Has anyone ever askedwhat’s your favourite book? There’s no easy answer for the avid and passionate reader. They will likely reply with a question…Can I select more than one book? For example, from a certain country? A particular genre? The era the book was written in?
Books enrich our lives, offer a view of the world we live in, not only the past but the present and into the future. Literature, literacy and writing as a way to understand cultural diversity supports better understanding of ourselves and others. The value of diversity, inclusion, representation, and collaboration nurtures an awareness of multiculturalism. Writing and storytelling are powerful ways to challenge the status quo of society and have the facility to create communal understanding. The world in which we communicate and the manner in which we communicate have become complex and literature is the reflective pathway towards diversity. The symbolic power of language is paramount in broadening our understanding of ourselves and others.
Editorial
Gébler who has worked for Prison Arts Foundation (PAF) from its inception in 1990s. On 27 July, his mother, the renowned Irish writer Edna O’Brien passed away. Carlo kindly agreed to an interview with a member of the writers group in Magilligan, who in turn read many of Edna’s novels and a memoir as preparation. What we get is exclusive, emotional, and informative. O’Brien’s work projects and portrays the modern feminist image of women, placing them within society whereas she had not grown up in such diversity.
We provide full details and sample the work of the Koestler Arts Award winners 2024 in Time In. PAF achieved remarkable success, particularly at Magilligan, and the outstanding achievement in gaining fifty-three awards, ranking us as top amongst three hundred and one other UK institutions.
Winter 2024, Issue 23 of Time In sees us integrate the theme of diversity into our content. In conversations we discuss the adaptability of the word with concepts such as biodiversity, cultural diversity, inclusivity and it incorporates, race, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation and disability. The arts play a key role as an enlightening force, providing a platform for stories that challenge stereotypes, expand perspectives, and celebrate the tapestry of human experience.
I would draw your attention to our feature interview with Carlo
The world in which we communicate and the manner in which we communicate have become complex and literature is the reflective pathway towards diversity.
There is a piece on the Compassion Prison Project, the organisation based in the United States, who facilitate trauma awareness and who worked with the staff at ADEPT, a prison officer and sixteen prisoners, participating in the Trauma Talks programme.
We have our regular content: sport, nature, as well as PAF updates and all echoing our chosen theme.
Acknowledgements
As Issue 23 marks the close of the year I wish to take this opportunity to thank all who have supported the writers group throughout the year. Thank you to Governor Gary Milling a constant supporting the arts in prison. To PAF Board of Governors, our Chief Executive Fred Caulfield, and Co-Ordinator Adele Campbell. The librarian Andrea for the space she has created which fosters diversity through books. In particular, thanks to our graphic designer, our cover designer and all our creative writers who provide the articles, content and skills to make each edition available in actuality.
So, what is your favourite book? The answer I would give? I’ve read so many books, and because I can’t choose, maybe I haven’t read my favourite book yet, so I’ll keep reading until I do.
Pamela Mary Brown, Writer-inResidence, Magilligan
Sincere thanks are offered to all who played a part in the creation of this magazine, in particular the contributors, without whom there would be no publication. Additionally, it would not have been possible without the support of Governor Gary Milling, our CEO Fred Caulfield, Prison Arts Foundation Staff and Board of Directors, the librarian Andrea and staff in On Point Printing. Sincere appreciation is extended to all PAF Artists-in-Residence and prison educators who supported their students as they created their submissions. Particular gratitude is offered to JPW for Graphic Design and Layout and RMcA, our in-house artist, for the evocative and bespoke cover art. We are also thankful to the art tutor Jayne for all her input in project collaboration.
MARK TWAIN, Commended Award, Portrait, PON, Maghaberry
Here is the story of Ireland –from the tail end of the Troubles to the Good Friday agreement, to the glory days of the Celtic Tiger to the recession to Brexit and on to the present, where, it appears, everything we thought we could take for granted is no longer a given.
Drawing from journals he has kept for over four decades, Gébler stitches together days of his life into something bigger than his own lived experiences – a vivid patchwork history of the island over thirty-five years, capturing those sweeping changes in sharp,
slantwise pieces that will prompt readers to reflect on the strange process of how we got here. This intelligent and affectionate compilation, written in Gébler’s sparkling prose, is a joy. Whether read from beginning to end or dipped into, it will appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in the astonishing evolution of our island. (Published by New Island Book, Available at all good bookstores)
Edna O’Brien (1930-2024)
Edna O’Brien, at one time demonised, is now considered among Ireland’s most celebrated writers. Born on a farm in the townland of Tuamgrainey in County Clare, in her lifetime she published over thirty works including fiction, non-fiction and drama.
In her memoir Country Girl (2012) she describes her strictly religious parents, schooling and community. A picture of an oppressive, dark and unhappy life emerges. However, she is alert to its contradictions and hypocrisy where a respected and a much older man has no compunction about making advances to O’Brien and her school friend.
The opportunity to train as a pharmacist in Dublin, allowed her to break free from her claustrophobic and precarious family situation underwritten by her father’s alcoholism, gambling and consequent disastrous financial decisions. Life in Dublin was free from these constraints and a “sinful hedonistic life,” is in stark contrast to the veneer of “piety” in rural Ireland. O’Brien, in the memoir, describes her affinity with books and writing from the age of eight displaying insight and an imagination which often resulted in disapproval from the nuns who ran the convent school. In Dublin with its many secondhand bookshops she immersed herself in the works of Joyce, Thackeray, Tolstoy, and Kafka among numerous others.
Her debut as a paid writer came as a result of her sister’s employment in the railway company. She was to contribute to a weekly railway magazine column. O’Brien recollects that ‘it was a long way from James Joyce.’ However, as often happens this venture into journalism led to articles for mainstream newspapers and more importantly a social circle of writers and actors. In addition, she met her soon to be first husband, Ernest Gebler, sixteen years her senior and an established writer, whose work The Plymouth Adventure (1947) had been made into a Hollywood Film. Their relationship developed and in a short space of time, Edna was pregnant and lived with Ernest, unmarried, at Lake Park, County Wicklow. Ernest was still married to his first wife who had returned to her native America with their
son.
The O’Brien family back in Clare were not at all pleased with this set of circumstances. Edna had brought great shame on her family and was hounded both emotionally and physically to leave the adulterer and repent. They married in 1954 and moved to London in 1959. They had two sons Sasha and Carlo. Sasha became an architect and Carlo followed a career in writing like his parents. The marriage did not last and ended bitterly in divorce.
Carlo Gebler in his memoir Father and I (2000) describes his father as a cold, controlling and unhappy man, loathed to acknowledge his wife’s success to the extent that he would claim authorship of the texts. The life of the country girl from county Clare was now transformed, socialising among a
O’Brien’s output as a writer reminded prolific throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s…
plethora of talented and famous writers, film directors and actors.
O’Brien’s first published novel The Country Girls (1960) was followed by two sequels Lonely Girls (1962) and Girls in their Married Bliss (1964) all published later as The Country Girls trilogy with an epilogue in the 1990s. The Country Girls relays the story of two childhood friends, Kate and Baba, growing up in small town Ireland. Kate narrates the story describing her pain, desires and passions plus their relationships with boys, and older married and unmarried men. The friends move to Dublin and are determined to enjoy and indulge in all the city has to offer them. Their new lives lived in defiance to their Catholic upbringing. Kate pins her hopes on a man who she believes represents a break away from the norm.
The Lonely Girl (1962) finds Kate and Baba still in their lodgings in Dublin. Kate meets a man who is very different from those she would have met in Clare or Dublin. He is cultured, educated, exciting and a well-travelled filmmaker. No more the constrained narrowness of rural Catholic Ireland. She falls for him and moves in with him but
Kate does not find happiness. She is constrained, belittled and experiences a power inequality not based on the Catholic hierarchy or patriarchy but by an ‘enlightened’ intellectual with latent anger and an underlying prejudice in respect of Irish people which surfaces when his plan for his new partner does not go as he wishes.
Baba takes up the narrative in Girls in their Wedded Bliss. The friends have decided to leave Ireland and head to London in search of happiness. What they find is controlling relationships, domestic abuse, alcoholism, despair, compromise as well as some love.
O’Brien’s output as a writer reminded prolific throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s publishing notable works including: August Is a Wicked Month (1965) which was banned in several countries upon first publication,and is a simmering tale of a woman rediscovering herself on the French Riviera. A Scandalous Woman and Other Stories (1974) a collection of eight short stories with themes reflecting Ireland, its people, its personality and women betrayed among happiness stolen or mislaid. The High Road (1988) a narrator, tormented by a stormy past escapes to a Spanish island hoping to forget a tempestuous love affair. House of Splendid Isolation (1994) a controversial story marrying the worlds of a political terrorist and a loveless widow.
The new millennium brought works such as In the Forest (2002) a moving novel inspired by a notorious true-life triple murder. Byron in Love (2009) presenting the poet as reaching beyond race, creed or frontier, his gigantic flaws redeemed by a magnetism and ultimately a heroism that by ending in tragedy raised it and him from the particular to the universal. Haunted: A Play (2010) premiered at Manchester's Royal Exchange in 2009 and transferred to the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, in February 2010 before a UK tour. Saints and Sinners: Stories (2011) A collection characterised Edna O'Brien’s stylistic trademark and powerful evocations of place inhabited with people and their desires and contradictions.
The Little Red Chairs (2015) follows a Serbian, Dr Vlad, who comes to a village in Ireland. He is
Issue 23 Page 4
a healer and a man of peace. A local married woman falls in love with him and is soon pregnant. However, he has a past that catches up with him. He is accused of being the architect of the massacre in Sarajevo. Chairs were symbolically placed in the High Street in Sarajevo on the 6 April 2012, each little red chair was attributed to a child who had died during the conflict, 650 in total out of an overall 11,541 chairs. How could this man of peace be part of this? A man who loved Serbia? Yet when Fidelma visits him in prison, all former enemies imprisoned with him act as if they were lifelong friends, illustrating how fickle love and hatred are.
O’Brien continued writing into her eighties, her last novel Girl (2019) was set in Nigeria and based on the real life abduction of school girls by Boko Haram. Maintaining a narrative that runs through many of her works that reflects on how young women survive and possibly strive in controlling environments.
Edna O’Brien, in all her works, speaks from the perspective of
women and how they exist within and outside the belief systems of men. She identifies the hierarchies inside these interactions. In her early works she expressed the thoughts of young Irish women and in doing so she identifies the negative consequences for wider society. Ireland may have changed but O’Brien deserves to be remembered as one of those in the vanguard who was prepared to
Edna O’Brien, in all her works, speaks from the perspective of women and how they exist within and outside the belief systems of men.
speak out when others were silent. Importantly, Edna O’Brien’s writings are a page turning read in which we empathise with characters from the get-go.
INTERVIEW WITH CARLO GEBLER
FD: When The Country Girls was published your mother received
hate mail, incurred the wrath of the Catholic Church among other negative comments. Can you tell us about how this affected her on a personal level?
Carlo: This obviously did take its toll. The Catholic Church in Ireland during this period, and for decades’ prior, controlled nearly all aspects of people’s lives. It effectively sucked the fun out of Irish society. It oppressed peoples’ freedom of expression and destroyed them with guilt. To think or act contrary to the accepted norms meant sending oneself to Coventry. My mother had established herself in London and in some ways was removed from the hostility directly. She did receive harsh criticism in England with comments such as her work was too light, pulpy, etc., however, she was published there, her books were popular and they sold. In Ireland she would not only have had a barrage of wrath but would have found it impossible to be published.
Continued Overleaf
FD: What are your thoughts on the themes in your mother’s writings, particularly in relation to the idea that once belief systems are accepted within a culture they legitimise control over people’s life choices?
Carlo: I don’t think my mother set out to make an argument in respect of the social restraints in Ireland, particularly in relation to women. However, she was observant and was able to distil her observations and experiences into literature. She used the characters she created to give voice to their experiences. As I said earlier the Catholic Church in Ireland had such power over people’s lives, it effectively invaded every nook and cranny of people’s thoughts and activities. If we consider the mother and baby homes, on reflection people are
My mother’s novels by relaying the stories of two “country girls” shines a massive light on Irish society at the time and what it illuminates is not pretty.
astounded that such things could happen. My mother’s novels by relaying the stories of two “country girls” shines a massive light on Irish society at the time and what it illuminates is not pretty.
FD: Your mother and father were both writers. Can you tell us how the bitter end to their marriage had a lasting effect on you as a child?
Carlo: As a child, about eight years old, I knew my mother and father were incompatible. However, their split did affect me personally. No child wants such a rupture in their parent’s relationship. One thing I did learn from both of them was that by “producing text” one could earn a living. Effectively to buy groceries and it’s something I have done all of my adult life. My parents were both very good at it.
FD: Edna mentions the renowned Maud Gonne in her memoir. Maud like so many writers of the early 1900s had a vision of Ireland which was never realised after the treaty and the ‘new’ Ireland becoming effectively an adjunct of the Catholic Church. What were
her thoughts on the women of Maud’s generation?
Carlo: Again, the Catholic Church took a hold on Ireland and any new or contrary ideas were shelved. I remember seeing Maud Gonne as an old woman in Dublin, she was an actual part of the living history of Ireland’s literary past. A woman whom Yeats had written about and a friend of John Millington Synge who wrote The Playboy of the Western World.
FD: The Little Red Chairs is a story of a woman’s experience of unhappiness, violence and belief in people. On a broader level it shows how spiritual and kind individuals can become part of a genocide and it seems are able to intellectualise anything. What do we learn from these kinds of narratives?
Carlo: I don’t think literature itself can change history or the world. However, it can add to discussion and hopefully reflect people’s experiences. The novel can help us see the world through other people’s lived experiences and this can possibly cause us to reflect on our perspective. For example, Dickens is well known for his depictions of poverty in Victorian Britain when industry had reached its zenith. Yet Dickens was able to describe detail to his readers through characters that the reader had empathy with the injustices borne by many during this period especially children. Did his books change the world? Possibly not, but they certainly contributed to the debate regarding factory hours, conditions and notoriously child labour.
FD: Your mother is first and foremost a storyteller of the highest calibre, intertwined with her ability to identify broader social inequalities within the individual struggle. Are these attributes of great literature?
Carlo: I think that great literature has primarily something that people want to read. It should be accessible and pleasurable. By telling another person’s truth we can convey their struggles. How their situation geographically or historically shapes their lives. We have a first-hand account of how they feel and of their dreams, and life choices. The story has to be the focus rather than an analysis of say Catholic Ireland in the 1950s or 1960s and then a story to be created around that.
FD, Magilligan
In this modern world ‘diversity’ amongst humans has increasing hugely in terms of culture, sexuality, religion, and ideas of gender and relationships. It could be argued that globally there is in fact less diversity than there was in the past, that there are less languages now in existence than there was 1000 years ago, lesser amount of distinct cultures and less diversity of tribes across the world.
It could further be argued that there is a much more standardised way of living across the world, people have become assimilated in their tastes, living habits and values. Globalisation has been very effective in establishing brands as status symbols and subcultures that general populations aspire to have and be a part of.
In this past few hundred years, the European christian churches and nations have been particularly dominant. And in this past 100 years the Anglo and Spanish languages and cultures and music have been central especially if we think of the influence of America and Britain. Yet while there likely has been greater diversity in the past, it is also true that such diversity was maintained via separation of peoples and institutions.
In today’s age we are seeing much greater diversity amongst peoples living as part of one society or nation. It would be fair to say that in Europe, North America and Australia, we see the greatest diversity of lifestyles and ideas amongst populations. Sadly, there has been the consequence of growing conflict amongst peoples within these regions.
There are varying factors which contribute to such conflicts:
• Competition for scarce resources
• Xenophobia – irrational fear, hostility, or awkwardness towards those from foreign cultures and ethnicities
• Racism – a blatant ideological motivation for separation of peoples and suppression of other peoples based on their physical features or perceived racial difference
Diversity
• A desire to protect the progress, the benefits, the privileges and the values that have been already established by general society and by the various sections of society
• A recognition of the increased problems that have
In Europe, North America and Australia, we see the greatest diversity of lifestyles and ideas amongst populations.
genuinely been occurring in other countries that have experienced large influxes of immigration
• A recognition of the problems that people have seen increasing locally, as a result of large scale immigration into their areas
• Fears of the unknown, of otherness
• A lack of assurance and sense of security about the kind of society that is being created
• A fear ofor the loss of control of one’s own life and the next generation’s futures
• The degeneration of society
• A lack of feeling of belonging
• A fear of understanding how the world is being challenged,shook and disrupted
Hopefully this list can dissect some aspects and develop a greater understanding to help overcome such problems. The conspicuous factors are the negative emotions of fear and insecurity. The desire to protect what one knows is natural enough. As is to defend what one knows, from that which may threaten to make your life situation worse. People often seek solace in things even though they are harmful to them, just because of the comfort and familiarity. A “Better the devil you know” approach.
I’ve been told before that I’m a jack of all trades and master of nothing because I tend to jump from thing to thing, it was directed to me as a negative but I do not see it as a bad thing. My point of view on life has always been, there is a whole world out there to discover and we have such little time upon it, the thought of only doing a handful of the same things over and over for the rest of my life scares me. I feel like I would miss out on so many experiences and opportunities so I throw myself into everything and anything, then if I like it, I stick with it until I get myself up to a decent level where I’m better than average at it and then I move on to something new.
They say master of nothing, I say master of diversity and adaptability. By not tying myself to one discipline I’ve learned how to deal with the curve balls life throws your way, I’ve learned not to panic when things don’t go exactly to plan, to operate in the grey areas of life when things aren’t simply black and white, this has taught me that no matter what situation I find myself in I can deal with it not just survive it but strive through it. Don’t get me wrong I still get nervous about the uncertainty of something new, I still get all fingers and thumbs, I still have the fear of making a fool out of myself because I’m not good at something yet, but I’ve actually learned to enjoy that part of the process, I get a buzz from it, throwing myself in at the deep end, sink or swim, learning something new that’s taken me right out of my comfort zone, all the nervousness and fear is really just part of the process and its normal to feel that way, that feeling is far outweighed by the sense of accomplishment once you become good at something new, especially if you’ve managed to squash the fear and get past the nervousness, you will eventually get good at anything if you don’t give up, you keep picking yourself up of the floor and you try, try and try again.
Most people have fear of the unknown, they become good at only a handful things, they stick with those exact same things throughout their entire lives, never trying anything new because it’s hard to be good at something and then throw yourself into something else, something that you may be rubbish at to start with, to go from top of the pecking order back to the
bottom. It’s great to be a master at something but what happens when that one thing gets taken away from you? You’ve spent your entire life in one field so much so that it is your identity, it’s who you are and all you know, you’re a solider, you’re a chef, you’re a prisoner, you’re a person that has known his place among that world for so long, you’re in a comfort zone you feel safe and secure, even if it’s not a place you wanted to be in, then all of the sudden this is taken away from you, you have to readjust to civilian life.
…only through adversity and diversity have I had the ability to change and adapt.
Take being a prisoner, without diversity in your life this could quite easily become your identity and you can see why some prisoners return time after time making the same mistakes over and over they know it’s wrong, they know what the problem is, they don’t want this life but yet their choice not to change or adapt their behaviour keeps them spinning around in this same circle making the same actions and getting the same result. The same can be said for an addict, you’ve spent your whole life doing the same thing, going through the same processes and it’s all you know and it’s what you are, even if that’s in a place you do not want to be, you still feel a level of comfort and secureness because you know your place in that world. I list these positions because this is prime example that we have all seen and heard of many times, someone who loses their ‘identity’ and does not know how to readjust, they end up turning to a life of drink and/or drugs, gambling, they lose everything, family, home, hope, their life.
I stopped drinking and taking drugs when I was 30 and the next 8 years of my life where amazing, I got my son full-time, I got my driving licence, I retrained and became a fitness instructor and was training professional motorcycle
racers, I began Krav Maga and with it I travelled Europe training with some of the top trainers and special forces commanders on the planet. Everything I did seemed to go right, everything I touched was turning to gold for me and then Covid hit, boom! No work, no travel, no training and so with the boredom I chose to pick up a drink again, a year and a half later I was arrested and sentenced to just over two years in prison, I had a choice keep spiralling or take it on the chin, I was in a place I did not want to be but it was what it was, that part was out of my hands now I could either sink or swim again so I decided to throw myself into every opportunity again rather than dwell in my cell. Now, with almost two years complete I have accomplished over 40 significant things while in prison, everything from learning to play chess, to education, to starting a degree.
Moral of the story? There is no comparison to my life when I’m under the control of my addictions or I’m sober but only through adversity and diversity have I had the ability to change and adapt.
I want to leave you with a story and a poem I have read recently in with I believe sums up the importance of showing diversity in your life.
I read a story of a guy that had an accident and due to his injuries he was unable to walk again, he was asked one day, Do you he hate that wheelchair for holding you back? He replied with an answer along the lines of, without that wheelchair I would be confined to my bed, so tell me please, how does this wheelchair hold me back?.
BB, Magilligan
Men are born soft and subtle; Dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; Dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible Is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding Is a disciple of life.
The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.
– Lao Tzu
Relationship Anarchy
We normally think of diversity in terms of personal characteristics such as race, gender, class, but what may be surprising to some is that it can also extend to romantic relationships.
These are often thought of as something that happens between two people, but, in reality, there are many alternative ways to be intimate with others,polyamory, dating and relationship anarchy to name a few.
Relationship Anarchy is a philosophical approach to closeness that is founded on the principles of personal independence, nonhierarchical practices, and antinormativity.
At its most fundamental, it challenges the idea that we only have the capacity to love one person and that to love more than that is to somehow diminish those feelings. In truth, we all experience love for many people, and it is only social norms that make us deny this, pursue monogamy, or compare people and relationships.
There is no need to do this – every relationship we have is independent and can stand on its own two feet.
The idea of non-monogamy can cause some people a degree of fear, but choosing to assume that your partner does not wish you harm can lead you down a much more positive path than a distrustful one where there is a need for constant validation.
According to relationship anarchy, spontaneity, respect and communication lie at the core of a good relationship.
Spontaneity allows us to freely express ourselves without fear of punishment, chastisement or a sense of burdening “shoulds”. This can involve organising based on a “wish to meet” basis and exploring each other, rather than worrying about duties and demands.
The absence of these duties can engender respect. Other relationship types can be founded on entitlement, where one feels entitled to make demands of the other, and compromise becomes a defining feature of the relationship. This approach can take over again simply because it is “normal” to do so.
Life would be without much meaning if we didn’t join with other people…
Allowing for each individual to set their own boundaries, and choose their own paths, ensures the maintenance of independence and self-determination. This autonomy allows everyone to decide how they wish to be treated, and to set core values. And this is possible for all relationships. You don’t have to make special rules and exceptions to show people you love them “for real”.
Finally, communication is the structure that holds all this together. For most human activities, there is some norm in place for how things are supposed to work and deviation from this requires clear communication. Otherwise things tend to revert back.
Conversations need to be at the heart of everything and not just a fallback to solve problems when an “emergency” arises. We are so used to people never really saying what they think and feel and having to read between the lines, but when things are left open to interpretation, they can be distorted by our own biases, our own fears and our own desires. Additionally, these interpretations can only build on previous experiences, which are usually based on the norms you want to escape. Be explicit and ask each other about stuff!
Life wouldn’t have much meaning if we didn’t join with other people, whether to own a house, raise children, or grow old together. Such things require trust and commitment. Relationship anarchy is not about never committing to anything or anyone. Rather, it is about constructing your own commitments with the people around you, free from the idea that there are a certain set of pledges needed for love to be real. Just start from the beginning, communicate your needs clearly and essentially make it up as you go along.
More information can be found in The Short Instructional Manifesto for Relationship Anarchy, by Andie Nordgren, who is often credited with popularising the term.
The Compassion Prison Project, an organisation based in the United States, whose sole mission is to create informed prisons and communities who are trauma aware. They do this with education and programming.
Their core belief is that within each of us trauma can be healed. Their approach includes:
• An event over two days with participation in Trauma to Transformation which brings compassion, joy, education and inspiration in-person to those residing in the custodial setting.
• Those taking part watch a series of 12 videos called Trauma Talks designed to further educate about the effects and symptoms of trauma in childhood, the various ways of healing from past hurt and many ways to seeing themselves and others around them in a new light. Allowing people who’ve experienced trauma to better understand the drive of their previous actions and behaviours.
• 10-12 participants gather in circles to discuss all they’ve learned from Trauma Talks. Peer-led conversations prove to have a powerful healing influence. Residents learn to support one another and learn prosocial benefits and behaviours.
• Trauma Talks offer interactive engagements through workbooks. The exercises provide modules designed to heal body and mind.
• A representative from the Compassionate Corrections for prison officers and staff, educate regarding those in their care on the effects of Childhood Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
“
THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE
It all began in 2018, when Grammy Award-winning film producer Fritzi Horstman read a book called The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk and her life changed forever. She was completely unaware her beliefs and behaviours stemmed from a trauma she had endured as a child. Fritzi says, “After reading that book, I realised that my erratic, curt behaviour was due to my traumatic childhood and had nothing to do with who I truly am.” Fritzi has been on a healing journey from that point onwards.
WHAT ARE ACES?
An ACE is an Adverse Childhood Experience, and refers to potential events that are traumatic which occurs in childhood. The term was originally coined by Dr Vincent Felitti of Kaiser Permanent and Robert Anda of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC).
WHAT IS CHILDHOOD TRAUMA?
Childhood trauma can be defined as “The experiences of events that children are emotionally hurt or distressed, often which can result in long-term mental and physical adverse effects.” There are 10 ACEs listed on the ACE official quiz on the compassion prison project web link:
I’ve found the course enlightening. It’s brought forward the trauma I’ve been exposed too. And it’s revealed me, the true reasons why I exacted pain and hurt upon my victims. I really advocate you all to participate in future programmes.
• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Physical neglect
• Emotional neglect
• Parents divorced or separated
• Domestic violence
• Parent or caregiver addicted to drugs or alcohol
• Parent or caregiver who is depressed or mentally ill
• Household member ever been imprisoned/incarcerated
Some aspects of ACEs questions can be altered due to the troubles.
ACES AND TOXIC STRESS
The CDC explain that ACEs and other associated conditions, such as living in racial segregated neighbourhoods, frequent moving and experiences of food insecurity can inflict toxic stress (extended or prolonged stress). ACEs and stress can alter brain development and brain chemistry. These can affect abilities, such as focus, rational decision-making, learning and responding to stress. These can all lead to severe health risk behaviours, social and physical ailments and early death.
COMPASSION PRISON PROJECT COMES TO HMP MAGILLIGAN
From May 2024, staff at ADEPT, VV (a prison officer) and sixteen prisoners, including myself, participated in the Trauma Talks programme. Magilligan Prison was selected as the prototype prison in Europe to host the course and was prompted by member of ADEPT staff by email.
“Loyalty, depends only on your options.” NW (prisoner)
The first prototype course of the Trauma Talks programme in Europe concluded on Tuesday 3 September 2024. The 16-week course took place in Classroom 4 in the PDU, which was supervised and facilitated by staff at AD:EPT and the participating prison officer.
Personally, I’ve found the course enlightening. It’s brought forward the trauma I’ve been exposed too.
And it’s revealed me, the true reasons why I exacted pain and hurt upon my victims. I really advocate you all to participate in future programmes.
The graduation day for the sixteen participants took place on 10 September. In attendance was the Director General, Beverly Wall, Governor Milling and Fred Caulfield from Prison Arts Foundation. Loved ones and families of those who
took part were able to attend. Some gave speeches, provided testimonies, and read poems. One prisoner played the guitar and sang an original piece. The overall mood was one of celebration and sharing new insights. There were strong opinions voiced about the programme being available in the future.
JWMC, Magilligan
DRESS BOUQUET, Award, Painting, HS, Hydebank
PAF at a Glance…
Listowel 2024: A Record Year
This year, prisoners secured six prestigious awards at Listowel Writers’ Week, demonstrating the level of talent among incarcerated individuals. Notably, awards included:
• Short Story Intermediate - 1st and 3rd places (Magilligan)
• Short Story Getting Started – 3rd & Highly Commended (Magilligan)
ForM Sculpture exhibition
During June 2024, the ForM Sculpture exhibition featured over forty artworks created by artists from across the island of Ireland. One notable piece this year for PAF was Totem, a collaborative sculpture by Artist-in-Residence Lucy Turner and Maghaberry prison.
This innovative work not only highlighted the beauty of local biodiversity but also fostered inclusivity and awareness of PAF’s efforts within the criminal justice system. The sculpture stands as a testament to the transformative impact of art, emphasising the importance of community, respect
for nature, and the potential for rehabilitation through creative expression.
Featured at the Lyric
The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre recently hosted a special event to celebrate their production of Our Country’s Good, featuring artwork by a Magilligan artist alongside other Koestler Award winners. The play, written by Timberlake Wertenbaker, delves into the dark history of Britain’s colonisation of Australia during the 18th and 19th centuries, highlighting the transportation of convicts for various crimes, from minor theft to serious offenses.
Rachel O’Riordan, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the theatre, emphasised the play's exploration of moral questions surrounding justice systems and the effectiveness of deportation as punishment. She noted that it encourages audiences to reflect on the ethics of imprisonment.
Mayor HUB Visit 9 October 2024
PAF Supported writer Liam Kelly, met the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Cllr Micky Murray, at an event hosted by PAF at which PBNI launched their book telling the story of Community Service. The Lord Mayor was shown around the Support Hub where service users are translating books into braille for blind and visually impaired people. The Lord Mayor said “Through my work in the homeless sector I’ve seen firsthand how community services can rehabilitate offenders, as well as the community benefits.”
Just Do It!
Prison Arts had a vibrant presence during Oíche Chultúir/Culture Night this year. The exhibition "Just Do It," showcased art from various prisons and post-release centres, received an enthusiastic response, attracting around 400 staff and visitors at the Department of Justice HQ, Dublin. Special thanks to art teacher Pearl Maher and her student at Shelton Abbey for the image that inspired the exhibition's poster and title. Stay tuned for more exciting developments in prison arts!
Down at the HUB with Big L
Irecently served a few years in Magilligan and was at a total loss having never been in jail before. My mind was in a real dark place. A fellow inmate introduced me to the creative writing class, and I kid you not, it set my mind ablaze, with poetry first and then the art of storytelling (not that I needed any help with storytelling). Upon release I now attend the PAF hub in Belfast. I’ve put a poetry collection together, and uploaded it to Amazon’s publishing platform. Then I started writing a childhood memoir. The hub is like a magnet to me and is more like a club than a hub. I finished my memoir, published that also, I’m now writing a play and fictional book. I was interviewed on NVTV “Our Parlour” by Mary Ann Quigley about my writings and how they are gathering momentum. Mary
How Great Thou Art
Director General of NIPS, Beverley Wall, visited "How Great Thou Art," an exhibition held in July 2024 at Bangor Carnegie Library in County Down which featured works by Bobby Mathieson and Stephen Greer, alongside pieces created by individuals currently serving sentences in Magilligan prison. This initiative underscored the transformative power of art in rehabilitation and community connection. The exhibition highlighted PAF's mission to promote artistic expression within the prison system, demonstrating how creativity can change lives. Now as an Artist-in-Residence at Magilligan prison, Stephen aims to inspire a new generation of creativity and hope, continuing the
also paid us a visit to the hub and we will be doing some work with her. Not only that, but these activities released all my demons and after leaving prison, the hub gave me a focus and a place to continue my writing. Considering I have no formal education whatsoever, well, I think it speaks for itself.
Other events I attended and participated in include the exhibition at 2 Royal Avenue in March 2024. In collaboration with AD:EPT, I gave a talk on how writing helps you process trauma. I met up with the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Micky Murray, at a Community Service event when they visited the hub. He has committed to reading my memoir and giving me some feedback. A producer from London is
positive impact of art within the prison community.
Connect Newsletter
interesting in recording some of my poetry and raps, creating a DJ mix. I gave a recital at the Black Box in Belfast as part of TenX9.
For any of you due for release the hub can offer you focus, understanding and shelter from the storm. You may only need it for a short period of time but we have all here been in your shoes and recognising the challenges of adjusting post release. So, it looks like I’m going to be a regular contributor to Time In providing hub updates, the writing group are based in the hub the first and third Thursday of every month and I make a mean homemade filled soda bread. All welcome….
The Probation Board for Northern Ireland laund hosted a celebration event at Stormont on Friday 25 October at which they launched their 2024 newsletter Connect which was designed by PAF’s new Creative Media Group at Magilligan Prison.
The event was attended by Pamela Brown, Writer-in-Residence at Magilligan Prison, and Fred Caulfield, PAF Executive Director.
Naomi Long, NI Justice Minister was among those to address the crowd. Speakers also included Stanley, Paula and Becca, PBNI Service Users.
Gillian Montgomery, Director of Operations at PBNI, also spoke to those gathered and directly thanked PAF for their kind support and contribution, while also noting that
the newletter project probvided a focal point for PBNI service users.
Stanley, a service user who contributed to Connect said, ‘Through the newsletter, our families get to see what we have achieved.’
BIG L, PAF HUB
peace of mind to your design and make time to find the new called signs,
…in words, in notes, in strings in drums, in vocals in bass… Let left be right, with hollow sight, and room to roam with time in stone, stood solid on the hill again… …refrain, disdain and empty pain…
…flowing now and washed by rain,
…and hope that lights will shine once more
Giving up is easy, trying to free yourself from any form of binding takes effort. You bore very easily with the same material, the same sounds, the same progressions no matter how complex or simple, eventually it seems that they remain the same, a pantheon of “aye, at’s alright, sounds like such and such” that is when you require something altogether different, even if it is only for a while. There are so many sayings for what music is like, and there are so many different things music can be. Music is like that huge spectrum, like the northern lights except there is every which colour you could imagine, even the colour blind can astound themselves with their perception of new colours…
…and sometimes that’s exactly what is needed. New colours to brighten, to frighten, to feel as if struck by lightning, there is your remedy, your cure, because giving up is easy, but finding that part of your character, that diversity that says hold on what’s this? what are these sounds? what is this type of music I’m hearing? That is the way forward to develop that feeling of “the first time I heard that song” there is only one way to do so…
And like all the different sayings you could relate to music, all the different styles of music you could possibly find, trust me there is always more, there is always something new and exciting or slow and sombre, Something old but gold or some melodic melancholy, something fast and staccato or indeed all of these things at once simultaneously…
…only one way to know, only one way to see,
Sport: The Difference?
Diversity in Sports: What is the difference between the Olympics, Paralympics and Special Olympics?
The modernOlympic Gamesare considered to be the world’s leading international sporting event. They include summer and winter competitions with thousands of participating athletics, making up of more than 200 teams worldwide.The Olympics take place every four years and since 1994 have alternated between summer and winter games every two years during the four-year period. There are different governing bodies for Olympics and Paralympics but they are held one after another, the Olympics first followed by the Paralympics, in the same host city and during the same year. The Paralympics are for athletes who have activity limitations caused by different types of disabilities.
The difference between Paralympics and Special Olympics is the structure of the Special Olympics organisation, the disability categories, and the criteria under which the athletes participate. The Special Olympics offers athletes training and competition yearround and holds world games every two years, alternating with summer and winter events.
The Special Olympics welcomes all athletes with intellectual disabilities, of all ability levels, ages 8 and up. Paralympic athletes must fulfil certain criteria and meet qualifying standards in order to be eligible for the games.
Prior to the 2024 Summer games, only three athletes from Northern Ireland had ever won an Olympic gold medal. Over the two weeks of competition in Paris, France, there were four more golds added to that total—as well as a silver and two bronze medals.
Daniel Wiffen an Irish swimmer from County Down, swimming for Team Ireland, won a gold and
bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. His gold was achieved in the men’s 800m freestyle while he gained bronze in the men’s 1500m freestyle. Wiffen also entered his first open water swimming marathon at the Olympics in the River Seine and finished a very respectable 18th after a gruelling 10km.
Jack McMillan a swimmer from Belfast competing for Britain helped Team GB to Olympic gold in the men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay.
Hannah Scott, a rower from Coleraine, won a gold medal in the quadruple sculls rowing for Team GB. The moment among the most dramatic gold wins of the Olympics as they took the title by just 0.15 seconds. In a stunning race with the Netherlands, and with under 100m remaining, the team put in an outstanding sprint to lead for the first time with one metre remaining to take the gold medal in a photo finish. Scott was later spotted dancing around the Eiffel Tower in the days following her medal win and at 25, became the first woman from Northern Ireland to win an Olympic gold since Lady Mary Peters in 1972.
The
Special Olympics welcomes all athletes with intellectual disabilities…
Rhys McClenaghan from Newtownards, County Down competed for the Irish gymnastic team and came out on top in a thrilling pommel horse final. After following his fellow world champions Wiffen and Scott, who won gold, the pressure was on McClenaghan at the Bercy Arena (Accor Arena) on the Boulevard de Bercy in Paris. In his bid to complete gymnastics’ “Grand Slam” he was the highest scorer in qualifying. After a mistake in the final in Tokyo three years earlier, gymnast McClenaghan delivered a flawless routine.
Rebecca Shorten from Belfast celebrated a silver medal win after Team GB's women's four rowing crew were beaten on the line by the Netherlands. They were fastest in qualifying but missed out on gold after an exciting finish. The Netherlands won by only 0.19
seconds and both crews were almost inseparable over the 2,000m.
Philip Doyle hailing from Lisburn was another rowing winner for Ireland gaining a Bronze medal in the Men’s double sculls.
Four gold medals, a silver and two bronzes at the Paris Olympics, are the most ever in a Games for those from the North of Ireland and the first golds since 1988.
In an interview Hannah Scott talked about being inspired by the Chambers brothers and Alan Campbell returning to her Bann Rowing Club with their Olympic medals. The brothers won silver together in the lightweight four at London 2012, along with bronze-medal winning sculler Alan Campbell.
The Special Olympics Ulster athletes tallied 31 medals (twelve gold, eight silver and eleven bronze) among a total of 75 medals for Team Ireland. The successes came in sports categories that included gymnastics, kayaking, football, golf, bocce and basketball.
Turin, Italy are hosting the ensuing World Winter Games in March 2025. It will mark the first time that Italy has hosted the Special Olympics World Games. Santiago, Chile are hosting the next World Summer Games in 2027 and will be the first time the Special Olympics World Games will be staged in the Southern Hemisphere.
GM, Magilligan
Incommunicado
Throughout my entire life I’ve always loved being alone, and any garden-variety psychologist might tell you that there are several reasons why this may be. Maybe it’s because I was mistreated as a child? Or that I just don’t trust people? I’m not antisocial by any means and can mingle at a party as much as the next man. Buy me a few pints and I’ll be the life and soul of a pub, watching football or horse racing on television along with everyone.
But I prefer to be alone. Give me a few cold beers in an empty pub, or even an hour tapping away on my laptop, and I’m happy. Some people are like this all their lives. They live alone, do jobs that can be done working alone, travel alone and holiday alone. These people are loners by nature and I am absolutely one of them.
LONE WOLF
There are other people who must live alone because of the nature of their lifestyles. Some spend years pretending to be someone else; long term deep undercover spies, for example. These “sleepers” have to give up everything and everyone for years in order to infiltrate their target. Be it working undercover to
bring down drug-trafficking cartels, or government agents spying on foreign powers.
Career criminals must live a lonely life as well, they are forever looking over their shoulders, constantly living under false names. They often spend years moving from place to place, country to country.
As a child I used to look longingly at maps of the world and try to imagine what life might be like in farflung countries.
DRIFTERS
Millions of natural born loners actually live a transient lifestyle. They are forever moving on from one place to the next, one job to the next. Then when they have saved enough money after a few months they grab a cheap flight and move on again. These types of people are life-long drifters who are commonly referred to as “backpackers”. They live the typical solitary lifestyle; never telling anyone where they are
or what they’re doing. Even their families don’t know where they are for years.
As a child I used to look longingly at maps of the world and try to imagine what life might be like in far-flung countries. I left my home town when I was nineteen, left Ireland when I was twenty-two and have been in thirty-four countries and stood on four continents.
Travelling has always been my great love; to meet new people and learn their cultures, heritages, politics and religions. And I’ve always travelled alone. This is where I’m at my happiest.
FREE SPIRIT
Now I’m in my sixties and in a wheelchair so my options for long distance travel are limited. But I can still jump on a ferry or maybe a short haul flight and have a bit of a holiday. After the year I’ve just had I badly need a break and I’m going to have one. Hopefully, by the end of next month I’ll be well enough to spend at least a week or two in Paris, Hamburg, or maybe even Prague or Krakow. I like live music and Hamburg in particular has some great live music venues. And, I’ll be turning off the phone and travelling incommunicado.
Honest Jim
The Autistic Critic
First and foremost, yes I am on the spectrum and no, I am not an unusual individual. Many people who’ve known me throughout my life have said that I am weird. Those words have hurt me somewhat. Albeit, I can be socially awkward. Those on the autistic spectrum are the most intelligent individuals, for example: X (Twitter) and Space X boss, Elon Musk. He’s diagnosed with Autism. And he’s worth billions of dollars.
Just because we’ve an in-depth knowledge and interest in a subject matter doesn’t make us strange. Use me for an example. I have a keen knowledge base about the cosmos. I shouldn’t be discounted as, ‘He’s on the spectrum.’ For those on the autistic spectrum, we should not be written off completely. We contribute immensely. Some of
the brightest minds of the 21st century are autistic.
I am able to recall information about a subject almost immediately, when discussing it with another person. Autistic people, we soak in the information and retain it, like a sponge. Others, who are not, have to have a trigger, like a news segment or a section in a book they read just to gain access to the information about the subject they are discussing.
Recently, I took an interest in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. I cheered on for those in Team GB who participated in the diving and the artistic swimming. I watched the synchronised divers Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen winning Bronze. Team GB also won a medal in the artistic swimming. Silver was awarded to
GOLDEN HUES, Award, Category, HS, Hydebank
best friends Isabelle Thorpe and Kate Shortman. Does following these sports or athletes make me weird? Does it f*ck. These superstars have thousands of fans.
Everybody in this prison knows I am a huge fan of HBO’s Game of Thrones. I started watching the series on DVD boxset whilst I was in HMP Maghaberry. Seasons 1 to 7 were unbelievably awesome, but season 8 was a huge let down. I was rooting for the Dragon Queen, Daenerys of House Targaryen. In the last season of the global phenomenon, she turned from being a compassionate monarch to a
destructive woman. In the episode, “The Bells”, During the
“
For those on the autistic spectrum, we should not be written off completely.
battle in King’s Landing, she decides to destroy the city and murder tens of thousands of innocent lives whilst on the back of her most ferocious dragon, Drogon. The biggest shock for me, was when [spoiler alert] Jon Snow, Daenerys’ nephew and
Tlover stabbed her in the heart. I was absolutely raging. And then [another spoiler alert] they decided to make Bran Stark, the king of the Six Kingdoms. WTF.
Now, HBO had decided to tell the story of the Targaryen dynasty in the prequel series, House of the Dragon, which is based on the book Fire and Blood by the American author George R.R. Martin. Season 1 was just an introduction to the story and the main characters. I can’t wait to see if the show is in any way comparable to the actual details in the book. TBC.
JWMC
, Magilligan
Traveller Culture and Diversity
he survival of the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller communities goes hand in hand with the role of diversity.
According to The Traveller Movement, “Gypsy and Traveller culture has always adapted to survive and continues to do so today.” The importance of close-knit family and social groups are fundamental to Gypsy and Traveller culture, communities and wellbeing.
In the past decade, there has been strengthening political networking between the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller activists and campaign organisations. The challenge for us all is maintaining the positive and core aspects of culture along with the need to evolve in a changing world.
Here at Time In we are privileged to share a poem by a writer from the Travelling community about his prison experience:
Here we go (again)
Once again, I cannot sleep
Drugged by the food of a farm shop
Sheered for the wool for our jacket
Hang fire. I can’t hear the racket
Still I toss and turn
Eyes burn
Grinding my teeth
Sweat dripping from my hands and feet
Like a man who has stooped so low
Laying in bed on death row
My brain’s being burned
I’m wide awake
Anxious and tired
I lay and shake
My minds being read
I listen to the words being said
Black and red, who’s alive? Who’s dead?
Like a man on the gurney
I want it over in a hurry
A hole in the wall
I slump then I fall
Like a man with no hope
I feel the rough of the rope
I get up and pace the cell
I vomit like hell
My head’s turning
My stomach’s turning
I wipe away a tear
I need fresh air
A penny is spent
I stick my face to the vent
A cool breeze
Then I fall to my knees
I’m at my demise
Black rings under my eyes
My face is very pale
This fat is not real
The water I drink
Comes back up into the sink
Flat out on my back
My body’s under attack
Birds singing is a warning
It’s morning
Let me sleep I pray
As I crawl under my duvet
Torch shining
Door banging
The bell starts ringing
Landing comes alive, voices shouting and singing
I roll around in my bed, my heads sore
There’s no point trying to sleep
Anymore
Feeling so tired and grim
I force myself to go to the gym
I rep out a good weight
Just to keep my head straight
Rep, rep and rep until I feel pain
The rush I get keeps me sane
I drag myself back to the wing
Voices still shout and sing
Drained, weak and strained
No muscle gained
Coffee gives me the power
To stand under the shower
The water washes the feeling inside
My body is trembling as I get dried
Exhausted I can’t eat
No strength to stay on my feet
In the mirror I talk to my saint
Then onto my bed I faint.
MM, Maghaberry
So what is biodiversity? Basically it is the variety and variability of life on earth. The world shares thousands, even millions, of different species. Every individual species—bacteria, insect, and animal—has its own importance in the life cycle as every single life form has evolved alongside each other for millions of years. If just one of the species was to be eradicated it could upset the whole balance of life.
Let’s look for example—we have all heard of this one; if for some reason the bee was to be wiped out tomorrow the whole world would change as we know it, as the bee pollinates the plants, and without plants nothing could live.
That’s an easy and obvious example but the point is that when any species—no matter what it is or how trivial it seems—gets damaged it has a knock on effect which has a knock on effect which doesn’t stop and it upsets the whole evolutionary machine that has evolved to work in harmony and coincide with every life form on earth from the beginning of time.
So why is our biodiversity on earth under threat today? The simple answer is; because of us and how we live.
Let’s take for example something basic and simple like cutting grass
Nature Watch
on a field with a lawn mower. This effects the biodiversity in the soil in thousands of ways because we are taking the grass away, whereas in nature and in the natural order of things, the grass would never be taken away. In nature whether the grass was to grow and die or even be destroyed in a really bad storm it would be left to eventually decompose and all those nutrients and minerals that the plant takes from the soil in the process of photosynthesis will then be put back into the soil. And so the soil constantly reuses the nutrients and even gains a greater biodiversity for the millions of life forms that live in the soil.
So why is our biodiversity on earth under threat today? The simple answer is; because of us—and how we live.
Obviously, these human behaviours are known and understood so to combat the problem of nutrient deficiency in the soil, science went about creating processed minerals and nutrients in many well known garden brands. This is usually in the form of granules that are easily dropped on the soil which quickly release the nutrients that the plants need.
This in my view is an easy fix which I believe is not great for the soil as it hasn’t been part of the evolutionary process. I have seen this first hand in the prison flower beds where the soil has absolutely no humus (a sticky substance that helps hold nutrients in the soil) and also there are no worms to be found anywhere which are a good indicator of the soils rich biodiversity.
WV, Magilligan
Did you know?
Variety of life on earth started to evolve from Ancestral life Forms about 3.6 – 3.8 billion years ago which led to, and was soon grouped into, a classification system by modern science in 1990.
Domains and Six kingdoms
The Six kingdoms include:
ARCHAEA KINGDOM/ARCHAEABACTERIA
These anaerobic bacteria live without oxygen - thrive in hostile environments, such as hot springs or salt water, or in your intestines, where they produce methane gas.
PROTIST KINGDOM
Eukaryotic cells with a nucleus and specialised organelles. These are mostly single-celled organisms, plus multi celled life forms like sea weed.
BACTERIA KINGDOM/EUBACTERIA
This group includes cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and many other bacteria not included in the Archaea.
HONEST POLLUTION, Bronze Award, Painting, BRAID HOUSE GROUP, Maghaberry
HONEST POLLUTION, Bronze Award, Painting, BRAID HOUSE GROUP, Maghaberry
In recent decades there has been much discussion and debate about ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’. The focus of all of this has centred on whether it is really happening, whether it is caused by human activity or not, and whether there is any point in trying to stop it.
At this stage it is blatant to all that ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ are happening. Global temperatures are consistently at their highest since records began. We see on our news-media the increases in water pollution, extreme weather conditions, water droughts, forest fires, and rising sea levels in local, European and global environments.
WILL CLIMATE CHANGE LEAD TO CONSCIOUSNESS CHANGE?
There are some who still deny that such environmental changes are being caused by our burning of fossil fuels. However, there can be no denying that our factories and agricultural industries are polluting the water and soil, our construction industries are continuously building over our countryside. It’s not sustainable. The way that we are living isn’t good for the animals and natural environment, nor is it any good for us.
There is a need for our population to stabilise and there is a need to keep us all fed and healthy and comfortable, but it is vital that we question if the present way of
Bio-diversity
doing things is really achieving those goals? If not, why not?
It is incredibly short-sighted for us as a society, as a nation, as an international community, to carry on as we are. We are denying our children and future generations the opportunities to enjoy many of the simple pleasures we got to enjoy growing up.
It is incredibly short-sighted for us as a society, as a nation, as an international community, to carry on as we are.
Not only are we doing harm to ourselves by the chemicals that we put into our bodies through food, and through the chemicals we are pumping into our lands and animals, we are also denying ourselves the potential medicines that can be gained from maintaining a diverse natural habitat and diversity of animal species.
Scientists are discovering that there are cancer fighting properties in our bogs and peatlands, and even certain kinds of jellyfish are being found to have pollution fighting properties.
It’s not all doom and gloom. There are many advancements in technology and science that are worth celebrating and we should be grateful to have those. The point being made here is that a healthy balance is needed between utilising human inventions and also utilising nature. This will take a general shift in motivation. Humans and nature can and should be a complement to each other.
FF, Magilligan
HONEST POLLUTION, Bronze Award, Painting, BRAID HOUSE GROUP, Maghaberry
Cad is ciall le éagsúlacht sa lá atá inniú ann? Tá sé ráite gur pobal tuisceanach agus éagsúil muid anseo i nÉireann sa t-aonú haois is fiche agus is fíor an rud é seo. Níl ortsa ach siúl síos an tsraid i gceann ar bith de na baillte mhóra sa tír seo agus feictear daoine ó náisiúntachtaí difriúla agus siúlanna difriúla den tsaoil. Comh mhaith le seo áfach, feictear ar an nuacht na fadhbanna a mbíonn ag an dream seo ó thaobh ciníochas agus biogóid. Is iad na círéib a tharla i mBéal Feirste agus thar lear sa Sassana i rith an tSamhraidh samplaí de seo. Bhuel, cen dóigh a feidir linn na dearcadh ciníochais a athrú? Caithfidh muid rud éigin a dhéanamh leis an mhéid nuachtbreagach a scaiptear ar an idirlíonn agus sna meáin chumarsáide gach lá. Caithfidh níos mó oibre a bheith deannta sna bunscoilenna le dearcadh na ndaltaí a stiúradh sula dteann smaointí ciníochais i bhfeidm orthu agus an éagsúlacht a chur chun cinn.
Tá go leor le foghlaim againn uilig ó na cultúir difriúla fud fad an domhain ó thaobh bia nó ceoil agus ealaín nó fiú i cursaí cógais. Nach glacfá an leigheas don ailse dá mbeadh sé le fail, cibe aít a bhfaightear é? Ag deireadh an lae, tá muid uillig ar comhchéim le cheile anseo. Is é dualgas s’againn an comhionnas seo a scaipeadh ó ghlúin go glúin agus má ndeantar seo, beidh saol níos fearr againn uillig.
English Translation Diversity
What is the meaning of diversity today? It is said that we are an understanding and diverse society today in Ireland in the 21st century, and this is true. You only have to walk down the street in any of the towns up and down the country and you’ll see people from different nationalities and walks of life. As well as this, however, it can be seen on the news the problems these people encounter in terms of racism and bigotry. The riots that happened in Belfast and England this summer are examples of this. So, how are we able to change these racist attitudes? Something
has to be done about the spread of fake news on the internet and in the media every day. More work also has to be done in primary schools to steer pupils attitudes before they come into contact with racist thoughts and to promote diversity.
Language Diversity
There is a lot to be learnt from the different cultures around the world from food to music and art or even in medicine. Wouldn’t you take the cure for cancer if it was available, regardless of where it comes from? At the end of the day, we are all equals. It is our duty to help spread equality from generation to generation, and if this is done, we will all be better off.
I need to search beyond the doors –Thousands of questions, no answers.
I’m totally lost In the middle of a maze.
It will take time to forget you. I can’t find the moment To say goodbye forever.
You’ll never support me. For you, I’m always the loser. I’m keeping my feelings inside. This relationship is destroyed.
I told her In the game of betrayal We have our own language Where the verb apologise doesn’t exist.
My soul feels empty, My appearance is always happy. You’ll never trust me.
I’m nothing without you.
I want to disappear. To die and be born again. I never found my soul.
I’m beginning to feel crazy.
Português (Portuguese)
De um sonho até o pesadelo
á 21 anos vim para conquistar um sonho
trabalhei duro, muintos amigos, comecei
algumas negocios, patrocinio de clubes, instituições de caridade, um erro de julgamento colkcou me na prisão perdi tudo, incluindo o meu auto estima penso todos dias se value apena??? NÃO
English Translation
From a dream to a nightmare
21 years ago came to conquer a dream
worked hard, made friends, built businesses, supported local clubs, charities but one miss judgement landed me on here, prison, and lost everything, including my self-respect, thinking everyday was it
worth it??? NO
AF, Magilligan
Cymraeg (Welsh)
Haiku
Cymraeg
Mynydd gwyn
Y Cymoedd Gwyrdd ein cennin pedr.
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese) Gaí Nho
Bàn tay nho nhỏ
Cai mỏ xinh xinh
Nay em lạ̣i gần
Mai em lại xa
Bây giơ gặp nỗi can qua
Mưa bay gió cuốn xa gần hư vô
Nhìn hư vô em than, em thơ
Nỗi tơ lòng biết tỏ cùng ai
English Translation
Little Girl
Tiny Hands
Cute lips
Some days you’re close
Some days you’re afar
Now the storm had hit
The rain and wind swept the view into nothingness
Looking at nothingness, you breathed out sigh…
Who would understand and console this inner torment?
LB, Magilligan
The weather is bullshit.
I don’t know what my future holds. I left Vallecas
With a bag and 70 Euro.
I’m changing the Manzaneres for the River Thames. I hate having to migrate.
ED, Magilligan
English Translation
Welsh Haiku
White Mountains
Green valleys
Our Daffodils
RD, Magilligan
There are around 8324 languages on Earth, around 7000 of which are still in use. Many are in danger however, with:
• 2698 endangered/unsafe
• 2362 definitely endangered
• 1163 potentially vulnerable
• 463 severely endangered
• 383 Critically endangered
• 65 Safe
Around 3,000 languages could disappear before the end of the century, at a rate of one every two weeks.
The UN proclaimed a decade to protect these languages and preserve humanity’s common heritage beginning in early 2022. This is based on the principle of self-determination and the right to use and transmit in their own languages, reflecting the ideas and values of indigenous peoples to future generations.
International Mother Language Day is celebrated on 21 February.
Art is a universal language that transcends boundaries, and the beauty of this lies in its diversity. Throughout history art has evolved to embrace diversity in many ways, here’s a few examples:
Multicultural influences: Art has been shaped by the exchange of ideas and techniques between different cultures, leading to a great number of artistic styles.
Identity and representation: Artists have explored identity, representation and cultural heritage in their work leading to a more diverse and inclusive art world.
Creative inspiration: Exposure to art can inspire artists to explore new techniques and topics, therefore pushing boundaries of creativity.
Bridges between cultures: Art acts as a bridge between cultures and especially in the modern world with the digital age making it easier for diverse art to reach a global audience.
My own take on diversity in art lies with my rich tapestry of artists I admire (the cover of the magazine is made up of all the artists I personally admire), who come from many different countries and is all inclusive of race, gender, ethnicity and other such characteristics. Twenty seven artists made it onto the cover and if I spent more time searching could maybe of pushed a few more,
Diversity in Art
but the ones included are definitely my personal favourites.
They include street artists, graffiti writers, modern, abstract and many more styles, if you know your art you’ll be able to cast an eye over it and pick them out. I thought this would be a nice nod to diversity as it includes the before mentioned characteristics.
As for my own style of art when I’m painting, I will include many different styles and techniques which come from a diverse background. I believe that if you are in a traumatic time then better art is produced, you only have to look at war times (and similar traumatic experiences) and the quality of art that comes from it. When I look back at my life and all the negative experiences I was going through, my escape was always art and creativity. Still to this day on the wing (if I’m not socialising), then I’m being creative or have my paints out painting canvases, which when looked at through the lens trauma, is a way for me to deal with all the negative aspects of prison life and the traumatising effects it has on the brain.
Diversity has a rich exchange of ideas, styles and traditions
and in an increasingly connected world, still plays a vital role in shaping the wide range of quality and quantity of all the art we look at today.
RMCA, Magilligan
AN OPEN BOOK (THREE VOLUMES), Highly Commended Award, Handmade Book, PM, Magilligan
RMCA, Magilligan
Koestler Awards 2024
Established in 1962, the Koestler Art Awards are pivotal in recognizing the artistic endeavours of individuals within the criminal justice system.
The awards, which received nearly 7,500 entries this year, allow prisoners to explore their creative potential and gain validation among esteemed judges, including Photographer, social activist and Oscar Nominated filmmaker Misan Harriman and BBC 2 programme ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’ judge Richard Miller.
This year, the Prison Arts Foundation (PAF) achieved remarkable success, particularly at Magilligan Prison, which topped the ranks by securing 53 awards, the highest among 301 settings. Overall, prisoners under the care of the Northern Ireland
Prison Service won a total of 101 awards, with 80 attributed to PAF programmes and 21 from other initiatives.
Additionally, 3 awards were won by patients at the Shannon Clinic secure hospital (including 1 from PAF), and 4 awards (all from PAF) were earned by individuals engaged with the Support Hub's creative writing group. This record year highlights the significant impact of creative enrichment initiatives on the rehabilitation and empowerment of those in secure settings.
Some of the winning works can be seen throughout this magazine.
AC, Prison Arts Foundation
GYM MURAL, Silver Award, Mural and Wall Hanging, RMCA, Magilligan
Koestler Arts 17th Annual exhibition, this year entitled No Comment, will feature a number of works from artists in Maghaberry, Hydebank and Magilligan.
The exhibition will feature around two hundred pieces of visual art, audio and writing that were entered into the 2024 Koestler Awards.
‘No Comment’ Exhibition at the Southbank Centre For Those Who Judge
Silver Award
The curators this year are artists Jeremy Deller and John Costi, who have invited another six individuals from various creative spheres to help them select the works to be displayed.
The exhibition title, No Comment, arose from discussion around the lack of opportunities for those in secure settings to have their voice and opinions heard. The curators have said they wish to ‘let the art speak for itself’.
JPW, Magilligan
They cannot understand incarceration for they don’t yet understand freedom as it has not yet been taken from them.
WV
, Magilligan
Koestler Winners: Hairstyling
3D WAVE WITH CARD SYMBOLS, Gold Award, Hairstyling, GG, Maghaberry
‘Look at what you’ve gone and done now, you worthless piece of ...’
‘I’m sorry! I don’t know how this happened…I…I just…can’t remember,’ Nate spoke frantically, trying to piece together the fragments of his memories, it was hopeless. ‘It doesn’t make sense…it’s not possible,’ he said hoping to reassure himself as much as the other male figure towering in front of him. Maybe Nate would have more luck with the latter because that dull, oppressive feeling that was physically dragging his stomach down towards his feet was anything but reassuring.
The two men were quite similar in many ways, both just under six feet tall, and well put together with broad shoulders and strong arms. They were in their early thirties, although to look at Nate you would be forgiven for thinking he was older, he looked it, and he certainly felt it. A lifetime of worries appeared to weigh heavy on him. His thick brown hair was a mess and clung to his head with stale sweat. The dense shadow of the stubble on his face, and dark rings around his eyes seemed to show the rest of the world how he felt on the inside.
The other man staring back at him lacked these burdens, and Nate hated him for that. He was much more carefree, standing straighter than Nate and with a confidence that could easily be mistaken as arrogance. He and Nate first met when Nate was a teenager, and for as long as he remembered Nate could never live up to his expectations, although he tried in everything that he done, but always coming up short. In the early years, he never told Nate explicitly, but the occasional stray look, the unintentional flicker of a judging smile, or the slight emphasis on a particular word made it clear to Nate his opinion of him.
As time went on, the dynamic between the two men tipped against Nate. The judgment
intensified to the point that Nate could almost anticipate how the other would react. They both shared an inexplicable, unnatural psychic link. Nate found it almost impossible to lie to him, because he was always able to sense the truth of the matter. Nate continually felt violated by his intrusions into his life but was afraid to tell him how he felt. Nate hated that he simply didn’t cut him out of his life. Surely, if he ignored him, he would go away? The fact of the matter was, however, Nate didn’t want to disappoint him.
“All
he saw was blood,
and he still couldn’t understand where it had come from.
‘Tell me what you did, Nate?’ the cold voice said knowingly, ‘and don’t lie to me…’
‘I…. I’m telling you. I don’t…. I mean I can’t… remember. Please…’ Nate sobbed.
‘Look at the state of yourself! What are you going to tell everyone? Look!’ Like an obedient child being scolded, Nate looked down at himself. All he saw was blood, and he still couldn’t understand where it had come from. As his teary eyes followed the splashes of blood on his trousers, up to his hands that had dried blood on them he saw it for what seemed like the first time: long, thin wounds tracing up his arms. His eyes followed them like he was reading the words on a page, albeit a page of information that he could not even begin to fathom. It was strange, he could see them but he couldn’t feel them. In fact he couldn’t feel anything. ‘I… I don’t understand. Who did… how…I mean…’ Nate stammered, his speech as broken as his memory.
‘You know exactly who is responsible,’ was the unforgiving reply.
‘No, you’re wrong… it wasn’t …’ and as the very words left his mouth, he traced the wounds with his fingers, flashes of what happened just hours before began to play out in Nate’s mind. He could remember the cold sting of
the razor blade, like a surgeon meticulously excising an abscess, or like in the days of old, exorcising a demon. He remembered the warm, sticky trickle running down his arm. He looked at the man standing before him and he knew that he knew. Just like always.
‘That’s right, you know who’s responsible for this.’
‘Yes,’ Nate answered, there was nothing more he could say, the guilt was clawing at his throat, and he couldn’t form any other words. He felt like a prisoner to his own emotions. He struggled to try and remember why he did it.
‘It doesn’t matter why, the damage is done. Everyone will be talking about you now. Maybe that’s what you wanted. Do you want the attention?’
Without waiting for a reply from Nate he carried on speaking, standing face to face with him, both their eyes locked intensely on each other. ‘They’re going to think you’re crazy or something. They won’t want to bother with you. They’re all going to walk away from you.’
‘No, it’s not like that,’ Nate interrupted, ‘they don’t have to know...’
‘But they will, they can see it for themselves just like I can…’
‘But you’re different. They won’t know, they didn’t the last time...’
‘You mean the last time when you said it would never happen again?’
‘Stop, please, I’m begging you. I told you I did mean for this to happen. I promise it won’t happen again… it just won’t.’
With that Nate placed his arms under the running tap, watching the red stream disappear down the plug hole. ‘No one can ever know,’ he said in a quiet voice to himself. Finally he took one last look at himself in the mirror, wishing above all else that he could tell the man staring back at him that it was all his fault.
DON, Magilligan
Koestler Winners: Life Stories
Misunderstood Platinum Award (Extract)
Another danger around the balconies were the bin shoots on each floor, rubbish was put through a hole in the wall was dropped down into a big steal bin on the ground floor. To anyone else this was a place to put you rubbish but to us kids it was a slide, by that, I mean we would get in and slide, or sorry, fall to the bottom but to make this possible we needed an old mattress to land on, otherwise, we would be dead. What we did was put the mattress on top of the bin and make sure it was directly under the hole so we were not going to hurt ourselves, then we would go up to the hatch climb in and slide down. It took courage to do, so sometimes you would sit a while before letting go, once you let go you hit the mattress within seconds and in most cases never got a scrape. The first time I done it I was praying to God, the Virgin Mary and anyone else who was looking over me. I let go, it was fucking scary but I landed safely and I enjoyed the thrill of it.
‘Yes,’ I replied with a lie.
As soon as Connor ran back upstairs I moved it intentionally, it was payback for all his attacks on me. I heard Mark and Connor talk.
‘Just let go, you will be sweet.’ Connor said.
I was at the bottom waiting, I was loving the chance to hurt him back for all the hurt he caused me,
was at the bottom waiting, I was loving the chance to hurt him back for all the hurt he caused me… “
There’s me the young brother running back up the stairs, I was laughing the whole way up
I was fucking delighted with myself, as I was running up the stairs Connor was running down past me to help his friend. When I got up the stairs to our balcony a crowed of adults had appeared, they had heard Mark screaming and crying out for help,
‘Gary what happened?’ my Moy said as she came out of the flat.
‘Mark went down the shoot and hurt himself,’ I said.
Back then my brother Mark was always by my side as brothers should, yet Mark always hit me and bullied me. I was always smarter and that little bit more daring, one day we were playing in the bin shoots, there was me, Mark and his friend Connor Hackett. Mark worked up the courage to slide down the shoots. I told him I would go first so I could fix the mattress back so he wouldn’t hurt himself as it was his first time. So I went first and landed perfectly on the mattress, I got out of the bin.
‘3, 2, 1,’ Connor said.
Still no Mark.
‘Mark, there’s your mummy,’ Connor said, ‘go quick!’
Fuck, first come his legs, one hits the mattress, the other smashes off the bin, fuck I didn’t think it would go the way it did. There’s Mark in the bin, leg smashed, his squeal was something I’d never heard before. I bolted.
‘Mark missed he’s in the bin,’ I shouted up to Connor. Fuck I was in hysterics.
My Moy turned sheet white and ran downstairs to see Mark who was lying down and being cradled by neighbours all fucked up, to be fair I was secretly loving it I was thinking this will stop the bullying but I was wrong and things would get a lot worse as we grew up.
When I say got worse between me and Mark it really did, I think Mark was jealous of me because he was the only boy until I was born, unlike Mark, I had health issues from a very young age and when we had visitors in are home they all fretted around me something which I think made Mark very jealous.
GM, Magilligan
‘Gary fix the mattress,’ I heard Mark’s friend Connor Hackett say. I did and then Connor came down with a perfect landing, he helped me fix the mattress for Mark to slide down, then he ran back up to encourage Mark to go. So here’s me at the bottom of the shoot waiting for my brother to do his first slide, the brother who hit me, shouted at me and told me what I could and couldn’t do. He was asking me was the mattress perfect.
From the Republic to Anarchy
Silver Award (Extract)
Iwalked onto the landing for the first time not knowing what to expect. I knew prisons were harsh places and I was socialised to believe they were full of harsh people, so, as you might expect, I was full of nerves.
I had been through the unpleasant experience of ‘committal.’ At that time I was in a state of shock, occupying a somewhat paradoxical state of mind where I followed the instructions of the guards without any thought, unable to process what exactly I was being told to do, yet hypervigilant to where people were, what they were doing, and if they were a threat. I was also catastrophizing about the future: what was going to happen to me, was I going to survive? I was convinced at that early stage that both the guards and other prisoners were going to make my life hell.
The early days of prison are hard. In theory, you are adjusting to this whole new way of living, and constantly yearning for your old life to return. What inhibits the adjustment process is the fact that you hang on to hope that the following week, or the following month, you will get bail, or they will arrive one day to tell you that the mistake has been fixed, all charges are dropped and you are free to go. Obviously, that simply doesn’t happen (or it very rarely does in any case).
I was also catastrophizing about the future: what was going to happen to me, was I going to survive? “
So my first few months of prison were hectic. Even though I got to the stage where I felt
safe enough on the landing, I was still locked alone in a cell most of the day, alone and despairing over the situation.
JPW, Magilligan
Smoked
Silver Award (Extract)
Ithink there comes a time in everyone’s life where you think to yourself at least once, “How the fuck has it come to this?”
Maybe it’s after a break up from that person you were sure was your soulmate, maybe it’s when your boss is bollocking you for doing some half-arsed job that makes you pray for the sweet release of death or maybe it’s when you realise that all your childhood dreams and ambitions are never going to become reality, let’s face it you’re not a famous sports star, movie star or artist, you’re not a rich titan of business or a titan of anything except mediocrity, regret and broken dreams. Just another average Joe living an average life with fuck all to show for your short time on this planet. My own personal moment came when I realised I went from being a bright young kid with all the potential in the world, according to my Ma and teachers, to being thirtysomething with no family of my own, languishing in a jail cell staring at the graffiti on the ceiling,
lost in the thought of “how the fuck did it come to this?”
In this story it’s important to add context. I’m hardly the first person to go to jail and will certainly not be the last. For a lot of prisoners there are factors in their upbringing which will have contributed to them being there: maybe their parents are alcho’s or junkies; maybe they lost a parent; maybe they suffered abuse at the hands of someone who they thought was there to look out for them; or perhaps they were raised in an environment where criminality and law breaking was the norm and as such don’t really know any different. These factors don’t apply to me. Aye it is true my Da walked out when I was still in my Ma’s stomach but this woman is an absolute saint and I am genuinely lucky to have her as a parent. She always encouraged me to make the best of myself as a young child, nurturing my education and always showing me comfort and love. We weren’t rich but every year she busted herself to make sure we went on foreign holidays, school trips were always paid for and she took me to football training, staying to watch the matches in pouring rain, playing the roles of both mother and father and becoming a best friend or confidant that I can rely on.
NH, Magilligan
Memoirs of a Belfast Boy
Silver Award (Extract)
Nun on the Run
Itried not to show my bemusement for fear of jeopardizing my lift. I slid open the door and climbed inside.
Musical instruments were strewn everywhere, a battered and wellworn bass drum was tied to a chair with a rope and the seat next to it had a bass trombone securely fasted to it. The floor was carpeted and ripped in places. The ends and corners had all curled up and had seen better days. My eyes scanned everywhere, and my brain now told me that it was safe to sit down and relax. My bum had no sooner hit the seat and zoom, we were doing nought-to-sixty in seconds, the wee nun was flying like a bat out of hell. I got thrown backwards, as she accelerated. I burst out laughing, and the wee nun turned to look at me, she was mounting kerbs and knocking over bins.
‘Watch out, fer fucks sake,’ I yelled.
She turned back to watch the road again. This wee woman must have been a rally driver in her former life, and she flew round corners and bends and never braked once.
puffs later and I could hardly see through her cloud of cigarette smoke. Instruments clattered inside the bus as they slid about, moving in all directions, as she drove erratically around the bends. By the time we got to the border crossing, the rain was falling quite heavily and dancing on the windscreen, as the wiper blades threw it from side to side. We stopped and got out, for the army to search us and the vehicle. The nun stepped out of the minibus, and she was tiny, less than five feet tall and she looked scrawny. Her face was wrinkled and tired and looked every bit of seventy years of a hard life. Her tiny frame made her look fragile, and I couldn’t get the vision out of my head of the racing driver from hell. I nursed a big lump on the side of my head, which resulted from my skull hitting on the side of the window frame, when she had almost done a handbrake turn. Her thick-framed glasses, which housed chunky lenses, almost looked too big for her. At times, she would turn her head, which made her eyeballs look huge and made me think of an owl.
“ This wee woman must have been a rally driver in her former life, and she flew round corners and bends and never braked once.
Instruments were sliding and flying in all directions, she was like a character from the Wacky Races cartoons. I looked at the bass drum and trombone. They were tied securely and barely moved. They sat there, like valued customers on the taxi-ride of their lives.
The wee nun lit up another cigarette and I could see the glare of its reflection in the windscreen. She looked down towards the flame and didn’t even see the red light she went through. A few
Koestler Winners: Music
I started laughing, and a Brit said, ‘Oi, Mate, ya fink it’s fanny,’ in a real cockney accent.
The wee nun stepped in front of me, ‘Don’t say another word and get back on the bus.’
I did what she asked and got in.
‘You can’t be too careful these days,’ she said in her deep raspy voice. ‘Some of those soldiers think it’s the olden days, you know, the old draconian laws. But
SERENADING THE SILENCE, Gold Award, Singer-Songwriter Original, PH, Magilligan
we’re okay now and tomorrow’s another day.’ Her voice did not suit her, and it must have been the smoking, as she lit up one cigarette after another.
‘My Da always comments on the oul draconian laws an’ how we were treated as vermin, funny enough,’ I said.
The nun stared at me.
‘There’s nothing funny about it,’ she said.
Before long we had pulled up on the Banbridge to Belfast Road.
‘You’re going that way. I’m going this way. Take care now.’ She pointed to the Banbridge signpost with one hand and handed me a fistful of shrapnel with the other.
I got out of the van and shoved the coins into my pocket.
‘God bless you now,’ she said and was gone, wheels spinning as though she were in a car chase.
LK, PAF Hub
HOLD MY GIRL, Bronze Award, Cover Version, PAF GROUP, Magilligan
FOR MAXI, Highly Commended Award, Computer Generated Music, JK, Magilligan
WORLD WEARY, Commended Award, Singer-Songwriter Original, JPW, Magilligan
Why am I not Driving Home with my Teabags?
Outstanding Debut Award
As I stood in the dock, my palms sweaty, my heart pounding as if it would rip through my chest, the Judge entered.
She began to speak and to be honest my recollection is shady. Was I sitting or standing at this point? I don’t remember.
Thoughts array. Memories array.
I neither remember nor understand what she said.
What I do remember is she used the word REPUGNANT.
My focus got more hazy after she used that word. She used that word to describe me. How dare she! She doesn’t know me! I then became very aware I was crying…and loudly. No one “shh’d me” No one consoled me.
No one CARED.
I felt the stare of the journalist sitting to the left of the dock. The same one I had spent the last two years hiding from. I expected him to be writing.
He wasn’t. why not?
The information today was new to me why isn’t it new to him?
I was becoming more and more terrified and confused as time went on. Do they all know something I don’t? What’s going on?
I felt so alone. I was alone.
I had gone by myself to protect my kids, now selfishly I wished they were all with me.
Then a voice uttered “come this way”!
I shuffled past fixed chairs on a thin strip of carpet and tried not to trip.
My eyes blurred with tears, I could barely see. My tissue now too sodden to absorb them. I didn’t look back.
Why would I?
No one was there for me, but I felt every stare.
I walked through the dark panelled door to a stairwell. At this point an officer in a crisp white shirt, immaculately ironed black trousers and boots placed handcuffs on me for the short distance to a desk. Handcuffs, what in heaven’s name is going on? I’ve never had handcuffs on… not even pink fluffy ones!
I’m not a criminal. I’m anything but that.
The reality is, I AM NOW.
As I sat down on the chair I was asked to remove my jewellery. That day I had chosen pieces my children had bought me. A way of having them with me. Now they were merely property, not my jewellery just property.
Everything was clinical now.
No sympathy offered for being upset, just looks of judgement.
All the while I tried to recall what the Judge had said.
Truthfully I don’t think I ever will Stupid things began to run through my mind…
My car. It was in the carpark.
I’d bought teabags, they were in the passenger’s seat waiting for me to go home. Why am I not going home?
After all, no one mentioned custody to me. My solicitor said everything was done to prevent custody…
…I pleaded guilty to something I did not do.
So why am I not driving home with my teabags?
I walked to the van, removed my shoes as they had asked and sat down. The cell in the van was tiny. The door closed hitting my toes and as I pulled them back panic ran through me.
I told my parents I would ring them? Who will let them know?
Who will tell my children?
Where is everyone?
Where am I?
The drive to Belfast seemed to take forever. I sobbed the whole way. The van gently throwing me from side to side.
I passed my place of work and sobbed a little harder for a moment. I knew today’s development meant I had lost my job. A career I had worked hard for and loved so much. Gone. Finito… Just like my whole life felt.
I could feel myself becoming more and more hopeless. Why was this happening?
Is he Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde? Marshall Mathers and Slim Shady? is there a monster inside the average Joe? Or is he just plain crazy?
do opposites attract a curious question or just fact ten years in a night mind old and grey but feel he’s immortal like Dorian Gray
rich and poorer sides of good and evil it’s rare we’re equal from eagles—to desert eagles age is just a number older than he looks when the thunder rolls and lightning strikes he’s not Gareth Brooks just listening to them words and stay out the sight of Jekyll or Hyde
do we need a rewrite or a rewind or just do it right, this time it’s his monster, not mine.
Caring Souls
Commended Award
Verses
Flowing Through The mind
Like a river Of tuna
Giving straight
To powerless words
Read by Faces fishing
Playful argument
Like friendly Fishermen on The weather
Room of eyes
Regret filled
Some are windows
To innocent
Caring souls With songs
To the heart
Like summer rain To a flower
Accepting warmth Of cold hands
Over
Tea and biscuits
MM, Maghaberry
Beautiful Flower
Highly Commended Award
Lost Frightened soul
In darkness Of evil
A dove that Lost direction
Beautiful flower ruined
The rising of the moon
Promising light
To destroy Darkness
Giving hope
To the dove
With the Justice of day
When the Beautiful flower Blossoms
MM, Maghaberry
GMCM, Magilligan
Walking in the Winter Woods
Bronze Award
Awakened by birdsong at crackling dawn Wandered out, naked, to stand on the lawn
Stretched for the sky with a groan and a yawn. And he thought, for a beat, of the one who had gone. Yes, he wept, at that moment, for the one who was gone.
But,
she can’t hear his cries, she can’t see his tears, she wears no disguise, she never shared fears, she showed perfect skies, she gave many years
Now, he’s walking, all alone, in winter woods, Though it’s spring, all day, He’s always in winter woods.
(Lyric Extract: Singer-Songwriter Original) Commended Award
Beaten down, beaten up, the law fulfilled its vow
Whatever has been done to him
Dreary Sad Old Days
Highly Commended Award
O my electric blue, Life was so exciting, Was it also for you?
Now it’s full of dreary sad old days, Sky and tableaux of every type of grey, Do you think we could return to those halcyon day’s, When we were both just finding our way, Thinking of stupid things to say, Eyeing each other up with such suspicious minds, Probing to see what we could find, Has time moved on maybe, never mind, Do you think we, could we?
Someway or somehow pick up the slack, Or should as they say “never go back”
SA, Maghaberry
it doesn’t matter now
I know he’s not a saint, not a thing I want to paint
But lock him in a cage, with that I have complaint
Shut away now going on five years
He wants to scream for help, to echo through the tears
Now he’s reaching for the rope, the silence it is eerie
Jimmy was fed up, he was world weary
World Weary….World Weary…
JPW, Magilligan
FROM NOW ON: BOXED IN, Bronze Award, Themed Category, GROUP, Magilligan
When someone dies we can feel a lot of emotions including being abandoned, angry, guilty, shocked and sad. Talking about how you feel when someone has died can help.
Cruse can offer you a weekly session with a volunteer who will listen and provide support.
Devoted to improving the health and well-being of LGBTQIA+ people and their families, as well as those questioning their orientation or gender.
Confidential one-to-one support and counselling is available.
Speak to Safety and Support or contact us using the confidential phone numbers that are on the privileged phone list:
Belfast: 02890 319030
Turning Pages Shannon Trust is a reading programme specifically designed for adults who struggle with reading.
It’s a peer led, confidential, one-toone programme that can be worked through in short bursts of 20 minutes a session.
If you are interested in improving your reading or becoming a Mentor speak to landing staff, Andrea in the library or any of the Learning and Skills staff.
Interested in applying for the Open University?
Speak to Andrea in the library for an application form and Prospectus.
Listeners
Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to offer support to inmates who are having a difficult time.
To make a request ask an officer on the landing. The scheme is independent of the prison authorities and completely CONFIDENTIAL.
Support services are available for all in custody and their families. Speak to your Class Officer, your Sentence Manager, or the Family Support team for further information.
Being a dad in prison isn’t easy.
For help and support request an appointment.
CCRC
Criminal Cases Review Commission
Wrongly convicted of a crime?
Lost your appeal?
You can apply to the CCRC!
Free to apply Forms available in the PDU
Church
Services
The spiritual needs of inmates are catered for in prison as well as on the outside. The main denominations have chaplaincies but others are also accommodated. Speak to your landing officer to contact them.
AD:EPT provide a range of services to people who have problems with drug and alcohol abuse.
All AD:EPT workers are trained professionals who offer a sensitive and confidential service.
Ask an officer on the landing to arrange an appointment or speak to your medical officer or probation officer.
Need Help With Housing?
Housing Rights are Here for You!
Just Request to See Us!
DDiversity
iversity means variety, then let’s start artfully
EInvite you to our earth, a place which is so diverse
Value each individual, qualities are anything but minimal
normous Mountain peaks, down to our oceans’ deeps
YIRhapsody of choice, the sound of many voices
So look at all the habitations, with many different expressions
ntelligent life and growing, in harmony and flowing
To the structure of a poem, from the beats to the tone
ou are a distinct creation, with the right to inclusion.
Visual Art: RMcA, PAFCreative Design & Writing Group, BB, LMW, PON, JL, MR, HS, Braid House Group, RZ, GM, PM, SN, DC, JM, PH, GG, SH, ST, WB, Shannon Clinic Group, PL, NWRC Group, HS, MD, JC, RC, RS, CL; Apologies to DH who was left of the list of writers in our previous edition. We were, and remain, grateful for his contribution.
A particular thank you to contributors from Hydebank, Maghaberry and The Shannon Clinic for their wonderful work.
CONTACT US
Time In Magazine Education Centre
HMP Magilligan Point Road
Limavady BT49 0LR
Prison Arts Foundation Unit 3, Clanmil Arts & Business Centre, Northern Whig Building, 2-10 Bridge Street, Belfast,
Phone : 028 90247872
Email: info@prisonartsfoundation.com
Prison Arts Foundation (PAF) is a registered charity that seeks to provide access to the arts for people who have offended in Northern Ireland. Our mission is to inspire creativity and encourage personal and social change in offenders within the criminal justice system, through the arts.
All contributions welcome. While reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of material in the magazine, Time In accepts no responsibility in law for accuracy or contents of each issue. No item may be reproduced without the written permission of PAF.
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