Peacebuilding a shared Northern Irish society
What happens when you ask an online chat room how to make a home? In an interview-style format with about 50 people attending, Belfast Exposed Curator Ciara Hickey asked artist Jan McCullough to share her journey. Home Instruction Manual is the product of the Internet. That is, while Jan McCullough is the author of this... Continue Reading →
John Hume: Irish peacemaker. Discuss. by Allan LEONARD for Shared Future News 15 December 2015 Sean Farren and Denis Haughey have edited a new book, John Hume: Irish Peacemaker, published by Four Courts Press. As part of this book launch, there is a series of panel discussions, for which this event took place at the... Continue Reading →
I had the pleasure of meeting Neil O'Brien at a NI Biz Camp event in Belfast, April 2013. I immediately liked his sense of humour: "Sending me to a relaxation course is stressing me out!" Yet behind his Irish wit is a concise, distilled lesson plan of proven suggestions to motivate yourself to the next... Continue Reading →
I came across Coffee with Jesus on a display table at the front of a Barnes & Noble bookstore. Just as well, as I doubt I would have perused the religion section to discover it. Coffee with Jesus originated online, under the consortium Radio Free Babylon. It is a irreverent perspective of Christ in everyday --... Continue Reading →
Perhaps poignantly after just returning from a long and splendid transatlantic Christmastime holiday, and getting back into routine in the return to work, I finished Alain de Botton's book, A Week at the Airport. A Week at the Airport is a short and compact book ("Slender enough to pack in your carry-on", Daily Mail). It... Continue Reading →
Reading this book was always going to have a special meaning to me, as my wife had a stroke about two years ago. Like James and Bev, my wife and I are writing a book together about our experience. We honestly came up with the same chapter layout as them — alternative narrations. In these types of... Continue Reading →
http://youtu.be/DruhJkZU4EI Good Vibrations is a film about Belfast music legend, Terri Hooley, who was responsible for discovering The Undertones and recording Teenage Kicks (which radio DJ Jonathan Peel famously played twice in a row). UTV film critic Brian Henry Martin described Good Vibrations as "born, bred and buttered" in Belfast. The film is a total... Continue Reading →
Another art exhibition review in less than a week. This isn't my day job, honest. After a work related meetup at the MAC Belfast, I toured the Andy Warhol exhibition. This was my first time at the MAC, so I was inspecting the venue, too. I'm excited that Belfast has at long last a contemporary... Continue Reading →
Somehow I escaped reading this essential school text, with its story of racism in 1930s American South. Living in Northern Ireland, I draw parallels with sectarianism, with its similar bigotry and prejudice. To Kill a Mockingbird was part of a Unite Against Hate campaign event at Parliament Buildings in Northern Ireland, which I've written about... Continue Reading →
As coincidence would have it, I was in Derry/Londonderry for a set of meetings and decided to stay on for an early evening launch event of the 2012 Foto Foyle programme of photo exhibitions. Inside The Playhouse was a display of a new body of work by Christof Pluemacher, "one of Germany's foremost photographic artists".... Continue Reading →
Tony Macaulay is a respected professional community relations and youth worker based in Belfast. For example, he has written independently, "A discussion paper proposing a five phase process for the removal of 'peace walls' in Northern Ireland". This book is his story of being a 12-year-old paperboy, living in the Shankill area of West... Continue Reading →
I was once asked if I thought the Northern Ireland conflict was difficult to comprehend. Not really, I replied. What confounded me was that as so many people within Northern Ireland understood the various factors involved, why work towards any resolution took so long. Put another way, I found comprehending the geo-political situation of former... Continue Reading →