http://chng.it/Bbm7D2YnNK Share and sign folks. Petitions are easily dismissed but when one reaches 10,000 signatures parliament by law have to respond to it. If the community speak loud enough people will have to listen. It …
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/the-northern-ireland-protocol-all-shades-of-unionist-are-really-angry-1.4489813 Community leaders on frustration at article 16 and fears of violence returning Sat, Feb 20, 2021, 01:00 Freya McClements Loyalist Jim Wilson on the Newtownards Road in Belfast. Photograph: Stephen Davison Jim Wilson has …
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/former-loyalist-paramilitaries-call-for-rational-talks-on-northern-ireland-protocol-1.4483571 Reach UK group backs DUP plan to ‘free’ Northern Ireland from protocol about 17 hours ago Freya McClements A loyalist sign in Lurgan, Co Armagh, about the Belfast Agreement amid tensions over the Northern …
Reach UK endorses the 5 point plan from our countries First Minister and call on all to engage with it as a first step to resolving the divisive Irish Sea Border and NI Protocol. We …
Share and sign folks. Petitions are easily dismissed but when one reaches 10,000 signatures parliament by law have to respond to it. If the community speak loud enough people will have to listen.
It cannot be justified to not only demolish an iconic building; but to also demolish a building that could put a small dent in an already huge and rising housing waiting list within the area.
The Housing Executive have a tower block action plan in place, rightly or wrongly. In that plan there are 33 tower blocks. Why is it that the first to be targeted is located in one of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland with one of the highest waiting lists.
If demolished it will lay vacant for 5 years until plans are put in place to demolish the neighbouring Abbotscoole house. That leaves a possible 8 years before anything is actually physically built in the area. Nearly a decade!
At present there are around 500 families (and rising) who require immediate housing within the area.
There is no logic behind these plans. Your help would be much appreciated.
Loyalist Jim Wilson on the Newtownards Road in Belfast. Photograph: Stephen Davison
Jim Wilson has seen tension on the streets of Belfast for much of his life. Today, he uses the image of the boiling kettle to describe the atmosphere in loyalist areas: “It’s simmering and simmering.”
“And then it’ll start to come to the boil. A lot of us are trying to calm it down … but the frustration in our communities, it is really serious. People are trying to keep a lid on it.”
A former member of the loyalist paramilitary group, the Red Hand Commandos, Wilson is now a community worker in east Belfast trying to calm tensions caused by the controversy over the Northern Ireland protocol.
“The very last engagement we want in our communities is violence of any description,” says Wilson; the only thing the flags protests of 2012-13 achieved was to give over 300 kids criminal records, he emphasises.
‘One minute the vote for Brexit was a UK-wide thing, but now what they’ve said is the UK voted to leave but Northern Ireland, you have to stay a wee bit there’
“Violence has hurt us in the past and it’ll hurt us in the future and we don’t want violence,” he goes on. But his declaration, speaking to The Irish Times, comes with a caveat.
“I’m not saying violence is totally out the window. We’re a bit long in the tooth, there are younger lads coming through … they’ll push us aside and say, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter what you say’.”
Graffiti voicing opposition to the Irish Sea Border and the Northern Ireland protocol – which loyalists oppose because it places a customs and regulatory border between the North and the rest of the UK – first appeared in January, and has mushroomed since the controversy over the European Commission’s hastily aborted plan to trigger article 16 and the temporary withdrawal of some staff at Belfast and Larne ports amid concerns for their safety.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) subsequently said these threats were not credible, with both the police and loyalist sources attributing them to individuals or small groups, not loyalist paramilitary organisations.
However, the concern now is that the further tensions are raised, particularly among the younger generation, the more difficult the situation might be to control.
Jim Wilson at a mural for the Titanic on the Newtownards Road, in Belfast. Photograph: Stephen Davison
Brexit
“It just seems to be taking and taking and taking of the unionist community,” says Wilson. “[The Protocol] is probably the biggest kick in the teeth we have had from the government in the United Kingdom in a long, long while.”
“One minute the vote for Brexit was a UK-wide thing, but now what they’ve said is the UK voted to leave but Northern Ireland, you have to stay a wee bit there [in the EU],” says Jim, a north Belfast community worker who works mainly with young people in the Tiger’s Bay area.
He is the only one of a number of community workers from loyalist areas in Belfast and north Down who would be fully identified talking The Irish Times because of the past abuse they have received on social media.
There is the sense that unionism is treated with a ‘lack of respect’ by nationalist politicians, and by those in the Republic
For example, there is frustration and anger over how loyalists are portrayed by the media, as well as successive incidents within their own communities that have fuelled disillusionment and resentment.
They list these as including unfounded claims made about loyalist communities in north Belfast following the disappearance and death of schoolboy Noah Donohoe in June.
Then, there is a Belfast City Council motion that clears the way for a minority of people in a community to ask for the erection of Irish language street signs.
Then, there was the unhappiness caused internally when Crusaders FC – a north Belfast club with a strong tradition in loyalist areas – backed calls for an all-island league.
Finally, and this appears often in conversations with loyalists, there is the sense that unionism is treated with a “lack of respect” by nationalist politicians, and by those in the Republic.
Such factors are symptomatic, they argue, of the extent to which their identity is being undermined. “People are now just collectively demonising everything about being British in Northern Ireland, and it’s working,” says Jim.
Brexit has brought a united Ireland forward, “there’s no doubt about it,” says Martin, from the Shankill area of west Belfast. “Somewhere along the line there will be a big, major discussion on a united Ireland
“It’s inevitable, but the way it’s being done at the moment, it’s getting forced down your throat without your opinion or how you feel about it,” he tells The Irish Times.
Of the protocol, he says, “we’re saying clearly in unionist communities it won’t work because we don’t want it to work. It’s aggressive, it’s offensive, it totally demeans our situation in our own state, and nobody seems to care.”
Unionist parties have called for the protocol to be scrapped, expressing concern not just about the constitutional implications but also the impact on businesses and the availability of goods in the North since it came into effect.
A DUP online petition calling on the UK government to trigger Article 16 to secure “unfettered” trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, has attracted more than 142,000 signatures. It will be be debated in Westminster on Monday.
Last week Reach UK, an east Belfast community organisation which represents former loyalist paramilitaries, called for “calm and rational” engagement to lower tensions and solve issues related to the protocol; Wilson points out that so far, “the leaders of loyalism have been very, very quiet”.
“This is in the hands of politicians, and if the politicians don’t sort it and fix it then that’s where you run the risk … that then loyalism might look at it in different ways.”
On the streets, “what I’m hearing from young and old, people are talking silly stuff about violence,” says Jim. “These are people who I never would have thought would have talked that way, so you’re not talking loyalists here but all shades of unionism from top to bottom. They’re really angry.”
He puts it down to “windbagging” rather than a serious call for violence. Nevertheless, he emphasises that he and others present lived through the Troubles and “it’s probably those who didn’t engage in violence are shouting it the loudest, but they’re still shouting it and young people listen to that.”
“You stand at the market on a Saturday and you hear someone saying they can’t get the fish from Scotland, and then that ripples around, and that’s where you hear the talk, ‘Oh, we should do this, why don’t the boys get out’, and that’s where it gets dangerous,” says David, a community worker in Ards and north Down. “Somebody will listen to that and think that’s what people want.”
“It’s a catalogue of things and it’s just building and building and all it takes is one kid pointed in the wrong direction and you’ll have kids going to jail again,” says Martin.
His concern is for the summer ahead, and the marching season; he explains that young people now begin collecting wood for the bonfires – traditionally lit in loyalist areas on the eve of July 12th – as early as March or April.
“You know what there is an appetite for? A long, long summer,” he says. “See when the kids start building for bonfires here, and you then have councils going in and moving them … they feel that everything they do as far as tradition round bonfires is getting taken away year by year, bit by bit.
“That’s going to fuel an awful lot of violence from young lads whom people can’t stop over the summer months.”
A loyalist sign in Lurgan, Co Armagh, about the Belfast Agreement amid tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
A community organisation which represents former loyalist paramilitaries has called for “calm and rational” engagement to lower tensions and solve issues related to the Northern Ireland protocol.
East Belfast-based Reach UK also gave its support to a plan announced by the DUP last week to “free” Northern Ireland from the protocol.
In a statement the organisation said it “endorses the five-point plan from our country’s First Minister, and call on all to engage with it as a first step to resolving the divisive Irish Sea border and Northern Ireland protocol”.
All parties in Northern Ireland should “calmly and rationally engage with the UK government to address the protocol and Irish Sea border issues, which are causing such alarm within all our communities”, it said.
It is understood these sentiments are backed by the loyalist paramilitary groups the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando, and by loyalist community groups.
Loyalists and unionists are opposed to the protocol – the part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement which relates to Northern Ireland – because it places a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea between it and the rest of the UK.
An online petition by the DUP calling for triggering of article 16 in order to secure “unfettered” trade between Britain and Northern Ireland reached the required 100,000 signatures within 24 hours, with the party receiving notification on Friday that it will be debated at Westminster later this month.
The petition was part of its five-point plan which also includes the boycott by the DUP of all cross-Border activity related to the protocol and the opposition of all protocol-related measures in the North’s Assembly.
The DUP leader, Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster, said on Friday that people needed to “take heed” of what was being said by the unionist community. “There has to be recognition in London, Dublin and Brussels that damage has been done by this protocol and therefore we have to deal with it.”
However, a joint statement released by the EU and UK following talks on Thursday night gave no indication either side was prepared to abandon the protocol, with Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and the EU vice-president Maros Sefcovic reiterating their “full commitment” to it, and saying they had agreed to find “workable solutions on the ground”.
In recent weeks graffiti opposing the protocol has appeared in loyalist areas, and staff carrying out physical checks on goods at Larne and Belfast ports were withdrawn from work for a time over concerns for their safety.
Questions have since been raised about the decision-making process which led to their withdrawal. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has consistently said there was no credible threat and those responsible were “individuals or small groups”, an assessment backed up by loyalist sources.
Those sources have described growing tensions in their areas, and while it is understood former paramilitary groups have no desire for a return to violence there are concerns that if tensions continue to rise this could become harder to maintain.
Customs checks
Instead of the protocol Reach UK said it supported a mutual enforcement proposal from the pro-Brexit think-tank the Centre for Brexit Policy, also backed by former Ulster Unionist party leader Lord David Trimble, which it claims will avoid customs checks by having the UK and EU agree to recognise each other’s standards in law.
In its statement it called on everyone in Northern Ireland to sign the DUP’s petition “extending the 100,000 signatures to 250,000, not as a party-political exercise but as a measure of province-wide opposition to the Northern Ireland protocol and Irish Sea border”, and called on the British government to fulfil its commitment to “delivering unfettered access” within the UK internal market.
It also warned the Belfast Agreement had been promoted during Brexit “as a totally green document”. If the agreement could not be implemented “inclusively, pro-union citizens will have no choice but to withdraw all support” from it.
Reach UK endorses the 5 point plan from our countries First Minister and call on all to engage with it as a first step to resolving the divisive Irish Sea Border and NI Protocol. We also ask all within Northern Ireland to sign the relevant petition extending the 100,000 signatures to 250,000, not as a political party exercise but as a measure of province wide opposition to the NI Protocol and Irish Sea Border. We also pledge every support to those legal professionals within the pro union business community who may wish to launch a legal challenge to the protocol and end the uncertainty within all our lives. Reach UK is a non political entity and stress that these should not be seen as party political initiatives but as a societal imperative for us all. We implore all to set aside selfish or political career interests and work for a solution to the benefit of all within Northern Ireland. Reach UK calls on all parties in Northern Ireland to engage calmly and rationally with the UK government to address the NI Protocol and Irish Sea Border issues which are causing such alarm within our communities. As a possible way forward we support the idea, as we understand it, from The Centre for Brexit Policy’s proposal that Mutual Enforcement can provide the way forward. This arrangement would see the UK and EU recognising each others products and services in law, thereby negating the need for checks on goods going between UK and Northern Ireland. As Owen Patterson states under this arrangement only checks on goods going between EU and UK are required allowing for UK sovereignty to be protected and the Irish Sea Border to be abandoned. Mutual Enforcement works by inverting the normal approach to customs enforcement with compliance placed as law on the exporter of the exporting territory, critically the importing territory asserts its jurisdiction beyond its border and the border position becomes redundant. If Lord Trimble, whose role in bringing about the GFA is often downplayed, can support this, we feel it needs to be addressed as a sensible way forward. Furthermore on behalf of all Pro Union people we urge the UK government to fulfil the spirit of its published White Paper which commits to “delivering unfettered access for NI businesses to the whole UK market”, enshrining this principle in law as promised in the New Decade New Approach agreement also that the UK Internal Market will support our commitments on unfettered access, ensuring that they form part of a coherent UK wide system.
As to the Good Friday Agreement, this has been promoted during Brexit, by those in Eire, the EU and USA as a totally Green document serving only Republican/Nationalist interests. The dangers of this blatant sectarian approach have been highlighted by our members to the Eire and UK governments over several years to no avail. The EUs aggressive triggering of Article 16, immediately effecting a hard border on this Island, after years of issuing threats against any such move has driven a stake through the heart of the GFA which may yet prove fatal. Should all pro union stakeholders gradually withdraw support from the political process of the Good Friday Agreement, history will record that it was the EU that killed it.
Indeed if the GFA cannot be implemented inclusively then Billy Hutchinson’s recent assessment that Pro Union citizens will have no choice but to withdraw all support from the GFA would seem to be the only way forward. Were it not for the intensive work of the PUP and UPRG the GFA would never have been delivered, an inconvenient truth for many, so when people like Councillor and Party Leader Billy Hutchinson make this assessment it needs to be listened to. After his article, an example of being demonize occurred when he was dismissed as “a Loyalist Activist” rather than by his position or title by journalists, thus implying he is somehow “shady“. This in the same week as our First Minster being referred to as “Foster“ on television. These offensive discourtesies which never seem to be applied to Republicans only serve to alienate our community along with the Medias continuous referring to Loyalists as Terrorists but the IRA as Operatives. However these pale into significance compared to the SDLP and Alliance hysteria and sectarian contempt vented on those members from the pro union community who dared to engage in democratic and lawful discussions with civil servants on the future of our country, this from parties who engage on a daily basis with “former”(?) Republican terrorists who voted in council in support of Sinn Fein IRA proposals over 85% of the time in a twelve month period, and who continue to sanitise the IRA and its litany of crimes since the days of the Pan Nationalist Front. This contempt for all things Unionist highlighted long ago as a cold house in 2002 by SOS John Reid and again by Tony Blairs right hand man Jonathon Powell when he acknowledged that the UK government, Eire government and others had pandered to every whim of the IRA and left behind and ignored the PUL community have contributed to the current sense of alienation and betrayal, and needs to be addressed urgently.
If we are to continue to resolve our differences by peaceful dialogue then Taoiseach Michael Martin should apologise for the extreme and belligerent attitude taken at all times by Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney during Brexit discussions. With the backing of 28 EU countries they attempted to steam roll over the GFA protections promised also to the pro union citizens in Northern Ireland, a different attitude would have brought us to a better place today, and not destroyed 20 years of genuine North South cooperation and good neighbourliness. Perhaps the appointment of a Special Ambassador in the mould of Bertie Ahearn to repair North South relations would be the first step of conciliation between our two nations, he would find in the Ulster people integrity, courtesy and forgiveness.
REACH UK committed to an inclusive and diverse society for all within the British Isles.
A delegation from the Loyalist Communities Council has met with the Permanent Secretary of the Northern Ireland Office, Madeleine Alessandri, to be briefed on the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol following the UKs’ withdrawal from the European Union. The delegation comprising David Campbell (Chairman), Winston Irvine, Jimmy Birch, and Robert Williamson relayed concerns from loyalist/unionist areas that Northern Ireland would be treated separately from Great Britain and asked the NIO to ensure that HMG acted quickly to minimise disruption and to ensure that there would be no actual or perceived diminution in Northern Ireland’s constitutional position.
The delegation strongly criticised the Irish government and nationalist representatives for only representing a nationalist perspective of the Belfast Agreement during the negotiations with the EU and asked the NIO to ensure that the new US President and Administration was briefed on the need for impartiality and respect for the majority position in Northern Ireland when it comes to dealing with NI/US issues. The LCC has repeated its appeal to loyalists to remain calm during this transition phase but also warned the NIO that it would be monitoring how Northern Ireland citizens would be treated under the new dispensation and would consider sponsoring legal action to protect the position of unionists if that became necessary.
The LCC delegation also emphasised the importance of appropriate events to mark the first centenary of Northern Ireland and has asked the NIO for an explanation as to why the loyalist community has been excluded from the Centenary Forum established by the Secretary of State.
I’m very relieved that Secretary of State Brandon Lewis did not cave into the pressure from politicians at home and abroad by setting up a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane.
Pat Finucane in late 1988 at a shoot to kill inquest of IRA men. months before he was shot dead in early 1989. Ruth Dudley Edwards says: “He defended republican paramilitaries and the occasional loyalist, for he hated the state. Yet Sinn Fein managed successfully to rebrand him posthumously as a human rights lawyer”
Pat Finucane in late 1988 at a shoot to kill inquest of IRA men. months before he was shot dead in early 1989. Ruth Dudley Edwards says: “He defended republican paramilitaries and the occasional loyalist, for he hated the state. Yet Sinn Fein managed successfully to rebrand him posthumously as a human rights lawyer”
He has not said there will never be such an inquiry, but he is quite properly waiting for other investigatory processes to be carried out, and unless after 30 years there is an uncovering of spectacular new information, I can’t see any responsible government ordering it.
There have been millions spent already investigating that dreadful murder, and it would have been pointless and deeply insulting to innumerable victims bereaved by murders that have been given little attention and would also be a shocking squandering of public money.
The Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday cost £200 million, Prime Minister David Cameron gave a moving and sincere apology, but there are still many republicans who reject its conclusions because it failed to point the finger at Prime Minister Ted Heath, who they want to believe ordered the random killing of Catholics.
Finucane’s widow Geraldine has already said publicly that Margaret Thatcher “knew exactly what was going on” between “security forces, loyalist paramilitaries and the state”.
She is a woman of her word. I’m sure that she will keep her promise that “with every breath in my body I will fight them to the bitter end”.
And if there ever is an inquiry, I would be surprised if she would be satisfied by a judgement that did not point the finger at Downing Street.
Mrs Finucane’s position is understandable, but it appals me that Sinn Fein’s propaganda machine has been so successful in making even people who should know better swallow their take on the case.
Colum Eastwood, leader of the SDLP, for instance, outrageously announced that “The British state murdered Pat Finucane,” an allegation made by none of the investigations or reviews.
I’ll write another time about collusion and how bogus most of the accusations are, but today I’m thinking about other lawyers who were victims of terrorism, like Edgar Graham, the young barrister and law lecturer the IRA gunned down because he was a clever unionist politician and three Catholic judges Rory Conaghan and William Staunton, each murdered in front of a young daughter, and Tom Travers, who survived several bullets but saw his 22 year-old-daughter Mary shot dead.
Norman Baxter, a retired PSNI Chief Superintendent, put it well when he said: “The Finucane family are entitled to justice, as every citizen is. But the granting of a public inquiry creates a hierarchy of victims, which is in itself an injustice.”
I was closely involved with the brave victims who took a successful civil case against the Omagh bombers. Some of them, like victims of Kingsmill and many other atrocities wanted a public inquiry and didn’t get one.
And their victims really were innocents, unlike Pat Finucane, who was not the secular saint he has been made out to be, but someone inextricably linked to the IRA.
He defended republican paramilitaries and the occasional loyalist, for he hated the state. Yet Sinn Fein managed successfully to rebrand him posthumously as a human rights lawyer.
In 1999 former RUC Chief Constable Sir John Hermon said that “Pat Finucane was associated with the IRA and he used his position as a lawyer to act as a contact between suspects in custody and republicans on the outside.”
In 2003, during a new wave of media lamentations about St Pat, Sean O’Callaghan, a repentant IRA terrorist who had first met Finucane at an IRA meeting in 1980, was “angered at the sheer hypocrisy, the hand-wringing” in the British and Irish press.
He had first met Finucane in 1980 at an IRA meeting, and when in prison in the late 1980s was visited by him in his legal capacity fishing for information that might be of use to the IRA.
He was, said O’Callaghan, “first and foremost an IRA volunteer, and he exploited his position ruthlessly to wage his war on the state”.
Yet unlike three of his brothers, John, killed on active service as a volunteer and Dermot and Seamus who were imprisoned for terrorist activities, Pat Finucane, like Gerry Adams, was supposedly never in the IRA.
“Nineteen eighty nine was a grim year in Northern Ireland,” wrote O’Callaghan. “Eighty one people were killed, 57 by republicans, 19 by loyalists and two by the security forces – one of them a loyalist shot by the security forces after he had murdered a Catholic in the Republican Ardoyne.”
These included 26 soldiers and nine policemen: there were very few convictions.
Yet Finucane’s murder “dominates the headlines and all the other disgusting acts scream at their silence, forgotten, it would seem by all but close family”.
He reminded his readers that “the great majority of the security forces carried out extraordinarily courageous work in the most dangerous of circumstances and, lest we forget, died in their hundreds to make these islands are safer and better place for all of us”.
Along with other innocent victims, we should be thinking of the brave security forces today, as their enemies continue to demonise them.
• Ruth Dudley Edwards is the author of Aftermath: The Omagh bombing and the families’ pursuit of justice
Wullie Drennan In Lockdown 2020. Official Press Release.
Wee Book/ Big CD Booklet with 24 track CD disc included.
It’s always as much about the story as it is about the music.
Why Press Release?
Up to March 2020 I regularly sold CD’s, books and DVD’s at live concerts.
All live concerts have been banned.
Independent freelance musicians no longer get radio airplay on mainstream media: not since the days of the legendary Gerry Anderson.
The last supporter of independent music on BBC
So, the only way to let folk know of my new product is through word of mouth and online social media: for now.
And through some newspapers perhaps??
Once upon a time, back in the good old days, newspapers would have had reviewers who would review new releases of albums and books, of even independent grassroots material. Gone are those days.
It is up to me myself, on my own, to somehow persuade folk that this is essential reading and maybe even essential listening. No mean feat.
If nothing else, surely the story of how a full-time freelance practitioner of the arts in Northern Ireland spent Lockdown 2020 adapting to a world turned upside down – is worthy of a media story?
Why would anyone want to buy this?
For several years now, a large portion of CD’s sold at our gigs clearly were purchased by folk as a souvenir of the event or as a gift for others.
So, in my way of thinking this combination of a CD disc with a wee book/big CD booklet would be an ideal gift for those interested in traditional folk music, folklore, history and culture: with its 50 pages of story, insight and imagery.
I haven’t noticed any other musicians trying this approach as yet. But it just might work okay if people have a way of finding out about it.
List of tracks on CD.
Also included in the book are lyrics for relevant new songs that were recorded post mastering and duplication of the CD. Such as: The Whole Wide World’s Gone Mad. When is the Official Wee book/Big CD Booklet Launch??
Good question.
Answer: somewhere in Belfast as soon as the authorities allow real live people to attend events with real live music and storytelling. Due to the fact that I made a dedication to Dr Ian Adamson, a “Launch” was being organised in December by the Reach Project, www.reachproject.co.uk, in association with the Dalaradia Society, www.dalaradia.co.uk, as Ian was their patron. Cancelled of course. Watch this space: www.williedrennan.org for updates on that.
Ian Adamson with his friend, Van – who also gets a wee mention in my wee book..
Where can this wee book/big CD booklet be purchased?
It is also available in the following independent shops: Belfast Books, York Road Belfast; Midtown Makers, Church Street Ballymena and Camerons, Broughshane Street Ballymena. That’s when they are open. When they are allowed to open again, get there early to avoid the queues.
Currently looking for other independent shops who might sell such a combo of music and story. Anybody know of any such shops still in existence?
Further Reading.
Extract from Introduction.
“This is somewhere between a wee book and a big CD booklet. It is a fusion of fiction and non-fiction. In tune with the times, it offers a fine balance of reality and virtual reality.
The Big Lockdown, that commenced in March 2020, and which hasn’t fully ended seven months later, has been a colossal shock to the world. For many it has been devastating: those who lost loved ones as a direct result of the new flu virus and the many more who suffered indirectly, in a multitude of various ways.
On the brighter side, the weather was wonderful throughout the spring of 2020 and there was a sense of peace and calm. Void of man-made industrial sounds this rare tranquillity allowed the sounds of nature to dominate the air. It was also a glorious opportunity for the likes of me, who’s busy schedule of recent years had not allowed the time to complete and manifest creative ideas that had been swirling around my wee brain for a long time.
It allowed me to develop creative thoughts in writing: it allowed me to record new musical material and rearrange older material. It allowed me to study how best to utilise the internet in order to make my material accessible to an audience who no longer could attend live events.
I worked on several creative projects, but my main focus was on what has resulted in the Wullie Drennan in Lockdown 2020 album and Wee book/Big CD booklet”
Selection of comments so far.
William McC: “It’s amazing. Wonderful to read the thoughts behind all the music…
A great perspective on an Ulster Scots life in Northern Ireland. There’s so much worthwhile information and thoughts in there.
Its a total joy to read. With the CD included it’s a wonderful piece of work and and a great historical document.”
Alister McR: “ Willie’s work here has a timeless quality and draws up from a well of Ulster history.:
Marie B. “This is amazing. I just loved every word of it”.
Anne McL. “A great Christmas present”.
Tam McW: “ Reuch n raa – the wye it wus aye meant tae be”
Other News.
My collaboration with rock guitarist David McClean produced an album of rock and folk fusion:
Willie Drennan Band. Wired Up Again
See Wired Up Again Page on www.williedrennan.org.
There’s nothing else quite like it out there. It was recorded before Lockdown and was due for release in May. Postponed of course, due to you know what. It is now available as well. Look out for the big official release of Wired Up Again. For updates check www.williedrennan.org.
This morning some members of Dalaradia paid our respects to our fallen friends and comrades at a time of reflection on Remembrance Sunday.
The service was located at Dr Ian Adamsons lampost Dalaradia installed a few months ago. Ian spearheaded the Somme memorials to the 10th, 16th and 36th Divisions, being Vice Chair of the Somme Association and the lamppost’s position adjacent to the Somme Memorial Park on Shore Road is most appropriate.
The lamppost was lit by candle as we will each Remembrance Day as Dalaradia members lay wreaths to remember all those who perished in the World Wars.
Folks on behalf of RATH. Community Group/Dalaradia can we say a huge thank you to everyone who attended the closing of Rathcoole Row on Row today.
One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn’t as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can achieve anything.
Many thanks to George Lunn of the Belfast City Mission for his beautiful religious service.
Many thanks to Danny Kinahan, the Northern Ireland’s first veterans commissioner for his reading.
Thanks to Francis Strain Bagpiping Services
Thanks to young Clarke for his poem reading.
Many thanks to Robert Foster and the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough council for their help.
A massive thank you to volunteers of RATH and Dalaradia for their tireless work. The harder work starts now!
More photos and a video of the event will be shared in the coming days. The garden is an open space and is available to members of the community to lay crosses until Thursday 12th November, please feel free to at any stage.
The main aim of the garden? You can read our initial announcement here – https://www.facebook.com/104568031425159/posts/109030924312203/?extid=0&d=n
