Life

Anne Hailes: If you have life experience, then write about it

Anne Hailes

Anne Hailes

Anne is Northern Ireland's first lady of journalism, having worked in the media since she joined Ulster Television when she was 17. Her columns have been entertaining and informing Irish News readers for 25 years.

Retired barrister and author Nigel Killops, of Dunfanaghy Writers' Circle
Retired barrister and author Nigel Killops, of Dunfanaghy Writers' Circle Retired barrister and author Nigel Killops, of Dunfanaghy Writers' Circle

I’M always going on to people the importance of writing down your family history. The reaction usually is – I can’t write! Nonsense. If you can talk to people you can write – honestly.

More and more writers are taking to self-publishing as, thanks to the internet, this has become more possible and writing courses are encouraging budding talent to flower.

Take Cobalt Blue for instance. This is the latest book from the Dunfanaghy Writers’ Circle, a group of men and women who meet in the Glenveagh Room at Arnold’s Hotel in the village.

This book features work by seven poets and writers: Yvonne Boyle, a former Alliance deputy mayor of Coleraine Council; retired barrister Nigel Killops; Pat Heaney who was a special needs teacher in Derry; Colette Marquess, a civil servant with the Home Office; Derry social worker Fionnuala Magowan; librarian Elaine Toal; and Hugh Ward, who spent 40 years as a teacher and school principal in Co Tyrone.

Between them they have a wealth of life experience which writer Alf McCreary has honed and polished during his years of running the writers circle. As editor of Cobalt Blue he has chosen well, some delightful stories, some incisive stories and poems which take you round the world like Nigel Killops's Deliciously Alluring.

Nigel was a stamp collector in his early years – as he says, between kicking footballs and chasing girls. His travels began in his youth via his stamp album, exotic illustrations of coconut clusters in Ceylon, long-necked ladies in French Equatorial Africa. In his imagination he strolled on sandy beaches off Bermuda, tasted sweet cinnamon from Zanzaibar and smelt the coffee and nuts from Brazil.

He has turned these memories of boyhood and the bright stamps into a poem ending: ‘Then it was time to close the album to leave my home and to go out into the world – post haste!’ And so he did.

Colette Marquise tells of buying a beautiful old mirror in an auction only to discover it held the frightening image of an austere woman who came to haunt her. In one short story Elaine Toal writes as a young solider on the border, in another as a woman in childbirth.

The ideas are limitless, as is imagination, so get writing. You might never make it into a book but your grandchildren will love your stories.

THE VOICE OF YOUTH

I enjoyed the final of the NI Schools Debating Competition held in the Senate Chamber at Stormont, used as an RAF operations room during the Second World War.

Chess Law from Ballymena Academy was considered Best Individual Speaker on the subject ‘This House believes that the business of government would be better dealt with by business people than by politicians,’ while the main debate: ‘This House believes that the obsession in Northern Ireland with the past is a major obstacle to moving forward’ was won by Bangor Grammar School pupils, Luke McWatters and Curtis Irvine.

A WOMAN OF VISION

I well remember Miss Daphne Bell, a character, an august lady always sporting a flamboyant hat, a sweeping cape and living a life with a deep love of music.

She was a lecturer at Stranmillis College in the mid-60s, a time when we celebrated people of passion, people who were unafraid of taking risks and stretching the cultural boundaries.

It was 50 years ago that Miss Bell established the Ulster College of Music in Victoria Street, now housed in Windsor Avenue and anniversary celebrations get under way with on Sunday May 15 with a concert at 3pm in St Thomas's Parish Church, Eglantine Avenue. It will feature tutors and students from the College, the Rossinka Choir and the Dussek Piano Quintet made up of members of the Ulster Orchestra.

How Miss Bell would have loved that. Hot on the heels of the 1962 Belfast Festival which drew international artists to the city, she realised the talent on her own door step and decided to encourage local musicians.

On the arts scene it was an exciting time with the opening of Mary O’Malley’s Lyric Theatre and the formation of the Ulster Orchestra whose members became tutors for the new college, including Janos Fürst, leader of the orchestra, and many of the principals.

The college continues to this very day with pupils drawn from all over Ireland and further afield. Not only do world-class musicians come to tutor pupils but many pupils themselves graduate to play in major orchestras.

Through the years names included Derek Bell, harp, Hugh Tinney, piano, Mircea Petcu, violin, Pavel Crisan, violin, James Beck, horn, Judith Sheridan, voice, Robert Ehrlich, recorder, Sydney Sutcliffe, oboe and Jack Brymer, clarinet.

Czech-born Professor Jaroslav Vanecek came to Belfast from Dublin once a month to teach at the college and his students included Paul Barritt and Fionnula Hunt, both internationally renowned violinists.

The Ulster College was not only a centre of excellence in music education, but also a place where everyone with an interest in music could find the class, lesson, choir or ensemble to fulfil their needs, from young children to adults of all ages, and still offers unique opportunities for adult students to learn an instrument, take part in other music classes and play in ensembles.

The Duchess of Kent became patron of the college in 1985 and Daphne Bell was awarded an MBE for her services to music education four years later.

The Ulster College of Music continues to offer tuition on all orchestral instruments as well as Suzuki violin, piano, recorder, voice, drama, guitar, Irish traditional instruments, theory, ensembles, GCSE and As/A level and a musical fun foundation course for children.

More details of birthday celebrations at www.ulstercollegeofmusic.com.