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Book Review: The Skelper and Me
Tony Doherty completes his trilogy of Troubles memoirs with more accessible and authentic storytelling, spanning his time as an IRA prisoner to his long journey for justice after his father's death on Bloody Sunday
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'Absorbing' Troubles Art exhibition reflects decades of tension and turmoil
Over 40 works from National Museums NI's collections create an account of the conflict that's heartbreaking and hard to forget
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Peter Pan given a dazzling Derry makeover at the Millennium Forum
Big musical numbers, pyrotechnics and pixie dust-like sprinklings of the city's trademark sense of humour takes the age-old panto to a magical new place
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Derry: The Irish Revolution, 1912-23
Historian Adrian Grant delves a century into the city's past and, with new facts and parallels to today, manages to makes a gripping read from events we already know the outcomes of
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Myra's Story
A play so good they named it twice, Fionna Hewitt-Twamley not only fills Carmel McCafferty's shoes comfortably, but is bewitching as the rock bottom title character once known as Maire
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Hear My Voice: film inspired by Colin Davidson exhibition 'offers a tribute to the human spirit'
Brendan J Byrne manages to further enrich the moving source material of Silent Testimony while extending the experience for those unable to see its portraits in person
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Her Name Was Rose
Claire Allan leaves 'Chick Lit' behind in favour of a dark thriller which, for the Derry-based author, signals a bright new chapter
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The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee
While his wasted sporting potential is a source of frustration, the ex-world champion boxer's remarkable, still unfinished story makes for an absorbing read with as much tragedy as it has triumph
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Hansel and Gretel
Featuring a role call of fictional favourites, the MAC's fairytale production places a feast of Northern Irish theatre talent firmly in the (sweet) shop window
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WICCA
The fifth Echo Echo Festival of Dance and Movement bows out with an entrancing multinational exploration of the female bond
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The Dead Beside Us
Tony Doherty wastes no time in following up his 'important' debut with a 'profound' adolescent account of conflict continuing to tear through 1970s Derry
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Murder on the Orient Express
Kenneth Branagh keeps Agatha Christie's detective tale on the right track as both director and lead amidst a cast bristling with star power
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This is Hame: Two Modern Ulster-Scots Poets
James Fenton and Philip Robinson have been recently re-published by Ullans Press. Their books offer a window into that world – its language, humour, culture, religion and politics
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Eddie Rafferty: The Pursuit of Happiness
South Africa's people and places are captured with colour and invention in this career-spanning showcase bringing intrigued masses to Banbridge
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Hopdance
Against a pre-Troubles Belfast, Stewart Parker's posthumous novel shows one of the city's favourite sons discovering what would become a seminal writing voice
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Waves
Gentle movement and vivid storytelling make more than a few ripples in this poignant and understated play about one woman's remarkable resilience
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The Train
While some elements lack steam, Rough Magic's musical has audiences on board for its retelling of a momentous, reproductive rights-fuelled journey
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The Faerie Thorn
After a promising preview, Big Telly bring Jane Talbot's North Coast fables to the stage in a fully realised adaptation fit for the company's 30th year
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The Importance of Being Earnest
Not everything works in this risky all-male revision, but ultimately the source material proves it to be still Wilde at heart
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Famla
John McCann's brooding drama borders on the bleak, but a sense of hope mirrored by the youth of today points to a better tomorrow
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The Rule of the Land
With eloquence and tact, Garrett Carr charts a timely expedition along the line that divides and defines Ireland, its history and its people
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The Cove
Echo Echo's dizzying collaboration with climber Dan Shipsides reaches its peak in this hypnotic performance inspired by the cliffs of Donegal
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Maiden Voyage Dance Triple Bill
Brave and breathtaking interpretations of love, loss and living prove the power of three in this new package of works
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Pound Music Club
The spirit of the Belfast institution lives on in the lungs of Kenny McDowell, whose voice still enraptures a faithful following after 50 years
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Best (George Best: All By Himself)
Though arguably too linear in scope, the latest chronicle of our greatest footballing talent's tragic journey is nonetheless elegantly and fearlessly told
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The Fits
This adolescent dance drama eschews coming-of-age tropes in favour of a more unorthodox yet fascinating slow burn
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Dirty Dancing
Staying true to the original, this steamy stage adaptation is guaranteed to satisfy fans of the classic, feel-good film
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Powder Her Face
Northern Ireland's first production of Thomas Adés's notorious, sex-fuelled opera holds a mirror to modern society and the perils of promiscuity
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La La Land
Despite its artistic virtues, the limp narrative of Damien Chazelle's modern musical just won't leave audiences as jazzed as they were with Whiplash
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Silence
Liam Neeson is the white whale of Scorsese's monumental 26-year passion project, which caps a career-long study of spirituality on the big screen
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Two Angry Men
Toto Ellis leaves us longing for a feature length in his debut short outlining the theatrical censorship his father and Sam Thompson faced in Belfast 60 years ago
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Janet Mullarney: My Minds i
Multi-disciplined artist confronts a gamut of emotions in a twisted fantasy of sculptures, shadows and illustrations at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery
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Hubert Butler: Witness to the Future
Writer, humanitarian and market gardener, 'Ireland's Orwell' is given due recognition for his years-ahead endeavors in this detailed documentary
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Future Artist-Makers: The Exhibition
This exciting showcase of works created using new skills in digital technology titillates the imagination with its sense of eye-pleasing, interactive wonderment
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Hey You!
Joe Nawaz and Accidental Theatre combine for an immersive self-improvement satire which with a little finessing could take the comedy world by storm
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MAC International
With works by 18 artists from around the world, the biennial exhibition rewards its visitors with an experience as rich as its grand prize
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Killer of Sheep
With its truthful depiction of racial issues in 1970s America, Charles Burnett's long-lost indie trailblazer is the perfect primer for BFI Black Star
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Green and Blue
Premiering at a former British military base in Belfast, this challenging but tasteful dramatisation humanises the uniforms patrolling the border at the height of the Troubles
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Heaney, Sir! St Columb's Remembered
One-time peers including Phil Coulter recall the poet's college years with revealing anecdotes, recitals and an audience panel
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City of Derry International Choral Festival
New Festival Chorus reaffirms the city's musical status in a pitch perfect opening gala performance
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The Way We Were
Dublin author Sinéad Moriarty gives shelter to fiction fans in Bangor with an intimate discussion around her latest novel and writing career
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Enough, and More
Jon Plunkett and wife Lindsay Turk explore the impact various naturally-occurring moments can have on our lives in a joint series of paintings and poems
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Anthropoid
Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy excel as Czech army agents in a tense and compelling account of one of the Second World War's less heralded moments
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David Hockney: I draw, I do
Ireland's first exhibition of the influential artist's work is a fascinating insight into his life-long consistency and passion for getting the world down on paper
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This Man's Wee Boy
Debut author Tony Doherty lends a vital human voice to Derry's darkest period with a childhood portrait of life in the city
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The Wing Orderly’s Tales
Carlo Gébler’s new collection of short stories is an authoritative portrayal of life and death in a Northern Ireland jail
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The Faerie Thorn on Stage
Big Telly Theatre Company hooks Open House Festival audience with scratch performance of their latest production
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Late Night Art Digest: August 2016
John Higgins takes a tour of studios and spaces across Belfast to drink in some of the key exhibitions currently on display
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Closer
With its imaginative direction and competent cast, this modest adaptation has the charm to see past its lack of Hollywood gloss
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Bill Burr
Though not every topic hits its mark, Belfast still revels in a masterful Northern Ireland debut from the no-frills Boston comic
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The 400 Blows
François Truffaut’s pioneering French New Wave classic signals an encouraging start to a season of films to see before you're 30
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The Three Stories Are Flattened
Katrina Palmer challenges the notion of sculpture in a demanding yet enthralling exhibition which gradually makes its viewers participants
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Gerard Dillon: Painter, Dreamer, Clown
The great Belfast artist's centenary retrospective will have you leaving the Ulster Museum with a spring in your step, expecting to fly
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I Was An Astronaut
Derry singer-songwriter Conor McAteer takes a giant leap forward in a controlled and cohesive fourth album bursting with love in all its forms
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Art in the A.M.
Naughton Gallery and Town Square café team up for a morning of coffee, conversation and soul-baring comic strips in the first of a stimulating new talk series
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The Wild Swan
Recorded in Nashville and rich in variety, the third album from Foy Vance isn't just his finest yet, it bears all the markings of a contemporary classic
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Pig Shop
Anchored by the bygone boom of Limerick pork, Simon Fennessy Corcoran questions society's regard for living things with an arresting collection recalling Damien Hirst
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Neil Young
He's taken half a century to get here, but backed by Promise of the Real the Canadian is still the hurricane force of old, and shows no signs of quitting
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The Devil is a Songbird
Ports' long-awaited debut album is one to fall into and appreciate in full, placing them amongst the modern masters of sophisticated and heart-breaking alt rock
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Royal Shakespeare Company recruit Belfast's Belvoir Players for a frothy but 'bags of fun' take on the timeless comedy