Drama and Music

As many of you know theater has a long history in Ireland. This morning we discussed the many different types of theater in Ulster as well as some of the general history of Ireland, including the Abbey Theater in Dublin. In the afternoon we heard from Stuart Bailie who worked for the BBC about music in Ulster. Punk apparently brought the North together. During a time when anyone coming into Belfast City Center would've been searched by the RUC, kids started making the trek into town at night to see bands like, Stiff Little Fingers, Them, Rudi, and maybe the most well known Northern Ireland boy, Van Morrison. Many of you may not know that Snow Patrol, a chart topping band in the US, is actually from Bangor just outside of Belfast. Also, that Ash performed with U2 on the stage in Belfast when Bono called David Trimble and John Hume up on stage to have them promise peace. I'm a fan of Stiff Little Fingers. The song they became big over was Suspect Device. It's a song about you being the device that subverting society because of what society has planted in your brain. Punk kept Ulster night life alive and brought the youth together. Several places and bars were bombed but the people kept trying and the artists understood the risks.

Later in the day we heard from a fiddle player who was an American but had been in Belfast for many years. He spends his nights going around looking for a pick up in pubs. These are open nights where musicians can just show up and play together. The pubs allow them to come in and use the space. There was a time when this wasn't safe either and they had to be wary of where they went, but now he informed us it was difficult to actually find a space to play that wasn't already full.