Other News In Brief

Visitors And Residents Invited To Belfast 2024 Taster Event

Belfast city residents and visitors have been urged to "enjoy a taste of Belfast 2024 programme", with a sample of events at 2 Royal Avenue on Thursday 29 February.

Almost 200 events, workshops and activities will take place throughout the city between March and December this year, as part of the city's biggest ever creative and cultural celebration, with everyone invited to get involved.

The council is investing £5.9 million into Belfast 2024 to support jobs in the cultural sector, drive footfall into Belfast city centre, encourage people to embrace their creativity by enjoying and participating in the arts, and showcase the city as a global destination for culture.

A further £250,000 has also been secured from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for 'Our Future Heritage' which will enable people to explore Belfast's tangible and intangible heritage and its impact on our identity through ten Belfast 2024 projects.

Thursday's free open day will give citizens a chance to enjoy a taster of what's in store and find out more about ways to get involved and discover their creative side.

No booking is required. Activities will include:

• make a patchwork blanket, build your own boat and explore Belfast's biodiversity with partner organisations Arts Ekta, PS2 and Wild Belfast and hear how your creations will become part of their events during Belfast 2024

• mindful art and wellbeing activities

• 'The Bank of Ideas' – an opportunity to share your own ideas for creative projects you'd like to see happening in your neighbourhood or community during 2024 and find out about funding available to help turn them into reality!

• 'Creative Me' quiz – answer the questions to hear which Belfast 2024 events and activities are perfect for you

• poetry from Zara Meadows

• information stalls with project partners, including Belfast Film Festival, Outburst Arts, Household Belfast and Another World, where you can find out what they have planned throughout the year for you to take part in, including film-making projects, a theatre production focusing on Belfast's LBGTQIA+ history, international artist collaborations and a new city centre venue focusing on upcycling and skills development

• write a letter to your future self with your creative hopes for the year ahead – more music, more film, whatever you'd like to see – and post it in the Belfast 2024 postbox

"Thursday 29 February is Leap Day – no better day to take a leap and jump into what Belfast 2024 can offer you and our city," said Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Ryan Murphy.

"There's already a lot of excitement in our creative sector about what this programme can do to showcase the many positive benefits arts and culture bring – jobs, creativity, tourism, friendship, positive mental health and so much more – but now is the time to people to really get involved too.

"Belfast 2024 is all about participation – so come to an event, get involved in a project, try something different, check out the huge array of events and activities already on offer in our city, or discover something new to enjoy.

"Feedback from information events held during February has been really positive so far and Thursday's open day is another chance to hear more about what's coming up. So take advantage of this extra day in the calendar to make your own creative pledge for 2024."

Over 20 major projects and events are already confirmed for Belfast 2024, building upon the council's existing support for the cultural sector with a mix of new commissions and community-led programmes, all of which will be shaped by community input as the year develops. They include:

• 'The Walk', a world-renowned creative project featuring Little Amal, a giant puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee, who will arrive in Belfast from 16-19 May, for three days of free activities delivered with ArtsEkta. Events will include an outdoor theatre spectacle at Titanic Slipways, a street party in Writer's Square and free family entertainment in the grounds of City Hall.  

• Midsummers at the Lyric, an outdoor theatre spectacle from 5-7 July, bringing the space between the venue and the River Lagan to life through an original new production of a Shakespeare classic

• Waterworks, an ambition to launch 10,000 boats on the River Lagan, celebrating our maritime heritage, with a family fun day over the first weekend in August with colourful boats of all shapes and sizes being created by 80+ schools and community groups at workshops across the city over the spring and summer.

• Sound Links, a 'block party' on Townsend Street on 21 September to mark International Day of Peace – the climax to a unique collaboration between Ulster Orchestra, Townsend Enterprise Park, Foundry Quarter and Zeppo Arts which will explore the history of this interface area, with input from local residents, businesses, community groups, schools and care homes.

• Shadow Dock, a light show spectacle at Thompson Dock, from 26-29 September. Developed in partnership with designer Henry Sykes and Three's Theatre Company, audiences will journey 40 feet below sea level to the iconic dock where Titanic was launched to view an immersive display of light, shadow, colour and sound, seeing and feeling the world around them from a new perspective.

• North Star, inspired by writer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass' visit to the city in 1845, and exploring the question 'what makes people feel at home in Belfast?' through the lens of contemporary black cultures. This unique event will include input from local schools and culminate in a live music gig in late October, celebrating the city's black artists.

A number of other signature projects remain under development and further details will be announced in due course.

Keep up to date on all the latest info on projects and ways to get involved by signing up to the Belfast 2024 mailing list on the dedicated website - belfast2024.co.uk – or follow new Belfast 2024 social media channels on Facebook (@belfast2024) and Instagram (@belfast2024)

SDLP Calls For Explanation Of 'Devastating' Education Funding Cut

The SDLP Opposition has called on the Executive to explain "a devastating cut" to long-agreed capital funding to build integrated schools and shared education campuses.

On Friday, 23 February, it emerged that 10 schools, including Forge and Millienium Integrated in South Beflast and Mid Down, are to see capital funding for new build schools cut nearly a decade after it was first ring-fenced as part of the Fresh Start initiative.

It now appears the reallocation of funding came as part of the Executive's financing package from the British Government, and it is unclear whether Executive parties challenged the change.

It means that several long awaited new build and extension projects will now be delayed or possibly face abandonment.

SDLP education spokesperson Cara Hunter MLA said: "It is a damning indictment of the negotiation undertaken by the Executive parties in December that we are now into the third week of crisis because none of them appear to have a serious grasp of what they have agreed to implement. First chaos around revenue raising and now a devastating blow to integrated schools and shared education projects which have had the rug pulled from under them.

"Almost a decade after funding was ring fenced in the Fresh Start Agreement, it is appalling that these schools, their pupils, parents and teachers, are being abandoned by government. Some of these new build projects are almost shovel ready, temporary accommodation has already been put in place for classes, and now they’re being told at the eleventh hour that it’s not happening. It is unbelievable.

"The SDLP Opposition will seek to call the Education Minister before the Assembly this week to explain how this happened, why information was quietly pushed out to schools and how exactly the new Executive could agree to this in the first place.

Claire Hanna, MP for South Belfast said: "This is deeply distressing news for school communities at Forge Integrated Primary School and Millennium IPS who have been working for years with the Department of Education on planned new build works. Planning and preparation for this much needed work is at an advanced stage and it is honestly a gut punch for the schools communities who have worked so hard already.

"There are urgent questions that must be addressed to give parents clarity on how and when this critical work will continue. Children in our communities cannot be an early victim of Executive budget decisions. My colleagues in the SDLP Assembly team will be seeking urgent answers from the Education Minister this week and I will be raising the matter directly with the Secretary of State."

SF Urges Irish Govt To Demand End To Isreal's War In Gaza

Ireland must use all its influence, at home and abroad, to demand an end to Israel's war and to promote Palestinian national freedom, Sinn Féin MLA Declan Kearney has said.

Writing for An Phoblacht, the Party's National Chairperson said: "Israel's genocidal war in Gaza has now entered its fifth month, with nearly 30,000 dead, the majority of them have been women and children.

"This is not a war of defence. It is being executed as a war of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people; not only in Gaza, but across the West Bank.

"Across Ireland, Sinn Féin is introducing motions in councils which will require compliance with ethical investment and purchasing practices. If successful, this will mean councils cannot do business with those who profit from apartheid practices, and the occupation of Palestine.

"In Dáil Éireann, we have called on the Irish government to join South Africa's legal case against Israeli genocide at the ICJ. In a failure of leadership, the government parties refused to do so.

"The Irish state should change its position. It should listen to the leaders of the Palestinian struggle, by immediately recognising the state of Palestine.

"In the last few weeks, Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald has directly challenged British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over his government's support for Israel's war. Michelle O'Neill has also urged US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to support a ceasefire position.

"In recent days I have called on both the EU and US Ambassadors to Britain to intervene and demand that Israel's aggression in both Gaza and the West Bank is ended immediately.

"Sinn Féin will seize every political and diplomatic opportunity to call for an end to the genocide and ethnic cleansing, and demand an end to the war, and occupation of Palestine. Whether at home or abroad, all Irish influence must be used on behalf of Palestine.

"This must be to achieve a permanent, unconditional ceasefire: The withdrawal of all Israeli forces from both Gaza and the West Bank: And, an end to the human suffering of every Palestinian.

"This is a watershed moment. The future of Palestine demands that the democratic world finally acts decisively in support of the Palestinian people's fundamental, national and human rights."