East meets West

My final two East Belfast Arts events were a bus tour today that took in East Belfast and West Belfast, and a series of readings and musical performances tonight about music that related to the Troubles.

The bus tour was narrated by an actor and a comedian. The actor I had seen before--leading the Belfast Bred foodie tour. His half of the tour, in East Belfast, focussed on playwrights whose work was banned for religious or political reasons. The comedian’s schtick all revolved around making fun of illegal and antisocial behaviour in West Belfast--sometimes very funny, sometimes cheap laughs. But not terribly memorable.

I’d say I learned more on the East Side. For instance, East Belfast playwright Sam Thompson’s play "Over the Bridge” was banned because it dealt with sectarian disputes in the shipyard, where he had worked in the 1940s and 1950s. From Wiki: Rehearsals were underway in April 1959 when the theatre's board of directors refused to produce the play, criticising it in the Belfast Telegraph as "full of grossly vicious phrases and situations which would undoubtedly offend and affront every section of the public" and stating "It is the policy of the directors of the Ulster Group Theatre to keep political and religious controversies off our stage.”
Well done there boys.
More from Wiki: "Ellis and many actors of the Ulster Group Theatre resigned to form their own company” and the play went on to be seen by 42,000 at The Empire--a record at the time, possibly still. The play was seen as anticipating the Troubles by several decades.
The evening event was based on Trouble Songs, a book by a BBC broadcaster, who wrote about music before and during the Troubles. Interspersed with his readings were performances by three musicians of some of the songs he mentioned, for instance a few Van Morrison songs. It was helpful to get some of the back story for Van’s songs, which I find opaque. Probably the most moving excerpt from the book was about a young woman from Northern Ireland who had a successful singing career. She was asked to perform at a memorial service 20 years ago just after the Omagh bombing, which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. Including a boy visiting from Madrid. Including three generations in one family. It was the worst of many atrocities in the Troubles.
She reluctantly sang a song called Broken Pieces, or something like that. Somehow, 20 years ago, a recording of her performance went viral. Fans of the song from around the world demanded she make a record. She refused, not wanting to exploit in any way the Omagh tragedy. The poor thing was dogged for many years by questions about how she felt during that performance. She probably regretted ever agreeing to sing at the service.
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