Everything about this theatre is just exquisite. It's our first visit which came about by…read morehappenstance with a liberal dose of serendipity. There's always a story with us. We had our great friends over from England a few weeks ago. We decided on a mini tour of Ireland and en route we stopped in Derry, one of the most welcoming cities on earth with folks as open and honest as the Inuit people. The ladies went shopping, and we gents strolled after we saw Mr John Hume's peace medal on display in the free to enter Guildhall and our history tour - the resilience and forgiveness of Derry people is as staggering to comprehend as the evil that they endured from warmongers; evidence of man's blind indifference to his fellow man in spades. As we passed the theatre entrance en route for coffee I saw the poster for the Fureys retirement tour a few weeks hence. I told my companion we'd booked to see them in Armagh in February only to miss the opportunity as I then booked a cruise over the concert date only for the cruise company (MSC) to pull the bloody cruise after we had surrendered our tickets. So he suggested I try here, so I did. The lady at the front desk was kind so when I asked about seats for the Fureys she only sniggered rather than a full belly laugh but she said 'let's have a look': lo and behold there were two single seats in the gods - seat 18 in both rows one front row one two rows back. Deal done. Fast forward a few weeks to 21 May and we entered this fine place. Seating space is not generous and the drop from the gods downward like many of Derry's streets was darn steep. The staff couldn't be more helpful and patient if they tried. We enjoyed the theatre, the bar, the show and the humanity; what a great way to sustain the mundane. As I muse I hear Ed Mc Curdy sing: Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before, I dreamed the world had all agreed To put an end to war I dreamed I saw a mighty room The room was filled with men And the paper they were signing said They'd never fight again... Oh on the subject of warmongers I see that not one country that has signed up to the Orange dictators 'Board of Peace' (it's no such thing) has paid a penny into his grubby greedy mitts with membership set at a billion US dollars per country, sure Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE can afford it.

It was a grim wet Tuesday night when we decided to go to see the film Belfast. It was Mr Branagh's…read morerecollections of his 9 year old self in said city in 1969/70. If he says so - I couldn't determine any real Belfast accents nor much of the cynical humour Belfastians are known for. I do wish I was as thin (well maybe not that thin) as the script but the cinema photography was superb as was the sound. It's a bug bear of mine too when the use English actors to play Irish roles when we have enough home grown talent but I expect Mr Branagh has his circle of luvvies. The pleasant cinema staff told us to wait a tad as cinema 7 was being covid cleaned. The cinema was cosy warm and not at all busy. As the Omniplex group rip us off with outrageous prices for ice cream, popcorn, sweets and drinks we brought our own supplies. It was £17 for two to indulge Mr Branagh and to satisfy our curiosity at this Oscar nominated work and for that we got a very comfortable reclining chair in which we lay well toward horizontal in a warm dark comfy theatre. The experience is worth it for the seating alone.