Virtual Methodist

The second of a series of "place poems" written for and delivered on the Wonderful Wander as part of the 2020 4 Corners Festival. This one, which is slightly shorter than Homer's epic poem of the same name, was inspired by the Odyssey Complex, and delivered with it at my back facing the iconic Titanic Experience, Titanic Hotel and the Titanic Studios where Game of Thrones was filmed. The Odyssey Complex which opened in 2001 was Northern Ireland's main millennium project, with the name "Odyssey" being the idea of Michael Montgomery, a young 14 year old at the time, to symbolise the 'journey of discovery' that visitors to the science centre inside the complex would experience. The complex as a whole, which also includes a ice/concert stadium, restaurants, cinema and nightclubs, subsequently adopted the name, and the Science Centre became W5. However the journey of the Odyssey arena, and indeed the province as a whole since 2001 has been as protract...

The first thing I heard as I woke up this morning was that the playwright Sam Thompson was being honoured by naming the new bridge from Victoria Park over to Airport Road after him. This bridge allows access by foot and bike to the Harbour Estate and Titanic Quarter, the erstwhile Shipyard where his most famous play "Over the Bridge" was set...  There is a certain appropriateness to this, but also some irony given that many of the issues that Sam Thompson raised in that play apply directly to the malaise affecting the loyalist community that lies in the shadow of the gantries of the remaining 2 shipyard cranes. To that end I offer this slightly revised reblog of one I produced in the wake of Martin Lynch's revival/revision of the play 3 years ago, looking at why I believe it is a crucially important play : The Physical Context - The Shipyard In a moment of unguarded honesty a few years ago, when Harland and Wolff was teetering on the brink of total closure...

Back to to the desk and back to blogging, tho I probably won't be as regular as during Lent... But this morning I'm posting a slightly adapted piece that went out as a Thought for the Day on Good Morning Ulster . If you want to hear my pre-breakfast growl, then you can find it at 25 minutes and 84 minutes in to this morning's edition, for a brief period. Before coming into the studio this morning I had get up at stupid o’clock to drop my eldest son to school in Holywood, as he’s heading off on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition… But I notice that they’ve now got signs outside the town pronouncing it to be Holywood, Home of Rory McIlroy … Now given that our Rory currently spends more of his time closer to the other marginally more famous Hollywood… you know, the one in California with 2 L’s and sunshine… there are those who suggest that this is a bit much… But at least they didn’t go the whole hog and actually change the name to Rorywood… Yet...  We’ve got a thing ab...

This week has tried my "whatever is good" resolution to the limit... partly because I'm in pain, partly because I'm under pressure at the moment, and partly because of the joys of Methodist Synod. Now, at this point I will get all sorts of people berating me for my studied cynicism and negativity re Synod/conference and the like, and telling me that the freedom to engage in such meetings is a blessing that many of my brothers and sisters around the world would be glad of... And I hear that... however, I believe that there is a serious problem with how we address church business currently... It has become mechanistic and administrative rather than spirit-filled and creative. I don't blame any one person for that... All participants (and deliberate non-participants) are complicit... We both waste time on agenda points that have no relevance, whilst squeezing out room for genuine informed discussion, debate and decisions that might actually make a difference to t...

Well, I did promise... although with the passage of time and other intervening events I do wonder why... But given that I've recently posted on another play that touches on some of the issues that face working class Northern Ireland, and particularly the protestant part of it, I thought I should return to look at Sam Thompson's "Over the Bridge." I've already foisted an outrageously long post on you, dissecting Martin Lynch's recent adaptation of it, but I thought it might also be useful to look at some of the reasons why it is, in my not so humble opinion, one of the most important modern Irish plays... There are a number of reasons: The Physical Context - The Shipyard In a moment of unguarded honesty a few years ago, when Harland and Wolff was teetering on the brink of total closure, a political representative with responsibilities for trade and industry said that the shipyard was a dreadful place... Full of asbestos and other noxious substances tha...

I caught sight of it as I crossed the Albert Bridge across the Lagan, leaving Belfast city centre on the way home after a fractious meeting on the issue of Human Rights… (When are they anything other than fractious?) But anyway, I saw that one end of it was resting on the Titanic Quarter (the old Harland and Wolff shipyard which has now been zoned for major gentrification, for those not in the know) and I looked across to see where the other end fell… And there it was, resting on Parliament Buildings at Stormont! God must have been having a laugh with me, as I am sceptical as to either of these entities being all that some hope for them… But, as is always the case, when I drove on and my point of view changed, the ends of the rainbow seemingly retreated… This time towards north Down, just like most of the Protestant middle classes in their pursuit of the pot of gold… But the proverbial pot of gold, even if it were to be found via a programme for government emanating from Stormont, or f...

Over recent years North Down has been regularly referred to as the “Gold Coast” because of it’s relative affluence in comparison to the rest of Northern Ireland, leading some to say that the only social division in the area is between the "haves and have-yachts". But now it seems as if the term “the Gold Coast” may have some basis in fact, due to the results of an unparalleled geological survey revealing that the area has the conditions which suggests that there may be seams of gold in the local bedrock. Local residents seem divided over whether this is a good thing, but Nigel Dodds, the local minister for enterprise, trade and investment, is unsurprisingly, very upbeat about the possibilities this raises for the local economy… perhaps more so now that the signature project at the so-called Titanic Quarter has failed to gain the 25 million pounds lottery funding it was angling for under the “Living Landmarks Programme.” It remains to be seen as to whether this rejection will...