My involvement in creative works, political education, and academia began during my period of incarceration as a political prisoner in the h-blocks of Long Kesh/Maze prison (1976-1992). Following my release from prison I completed a doctoral thesis at Queen’s University, Belfast, which examined the development of Irish republican prisoners’ politics and methods of organisation over the years from the prison first opened in 1972. My thesis was published in 2001, entitled Out of Time, and included additional interviews with prisoners leading up to the closure of Long Kesh in July 2000 as a result of the early release scheme for political prisoners under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement (1998).
From 1998 – 2007 I worked as Project Coordinator with Coiste na nIarchimí, the umbrella organisation for republican ex-prisoner groups throughout Ireland. In my role as Coordinator of Coiste’s Processes of Nation Building – a programme of outreach and research – I organized engagements with a very broad range of groups and individuals; the Protestant Churches, the Catholic Church, Unionists, loyalist ex-prisoners, other republican ex-prisoner organizations, Women, Youth, Trade Unions, Victim/Survivor groups, the media, former British Army personnel, Northern Ireland Office, voluntary, and statutory bodies; funding bodies and the Southern government and state officials.
My involvement with Healing Through Remembering (www.healingthroughremembering.org) since 2004 has also brought me into contact with a very diverse range of people working on projects aimed at dealing with the past.
In the late-1990s I co-wrote a feature film, H3, based on the 1981 hunger strike within the prison, which I participated in (for 70 days) and during which 10 prisoners died. I then began to work as a playwright, using full-length plays and bespoke theatre to explore issues concerning the legacy of the conflict in the North of Ireland.
I was Coordinator of the Aftermath project (www.aftermath-ireland.com), funded by the EU PEACE III programme, based in Co Louth & Newry/South Armagh 2012-2014. In the project I used the arts (film, photography, and music) to engage with victims/survivors of the conflict (including ‘Families of the Disappeared’), former IRA volunteers, former members of the RUC, British Army, Irish Defence Forces, journalists, and people displaced by the conflict in Ireland and internationally.
I co-founded the Belfast Film Festival in 1995 when it began as the West Belfast Film Festival before expanding to become citywide in 2001. I was Chairperson of the festival from its inception in 1995 until 2005 and remain on the board of management. I was a member of the Board of Northern Ireland Screen, the main funding body for filmmaking in Northern Ireland, from 2012-2018.
Since 2008 I have worked as an independent researcher and as an associate consultant with Diversity Challenges.
My most recent play Green and Blue, premiered at the Belfast International Arts Festival in 2016. Commissioned by Diversity Challenges and produced by Kabosh Theatre Green and Blue explores the painful and humorous realities faced by individuals who patrolled the border during the height of the conflict. Based on an oral archive of serving RUC and An Garda Síochána officers, collected by Diversity Challenges, the production fuses theatre and film to look at the person behind the uniform and the different experiences of two individuals on either side of a line in the ground. Directed by Paula McFetridge, the play has been on tour in Ireland several times, opened the Dresden Arts Festival in June 2017, and was performed in Paris at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in February 2018 before commencing yet another tour in Ireland. In 2017 I was shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Ireland ZeBBie Award for Green and Blue.
From 1998 – 2007 I worked as Project Coordinator with Coiste na nIarchimí, the umbrella organisation for republican ex-prisoner groups throughout Ireland. In my role as Coordinator of Coiste’s Processes of Nation Building – a programme of outreach and research – I organized engagements with a very broad range of groups and individuals; the Protestant Churches, the Catholic Church, Unionists, loyalist ex-prisoners, other republican ex-prisoner organizations, Women, Youth, Trade Unions, Victim/Survivor groups, the media, former British Army personnel, Northern Ireland Office, voluntary, and statutory bodies; funding bodies and the Southern government and state officials.
My involvement with Healing Through Remembering (www.healingthroughremembering.org) since 2004 has also brought me into contact with a very diverse range of people working on projects aimed at dealing with the past.
In the late-1990s I co-wrote a feature film, H3, based on the 1981 hunger strike within the prison, which I participated in (for 70 days) and during which 10 prisoners died. I then began to work as a playwright, using full-length plays and bespoke theatre to explore issues concerning the legacy of the conflict in the North of Ireland.
I was Coordinator of the Aftermath project (www.aftermath-ireland.com), funded by the EU PEACE III programme, based in Co Louth & Newry/South Armagh 2012-2014. In the project I used the arts (film, photography, and music) to engage with victims/survivors of the conflict (including ‘Families of the Disappeared’), former IRA volunteers, former members of the RUC, British Army, Irish Defence Forces, journalists, and people displaced by the conflict in Ireland and internationally.
I co-founded the Belfast Film Festival in 1995 when it began as the West Belfast Film Festival before expanding to become citywide in 2001. I was Chairperson of the festival from its inception in 1995 until 2005 and remain on the board of management. I was a member of the Board of Northern Ireland Screen, the main funding body for filmmaking in Northern Ireland, from 2012-2018.
Since 2008 I have worked as an independent researcher and as an associate consultant with Diversity Challenges.
My most recent play Green and Blue, premiered at the Belfast International Arts Festival in 2016. Commissioned by Diversity Challenges and produced by Kabosh Theatre Green and Blue explores the painful and humorous realities faced by individuals who patrolled the border during the height of the conflict. Based on an oral archive of serving RUC and An Garda Síochána officers, collected by Diversity Challenges, the production fuses theatre and film to look at the person behind the uniform and the different experiences of two individuals on either side of a line in the ground. Directed by Paula McFetridge, the play has been on tour in Ireland several times, opened the Dresden Arts Festival in June 2017, and was performed in Paris at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in February 2018 before commencing yet another tour in Ireland. In 2017 I was shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Ireland ZeBBie Award for Green and Blue.