Consul General, Barbara Stephenson, who is over for a visit from her Deputy Chief of Mission post at the US Embassy in London.Ambassador Stephenson served as US Consul General in Belfast from 2001-2004. Indeed, she arrived … Continue reading Barbara Stephenson’s “old friends” reception
You never know where a blog posting will end up -- on the back of my praise for Libraries NI making available e-books for loan via the Overdrive mobile application, I was asked to participate in a discussion on BBC Radio Ulster's Saturday Magazine programme, presented by John Toal. The panel included Helen Osborn (Director … Continue reading Discussing e-books on BBC Radio Ulster Saturday Magazine
After many times talking about taking a boat trip to Copeland Island, Madame Oui and I finally got our finger out and jumped onboard "The Brothers" on a sunny afternoon. Not surprisingly for us, immediately we noticed the captain's dog, who kept himself very satisfied up in the cramped bridge: There were a couple dozen … Continue reading Copeland Island adventure
Well, the ability to borrow e-books from any public library in Northern Ireland somehow missed me. I only discovered this via an article in the magazine Tap!, in a review of the iPhone app Overdrive. It's genius. But you will need a real library card at a participating library, whether in Northern Ireland, the United … Continue reading Borrowing e-books from Belfast Central Library
What a sad coincidence that Garret FitzGerald should die today, in the midst of the historic visit to Ireland by the Queen of England. For me, FitzGerald was the spark for my interest in Irish history and politics. While in high school in a small Midwestern town, I read an article of the Taoiseach in … Continue reading FITZGERALD was why I pursued Ireland
'Americans had little experience of terror' Laura Murphy (News Letter) 7 May 2011 [Laura Murphy interviewed me about the death of Osama bin Laden] Relief, and the belief that "every right-thinking person" should share this emotion, was what was experienced by US-born Allan Leonard, when he learnt of the death of terror chief Osama bin … Continue reading ‘Americans had little experience of terror’ (News Letter)
