Game of Thrones

Arlene Foster (DETI minster), Nelson McCausland (DCAL minister), Rick Hill (NI Screen) and Mark Huffam (producer)

Today it was announced that HBO have agreed to film the series Game of Thrones in Ulster.  The company is the premier producer of television drama and this will raise the profile of Northern Ireland as a film location.

HBO intend to produce a ten part television series of each of George R R Martin's award winning novels and it is expected that each series will be one year in production, with an overall budget for each series of around £30m.

With at least seven books in the series this is a major success for Northern Ireland Screen, who have done so much to develop Northern Ireland as a location for film production.  Rick Hill (chair), Richard Williams (chief executive) and their team deserve great credit for their efforts.

This is a great boost for the creative industries in Northern Ireland and shows that we are able to compete and succeed on the world stage as regards film production.

Back in November 2009 I visited the set during production of the pilot episode at Castle Ward and Northern Ireland is well placed to secure more film production in the future.  It is competitive in termso f cost and has a wide range of natural locations as well as the Paint Hall facility in Titanic Quarter.

Producer Mark Huffam was born in Ulster and his CV includes production credits on films such as Saving Private Ryan.  He was also the producer of the Abba-themed musical Mamma Mia!

1641 Massacre

Academics from the University of Aberdeen have been given a £334,000 grant to examine the depositions of English and Scottish settlers about the masscre of Protestants in Ulster in 1641.  The 4,000 depositions are held in Trinity College Dublin and describe the events of that terrible time.  The historians will use cutting-edge software to examine and cross-reference names, places, words and phrases in an effort to establish just how many people were murdered.  The most recent estimates put the figure at between 4,000 and 12,000.

There can be no doubt that the Irish rebels had a sectarian motivation.  Writing on 7 December 1641 Father Hugh Bourke, at that time commisary of the Irish Friars Minor in Germany and Belgium, admitted that the war was ‘begun solely in the interest of the Catholic and Roman religion’.

[Jesuit Plots p 163; Report on Franciscan Manuscripts, Command Paper 2867, HMSO 1906]

Indeed the fact that this was a Roman Catholic rebellion against Protestantism was acknowledged by the Jesuit writer Oliver P Rafferty in his history of Roman Catholicism in Ulster: 'The bloody Ulster uprising of 1641 ... represented ... a spontaneous outpouring of hatred against Protestantism and all it stood for.' [Catholicism in Ulster 1603-1983 p 1]

But what was the extent of the massacre?  In the past there were grossly exaggerated figures but even if it were only 4,000 or 12,000 people it was still a dreadful massacre and left a dreadful legacy of hatred and fear. 

Even the lower figure of 4,000 is greater than the number of people killed in the recent Troubles in Northern Ireland and yet the killing happened at a time when the Protestant population of Ulster was much smaller, around 100,000.  Furthermore it happened in a much shorter period and in addition to those who were murdered, many others died as a result of ill treatment and deprivation.

The respected Ulster historian Dr A T Q Stewart once said that ’The 1641 rebellion is perhaps the most important episode in the history of Ulster since the plantation, yet it is one of the least discussed.’  Perhaps this new research will help to focus attention on that 'important episode'.

The massacre certainly had an important place in the history of the Ulster-Scots and not just because of its impact on the relationship between the Scottish settlers and the native Irish, who were Roman Catholics.  It also led to the arrival of a Scottish army in Ulster in April 1642 to protect the Scottish settlers and on 10 June the chaplains of the Scottish army formed their own presbytery.  This was the start of organised Presbyterianism in Ulster and it became the General Synod of Ulster.

Gender Focus

The Women's Research and Development Agency has just circulated its Gender Focus to MLAs.  It was sent out by Lynn Carvill, the Women's Sector Lobbyist, and an e-mail with the document included the following.

I have attached for your reference the fourth issue of ‘Gender Focus’. The fourth edition addresses solely the ‘Ending Dual Mandates Local Government (Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill’ which is due to have a second reading in plenary on Monday 8th March 2010. This Bill will amend the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 to disqualify Northern Ireland MLAs from also holding the position of local Councillor. This is a good opportunity to suggest that ending dual mandates could be used to address the concern of the lack of women representatives in political life in Northern Ireland.

I wonder if Lynn's concern about the lack of women representatives in political life is in any way connected with the fact that she stood as a candidate for the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition in the Forum election in May 1996 in South Down.  Not surprisingly she did not get elected. [Down Recorder 15 May 1996]

Mary Peters Trust

Sports Minister Nelson McCausland and Dame Mary Peters

talk to Ulster Senior Record holding swimmer Jordan Sloan, from Bangor

The Ulster sports and Recreation Trust was founded as a charity in 1975 to commemorate the success of Dame Mary Peters in the 1972 Olympic Games.  In 2008 the trustees decided to rename it the Mary Peters Trust in honour of their president, Dame Mary, and thereby recognise her service and contribution to the life of Northern Ireland and further afield.

The trust distributes grants to young people to help towards the cost of expenses in respect of preparation, training and competition in sport and over 160 awards totalling more than £60,000 have been distributed in this year.  You can get more information at http://www.marypeterstrust.org/

Last night I attended the launch of the annual report of the Mary Peters Trust, which was held in Belfast City Hall, and met a number of the young people who have received support from the trust.  There was a very large attendance and it was clear that the trust has made a real difference through the support it has given to the young athletes.

Answer to Jarlath Burns

Recently I noted the speech by Jarlath Burns at a conference in London on Putting Irish Unity on the Agenda.  The conference was sponsored and organised by Sinn Fein and in the course of his address Jarlath Burns, a former GAA player and now a GAA commentator on BBC accused me of thwarting expansion plans for Bryansford GAA 'by a particularly bigoted piece of political chicanery'.

And bringing us right up to date; this week Bryansford GAA are having their expansion plans thwarted by a particularly bigoted piece of political chicanery from the DUP minister of culture, a man who hadn’t even the guts to mention the GAA Ulster championship last summer in a statement promoting the summer of sporting activities in the six counties. And we are still in trouble because some of our grounds are named historically and emotionally after what we would term irish patriots, but who others would call terrorists. Off the field, we just can’t seem to win and this is why we are distinctly uncomfortable in the political arena and nowadays try to avoid it at all costs.

In fact I have had no connection with the matter at all and have sent the following letter to an SDLP MLA who asked me about the Bryansford plans.

Sport Northern Ireland (SNI) is responsible for the development of sport in Northern Ireland including the distribution of funding.  SNI is unaware of any development proposals by Bryansford GAC and has received no applications for funding from the club.

My officials have, however, liaised with their counterparts in the Department of the Environment on the matter and I under stand that a full planning application was submitted in March 2008 for three pitches, training area, stand, terrace, fencing, floodlighting, car parking and ancillary site works at land on Burrenbridge Road, Bryansford.

The application remains under consideration and I am advised a decision will issue as soon as possible.  As you will appreciate it would be inappropriate for me to intervene in the planning process.

Planning comes under the Department of the Environment and the Planning Service and DCAL has no role in the matter.

The facts are plain.  (1) There has been no funding application to either Sport NI or DCAL and (2) I have no role in relation to planning.  So much for Jarlath's accusation of political chicanery!

Ulster and Tennessee

Nelson McCausland MLA, Tom Haire (USCN board member),
Kamala S Lakhdhir (US consul general) and William Humphrey (USCN director).

The Ulster-Scots Community Network has published a new booklet about the influence in Tennessee of people with Ulster-Scots descent. 

Belfast has a sister city relationship with Nashville, Tennessee, and there is a strong Ulster influence in the history of Nashville, dating right back to Nashville's founding fathers.

European Pipe Band Championships

The European Pipe Band Championships, organised by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, will be held at the Civil Service sports grounds at Stormont this summer and the press launch was held in Belfast City Hall on Friday.

The competition will attract bands from across the British Isles and from other countries such as Canada.  We can look forward to a week of the finest pipe music in the world.

Ultimately our aim must be to bring the World Pipe Band Championships to Belfast and this is an important step on the way.