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Welcome to The Arts Show. Tonight, we're in the cultural hub of Belfast - the Cathedral Quarter. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:07 | |
The Cathedral Quarter lies roughly between Royal Avenue | 0:00:33 | 0:00:36 | |
and the Dunbar link, with St Anne's at its heart. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:40 | |
Walking this tangle of cobbled streets and dark entries | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
reveals a past of warehouses and linen, | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
a glimpse of when Belfast was an industrial powerhouse. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
Now, after years of neglect, it's been spruced up, redeveloped, | 0:00:50 | 0:00:54 | |
and rebranded with culture at its core. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
The 15th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival took place last week | 0:00:58 | 0:01:02 | |
and The Arts Show was there. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
Featured in the line-up was a stage adaptation of Flann O'Brien's | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
masterpiece comic novel, The Third Policeman. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
Squeeze frontman and solo artist Glenn Tilbrook also appeared | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
and took time out to give The Arts Show an exclusive performance. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
And a design classic by internationally-renowned | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
textile designer Gerd Hay-Edie is recreated where it was first made, | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
in the foothills of the Mournes, for a new exhibition in London. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:28 | |
The Cathedral Quarter takes its name from St Anne's. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:49 | |
This amazing, iconic building has married its traditional | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
architectural past with a controversial postmodern spire | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
stretching upwards to God and the heavens. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
This cathedral isn't like a gallery. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:11 | |
It's a tangible, living space, where you can walk, | 0:02:11 | 0:02:15 | |
feel and even touch its treasures. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
Lord Carson lies here. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:20 | |
It houses the Creation Mosaic by Gertrude and Margaret Martin, | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
whose work can also be seen in the lobby of the Houses of Parliament, | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
and a marble maze leads the pilgrim to the altar and the glory of God. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:31 | |
In World War II, as the Blitz ravaged Belfast, unbelievably, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:35 | |
the cathedral survived, its art and grandeur unblemished by German bombs. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:40 | |
There's a lot to be said for divine intervention. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:43 | |
After years of decline, | 0:02:57 | 0:02:59 | |
this last decade has seen the quarter re-emerge as a trendy, vibrant hub. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
It's host to its own arts festival, now in its 15th year. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
Its director is Sean Kelly. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
Is this, or is this not, the hippest part of town to be in now? | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
I don't know if hip's the right word. I remember when there was real people here, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
not all these bearded guys with MacBooks, and stuff. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:26 | |
I sometimes get nostalgic for that. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:28 | |
It is quite a fashionable part of town, lots of restaurants | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
and bars are opening up. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:33 | |
We just have to make sure that the arts continue to be | 0:03:33 | 0:03:37 | |
represented in the area. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
Why did you set up the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival? There was a group of us. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:43 | |
We thought the arts weren't really representing us. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
I suppose, there was the Belfast Festival, and so forth, | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
but we didn't feel that there was a voice being given to more marginal artforms, | 0:03:50 | 0:03:56 | |
to younger artforms, to kind of alternative, | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
slightly subversive, edgier artforms. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:02 | |
In a way, did you see it as an alternative, almost a fringe, | 0:04:02 | 0:04:06 | |
to the Belfast Festival? That would be the daddy, wouldn't it? | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
Yeah, I suppose we did see ourselves, not in opposition | 0:04:09 | 0:04:13 | |
but as an alternative to. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:14 | |
We were quite lucky in that the cease-fires had come about | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
and we felt there was an opportunity for arts in the heart of the city, | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
right in the city centre. So it was strategic to place it here? | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
Well, the north city centre of Belfast to me | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
has always been associated with a certain type of radical thought and ideas. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
You can take that right back to the United Irishmen. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
But the Communist Party headquarters were here, punk found its form, | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
Teenage Kicks was recorded here, ladies of the night, and now it's | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
the gay community down this part of town, it was always a part of town | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
that was relatively free from tribal politics. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:49 | |
It was very rundown and the rents were cheap. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
And it just felt right at that time. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:54 | |
Do you feel that the festival has been crucial to this area? | 0:04:54 | 0:04:59 | |
Well, the festival has played a role, | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
but even back in 1999, | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
there were about 30-35 other arts and cultural organisations. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:07 | |
That has grown exponentially over the last 15 years. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
We've given encouragement to a lot of other festivals, | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
a lot of other arts organisations. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
So, yeah, I'd like to think we played something of a lead role | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
but other people are there doing great work, you know. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
And it has been an incredible line-up this year. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
Well, we've been very lucky this year. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
You're sometimes at the mercy of various artists' touring schedules. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:32 | |
But we couldn't almost believe our luck that we had the calibre of | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
Ginger Baker, Martha Reeves, Tinawiren, The Handsome Family, | 0:05:35 | 0:05:40 | |
Glenn Tilbrook, Simon Amstell, DBC Pierre, and so forth. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:45 | |
Yeah, it fell into place this year. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:47 | |
Sean Kelly, continued success. Thank you. Thanks very much. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
Strabane-born writer Flann O'Brien's satirical novel | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
The Third Policeman was originally rejected by publishers | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
who thought it too fantastical. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
It's gone on to become a cult classic. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
Fans of the American TV series, Lost, | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
rushed out to buy it after its cover appeared on-screen for one second. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
Now it's been brought to life here at the Cathedral Quarter | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
Arts Festival, narrated by Dublin actor, Phelim Drew. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:34 | |
"Not everyone knows how I killed old Phillip Mathers..." | 0:06:45 | 0:06:50 | |
"..smashing his jaw in with my spade." | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
The Third Policeman is the story of a gruesome murder. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:01 | |
"But first, it is better to speak of my friendship with John Divney | 0:07:03 | 0:07:08 | |
"because it was he who first knocked old Mathers down | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
"by giving him a great blow in the neck | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
"with a special bicycle pump, | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
"which he manufactured himself out of a hollow iron bar." | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
At that point, everything turns extremely surreal. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:26 | |
DISCORDANT PIANO NOTES | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
"Michael Gilhaney," said the sergeant, "is an example of a man | 0:07:29 | 0:07:33 | |
"that is nearly banjaxed from the principle of the atomic theory." | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
In this story, bicycles and their riders get their atoms | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
and their personalities mixed up, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
and if this goes over 50%, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
then the human personality is never coming back and they will | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
remain part bicycle for all of their days, | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
so the policemen spend their time stealing people's bicycles, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
arresting people's bicycles, hiding people's bicycles, | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
so their percentage doesn't get too high. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
" 'If it wasn't that his bicycle was stolen every Monday, | 0:07:59 | 0:08:03 | |
" 'he would be sure to be more than halfway now.' " | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
" 'Halfway to where?' " | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
" 'Halfway to being a bicycle himself,' said the sergeant." | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
It's very accessible to anybody with a kind of a fertile imagination. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:21 | |
" 'How much is Gilhaney?' '48.' " | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
" 'The postman?' I said. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
" '71%', he said quietly." | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
" 'Great Scott!' " | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
PIANO PLAYS | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
It's also, in a very surreal way, very believable. It's... | 0:08:37 | 0:08:43 | |
It's kind of, I think we are all sort of subject to nightmares and dreams | 0:08:43 | 0:08:50 | |
that are very real when we are in them. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:54 | |
" 'Did you never see a bicycle leaning against the dresser | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
" 'of a warm kitchen when it is raining outside?' | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
" 'I did.' | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
" 'Not very far away from the fire.' | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
" 'Yes.' | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
" 'Near enough to the family to hear their conversation.' | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
" 'Yes.' | 0:09:11 | 0:09:12 | |
" 'Not 1,000 miles away from where they keep the eatables.' | 0:09:12 | 0:09:16 | |
" 'I did not notice that. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:18 | |
" 'You do not mean to say that these bicycles eat food?' | 0:09:18 | 0:09:22 | |
" 'They were never seen doing it. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:23 | |
" 'Nobody ever caught them with a mouthful of steak. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
" 'All I know is that the food disappears.' " | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
" 'What?!' | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
" 'It is not the first time I have noticed crumbs at the front wheels | 0:09:32 | 0:09:35 | |
" 'of some of these gentlemen.' " | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
I first read it when I was 15. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:39 | |
It either appealed to my sense of humour, or what I actually think | 0:09:39 | 0:09:42 | |
now happened is that it informed my sense of humour. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
" 'I will tell you a secret,' he said very confidentially, in a low voice. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:49 | |
" 'My great-grandfather was 83 when he died.' | 0:09:49 | 0:09:55 | |
" 'For a year before his death...' | 0:09:55 | 0:09:57 | |
" '..he was a horse.' " | 0:09:59 | 0:10:01 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
It was a great challenge to come up with appropriate music | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
for The Third Policeman, but it was a wonderful challenge. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
The first thing that happened | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
was the choice of instruments for the two men | 0:10:14 | 0:10:16 | |
which turned out to be two cellos. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
The cellos can be atmospheric, dark and sombre. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
The opening musical piece is a duet | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
as these two men reach agreement that they will commit the murder. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
Another thing that played into it, I would say, | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
I was listening to quite a lot of Shostakovich at the time, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
which is dark and wintry | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
and I felt that nicely informed the rural setting of the book. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
We played it in Strabane last summer at the Flann O'Brien Festival, | 0:10:40 | 0:10:44 | |
so I got to talk this over with Flann O'Brien experts. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
They call themselves Flannoraks, of all things. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
There's never any remorse expressed for the killing, | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
which is what I think has them go round and round and round again. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:04 | |
They are in this Purgatory. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:08 | |
It's very comic, but if you're stuck in the same situation | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
and going round and round and round again, it is a type of hell. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
So I think what is being expressed is unresolved guilt. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:18 | |
"He came over ponderously to the inside of the counter | 0:11:30 | 0:11:34 | |
"and Divney and I advanced, meekly, from the door | 0:11:34 | 0:11:38 | |
"until we were face to face." | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
"Is it about a bicycle?" | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
Author Glenn Patterson has written about the Cathedral Quarter. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
He has delved into its wrinkles and pores, | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
attracted by its smells and fumes. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
Glenn. Hello. What is it about the Cathedral Quarter | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
that has made you as a writer want to fictionalise it? | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
What I love about this, | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
we're standing in Commercial Court and the period I am interested in | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
is the time when this area | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
was the commercial heart of Belfast. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
In the 19th century, especially the early 19th century, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
this was really where all the business of the time was transacted. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
You get a real sense now, even with the warehouses rising above us, | 0:12:34 | 0:12:39 | |
that this was such an important mercantile hub as well, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
but now, culturally, it's incredibly significant as well. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
Well, when I started to write about this, I was... | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
There were a couple of things I discovered about this area. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
There was a bar that used to be at the end, across Waring Street, | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
in Sugarhouse Entry, which was called the Dr Franklin Tavern | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
and in the 1790s, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
it was one of the first meeting places of the United Irishmen. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
There was a woman called Peggy Barclay who ran that tavern | 0:13:04 | 0:13:08 | |
with her husband, James. I was very attracted by that... | 0:13:08 | 0:13:14 | |
not just the revolutionary fervour at that time, | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
but the kind of intellectual fervour | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
and the enquiry there was in this city. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
I mean, Belfast, it's said a lot these days, but it was the first | 0:13:21 | 0:13:25 | |
place to send congratulations to revolutionary France. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
There were festivals of harpers in 1792, in the Assembly Rooms. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
There was an awful lot going on. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
I have a great fondness for bars, especially Belfast bars. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:38 | |
I was interested in that bar of Peggy Barclay's. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
I like the idea of the public house, I like the sociability, | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
I like the great civic-minded things about public houses. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
You start to look forward to the stories that will come out of here, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
the things people will do. One of the things I like about this | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
is that Belfast grew up around the main streets in these courts | 0:13:54 | 0:13:58 | |
and entries and lanes. Tell me about those, because | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
they feature large in your book, The Mill For Grinding Old People Young. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
I love that sense of coming down these streets. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:10 | |
I think sometimes we think of the past as really, really different, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:15 | |
not just distant, but different, | 0:14:15 | 0:14:16 | |
but if you look down here, if you want to get a sense of | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
what Belfast might have been like 200 years ago, | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
maybe we're looking at it. Maybe this is what it was like. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
And for you as a writer, this area must be rich in story too. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:30 | |
It is. There is so much of the history of the city here, | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
but as a writer, what you want, you want people. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:39 | |
You want life. And as I look here, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
you can't help but be intrigued by who the people are. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
That's where everything begins. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:48 | |
I heard Martin Amis talking the other night | 0:14:48 | 0:14:50 | |
and saying that novels begin with a shiver | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
and you think, "I could do something." | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
And I think as you are abroad in the city these days, | 0:14:56 | 0:15:01 | |
you're shivering all the time, I'm shivering all the time, | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
because you are asking questions about who these people are. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
That's what it is. Where there are people, there are stories. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
Glenn Patterson, thank you. Thank you. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:12 | |
The Cathedral Quarter was once the gateway from the mills | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
in York Street to the nearby Belfast docks. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:28 | |
Cloth and textiles were ferried daily through these cobbled streets. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
Today, this craft tradition is kept alive outside the city. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:36 | |
In 1951, the Norwegian textile designer Gerd Hay-Edie created | 0:15:37 | 0:15:42 | |
a contemporary rug that established her reputation. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
Now, in the shadow of the Mournes, | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
her daughter and grandson are recreating this design classic | 0:15:48 | 0:15:51 | |
for a new exhibition. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:52 | |
The black and white rug was first designed in about 1951. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
Up to now, we didn't have a loom wide enough to weave it all in one | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
piece, but in this instance we now have an enormous loom. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
Gerd Hay-Edie first wove this rug | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
to compete in an exhibition of interior design | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
at the 1951 Milan Triennale, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
where it won a silver medal. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:22 | |
Now it is being recreated in the same workshop | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
using the same methods and materials. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
Well, we've got layers of the black yarn, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:32 | |
and we twist the white fleece just by hand, so it's good and tight. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:37 | |
There is a definite pattern, | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
two rows of thick, one row of thin, and two rows of thick, | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
throughout the whole rug. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
A lot of finger work! | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
The thickness of the threads to the style of the threads | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
to the combination of the wave, | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
the whole structure has been finished, everything, | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
we are trying to match it as she would have wanted it. | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
My mother was a very determined woman. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
She was living in China with my father before the war. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
She met there a man who came from Annalong, | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
and he spoke very highly of how beautiful the Mourne Mountains were. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
So on their first leave, they came over and stayed there | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
and she fell in love with the Mournes | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
and wanted to start a workshop. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
When we decided to recreate the Milano rug, | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
we had to find out the threading. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
But it's quite an intricate threading | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
and I couldn't find the design anywhere, | 0:17:36 | 0:17:38 | |
until one day I was looking through some of my mother's possessions | 0:17:38 | 0:17:43 | |
that had been put aside, | 0:17:43 | 0:17:44 | |
and this book came to light | 0:17:44 | 0:17:46 | |
and in it was the exact threading of the rug. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
The books would be one part of the rug but not the whole rug, | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
and then you'd be looking through a box | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
and little bits of card would come out, little handwritten messages, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
and you'd be like, "Oh, my God, that's it, that's the piece, | 0:17:57 | 0:18:01 | |
"that's the other bit of the jigsaw." | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
1951 was Gerd's breakthrough year | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
and the rug was also exhibited at the Festival of Britain, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
a celebration of science and industry, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
but her approach was to bring together new technology | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
with hand loom techniques that date back millennia | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
to create a design classic. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
You've got a real combination of the loops of the carpet yarn | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
and the soft, the unspun fleece. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
The colours are a strong contrast. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
They are creamy white rather than bleached white. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:35 | |
She used to travel around, hunting out the black sheep | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
to use in her rugs, to use the fleece in her rugs. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
It's warm underfoot, it's very pleasant to walk on, | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
particularly in your bare feet. It's quite homely. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
And yeah, definitely, in bare feet, I mean... It's tactile. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
It's very warm. It's a very tactile, definitely. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
A majority of people will stroke it immediately they see it. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:58 | |
This one design proved pivotal | 0:18:59 | 0:19:02 | |
and now the cream of British furniture designers | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
wanted to use Gerd's fabrics. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
In 1954, she founded her own company, Mourne Textiles, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:11 | |
employing her own daughter, and other people's daughters too. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:15 | |
She trained up local girls | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
from farmers' daughters, from the farms around us, | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
and they came and she trained them up on the hand looms. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
At that, it turned into more of a... She hated to call it a factory, | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
but it was like a mill. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
But although they made textiles for clients far away, | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
the Mournes were a constant inspiration. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
Living here in the Mournes, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
you see the countryside outside the windows all the time. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
You see the colours of the gorse and the bracken | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
when it goes a beautiful rusty red colour, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
and the granite of the mountains. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
They're all a part of what you see all the time. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
And the names, a lot of the name of the tweeds, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
there was fuchsia, fuchsia pink. | 0:19:57 | 0:19:59 | |
Gorse yellow would be very strongly used. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
Gerd Hay-Edie died in 1993, but now history is coming full circle | 0:20:04 | 0:20:10 | |
as a new generation of the family firm moves to the fore. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:15 | |
It's what I've been wanting, for the workshop to come back to life again, | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
and so it's quite interesting that it's starting with the rug. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
We're going to pack it up | 0:20:25 | 0:20:26 | |
and I'm going to have to try and bring it back on the plane with me | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
to London and then bring it up to the Pangolin Gallery. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
Many of the decisions that we're making now, | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
I can sort of feel like my grandmother would have made them | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
when she was first starting out. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:39 | |
You can hear the looms beating away again, it's fantastic, | 0:20:39 | 0:20:43 | |
it's very exciting. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:44 | |
North Street Arcade is a 1930s Art Deco mall in the Cathedral Quarter. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:04 | |
Built on the site of a former linen factory, it was once home to | 0:21:04 | 0:21:08 | |
a vibrant community of business and arts organisations. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
Ten years ago, an unexplained fire swept through | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
and destroyed its essence. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
Today, it sits derelict and overgrown in the middle of an area | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
earmarked for redevelopment. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:23 | |
Despite a very recent touch-up, the shutters remain firmly down | 0:21:27 | 0:21:31 | |
and each passing year brings more deterioration | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
to a once-bustling cultural hub. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
Rebranding the Cathedral Quarter | 0:21:46 | 0:21:47 | |
has seen hotels, restaurants and pubs spring up, | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
transforming some of the city's oldest buildings, | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
but in giving the area such a face-lift, | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
have the artists themselves been priced out? | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
Businessman and hotelier Bill Wolsey | 0:21:58 | 0:22:00 | |
is a name central to this area's redevelopment. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
Bill, the artists, have they been priced out of the Cathedral Quarter? | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
Not yet, there are still artists here, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
but as an area becomes more successful commercially, | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
artists tend to be driven out of those areas, rents go up, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:18 | |
The price of property goes up, and that seems to be a price that's paid. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
Not only in Belfast, it happens anywhere. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
Tell me any successful city that artists haven't started an area | 0:22:24 | 0:22:29 | |
becoming trendy and then they've been forced out. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
Is that not...criminal? | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
Because they've established the area, | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
and then they can't afford to live in it. It absolutely is, | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
but it's the way of the world. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:42 | |
When people come in and purchase properties, | 0:22:42 | 0:22:44 | |
they have responsibility to pay back what they've paid. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
But any forward-looking local authority or government would realise | 0:22:48 | 0:22:53 | |
the importance of artists and this is happening in lots of major cities. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:57 | |
And the artists are put into buildings that are owned | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
by local authorities, and they are in there and heavily subsidised, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
because they act as a catalyst for that area, | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
and the amount of business they bring into the area | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
is very hard to quantify. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
So that money that should be given to artists to keep them in those areas | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
is paid back ten times. Is that not happening here in Belfast, | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
do you feel, within the Cathedral Quarter? I think it is, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
I think there is a recognition. There is Cotton Court opposite, | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
and there are other art organisations that get grants. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:30 | |
The government have put in money to support the artists | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
and I hope that will be ongoing. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:34 | |
Is it your role to support artists? | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
Any business within this area or within this city, it's their role | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
to have an understanding of the wealth that artists bring into it, | 0:23:40 | 0:23:44 | |
very hard to quantify but it's definitely something, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
we should have a voice, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:48 | |
but it's the government's role to support them. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
For you, why the Cathedral Quarter? What prompted you to come here? | 0:23:51 | 0:23:56 | |
This was a very quiet area. | 0:23:56 | 0:23:59 | |
We had the opportunity to buy other pubs within the area. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:01 | |
We saw the mistakes that Temple Bar had made, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
and we were determined not to make those mistakes, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
so we don't allow hen nights or stag nights or karaoke nights | 0:24:07 | 0:24:11 | |
and the area has a very definite feel to it. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:14 | |
There is a great vibe in the Cathedral Quarter at the moment. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
Is that going to continue, grow, or will it reach a plateau? | 0:24:17 | 0:24:22 | |
Well, I think it's very important that we encourage daytime trade here. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
For that, what we really need is shops. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
Artisan shops would be the way to go. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
The high street is having trouble | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
because it's all become so homogenous. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
If we could have a tailor making the suits there, | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
a jeweller producing the jewellery there, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
a baker baking the bread, that would really make this area special. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
Bill Wolsey, thank you. Thank you very much. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
That's almost it from The Arts Show. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
Join me live on Twitter now. You can stay up to date | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
with all arts and culture on BBC Radio Ulster's Arts Extra, | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
weeknights at 6.30pm. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
And do check out our website for some great archive and arts content. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:14 | |
Now, he may have just released his fifth solo album | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
but for die-hard fans of Glenn Tilbrook, | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
he will for ever be one half of the songwriting duo Tilbrook Difford. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
The brains behind the British group Squeeze, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
he penned international hits such as Up the Junction, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
Cool for Cats and Tempted. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
Glenn was in Belfast last week for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, | 0:25:33 | 0:25:37 | |
and gave The Arts Show an exclusive performance. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
# Persephone is not afraid | 0:25:45 | 0:25:48 | |
# Of life's indecent haste | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
# Time to spend, time to embrace | 0:25:56 | 0:26:00 | |
# Gentle, not right in your face | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
# She travels light and easily | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
# She lives a life outside of the mainstream | 0:26:14 | 0:26:18 | |
# And she's got everything she needs | 0:26:18 | 0:26:22 | |
# In her VW bus | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
# Persephone | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
# Persephone | 0:26:33 | 0:26:37 | |
# She doesn't know how to be mean | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
# She's scared of guns incessantly | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
# She wears her heart right on her sleeve | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
# Tonight is going to be a big one | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
# For Persephone | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
# Persephone | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
# Countercultural debris | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
# On a slope that is slippery | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
# Not a brilliant advert | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
# Poor Persephone's inert | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
# Pity poor Persephone | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
# She had lost her phone, her car keys | 0:27:32 | 0:27:37 | |
# And her short-term memory | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
# Logic's all Greek to me | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
# Pickles Persephone | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
# She spent all night shaky and pale | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
# She had no wind left in her sails | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
# Although she tried, she could hardly speak | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
# "Don't I know you from somewhere?" | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
# Sa-aid Persephone | 0:28:11 | 0:28:16 | |
# Persephone | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
# Persephone | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
# Persephone | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
# Di di-di-di-di-di-di | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
# Di-di di di di di-di-di | 0:28:39 | 0:28:41 | |
# Persephone | 0:28:41 | 0:28:45 | |
# Persephone. # | 0:28:47 | 0:28:51 |