Music Unite Culture Night

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An eclectic mix of musicians gathered at the Loughside Community Centre, on the Shore Road in North Belfast to entertain an audience of over 400 people with Music Unite’s night of culture. The event was the culmination of a yearlong project facilitated by the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building, project managed by Nigel Kells in association with Donal Scullion and band alongside Creative Director Leonie McDonagh of Ponydance productions.

The night of culture brought together people from different cultures and backgrounds from across Northern Ireland to celebrate our indigenous cultural traditions, the diversity of our society and the uniting power of music.

The evening started off with a variety of traditional bands from the iconic Blood & Thunder, to melody flute, then from accordion band to the melodic sound of fifes and drums and finishing the first half with the traditional solo Scottish piper much to the delight of the crowd.

We then moved to the collaboration stage of the performance and first up this year we brought together the flutes and Drums of North Belfast’s own, ‘Pride of the Shore Flute Band’ playing a few tunes of their own to warm the crowd up, then joining forces with Donal Scullion and his Rock band, to play the Beatles classic ‘Hey Jude’.

The combination of crisp Blood and Thunder marching band flute with the iconic Rock sound of electric guitar, subtlety accompanied by a combination of rock drum kit and marching side drum kicked the second half of the night off in spectacular fashion. 

Following that, the far travelled Cormeen Rising Sons of William, all the way from Armagh, with 3 pieces of collaboration alongside Donal Scullion and his Rock band. They played Jonny Cash’s Ring of Fire, followed by Waltzing Matilda & to top it off, a unique medley of theme tunes from Movie classics, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and Star Wars! All while Cormeen’s Colour Party performed a marching display for the crowd, which they had created with our Creative Director Leonie McDonagh at their hall in Armagh.

This event following on from last year’s project was another major success, celebrating diversity and using the power of music to unite. Described by one band member as ‘the best craic the band have had in years!’

Music Unite project received support from The Executive Office Good Relations Grant.

Statement from Lord Alderdice on the death of Martin McGuinness

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Statement from Lord Alderdice on the death of Martin McGuinness

Speaking of his sadness on hearing of the death of Martin McGuinness and sending his condolences to his family circle, John, Lord Alderdice described him as “a remarkable leader, an excellent colleague, and ultimately an essential peacemaker.”

Lord Alderdice said:

“Only a few who occupy positions of leadership are truly transformational leaders, but Martin McGuinness was one such person.  I knew him well through the period of negotiations, then during the time when I was involved with the Assembly, after that while we tried to address the complex process of security normalization and later in taking the message of hope from Northern Ireland to other places, particularly Iraq. He was the same person in each of these circumstances.  He was deeply thoughtful and insightful and when he made an agreement, he stuck to it. He had the courage to take risks, as a leader must if he or she is to make a real difference. Ultimately his journey led him to give up violence and become the essential peacemaker in Ireland and an inspiration to many others well beyond the island home to which he was so devoted.  May his family circle be comforted in their grief and may Martin rest in peace.”

Healing the wounds of Britain’s relationship with the First Americans

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Lord Alderdice invites you to the talk

Healing the wounds of Britain’s relationship with the First Americans

with Chief Anne Richardson

Wednesday, 22 March 2017 from 6.30pm to 8pm

Committee Room 1, House of Lords, London SW1A 0AA

Please register at www.getinvited.to/cdpb/chiefanne

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Chief Anne Richardson is the first woman to be elected to lead her Tribe since 1705 and is a fourth generation Chief in her family. She has travelled widely internationally and has served on numerous boards including, the Native American Council of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church, Native American Committee of the Episcopal Diocese, Indian Ministries of North America, and the Virginia State Advisory Council for the U.S Commission on Civil Rights. She was appointed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor to their National Advisory Council on Indian and Native American Programs and was for two years elected National Chairwoman of the Council. She continues to serve as a member.

Chief Richardson will be speaking about the situation of Native Americans in the USA today and on the role that repairing the historic relationship with Britain can play in addressing their concerns.

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Please allow 20 minutes to get through security.