Culture Night 2016

On Friday September 16th, Trócaire marked Culture Night 2016 with two great creative events in Dublin.

Poetry inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis in Dublin Castle

At 6.00pm we gathered in the beautiful Chapel Royal in Dublin castle for a celebration of poetry inspired by the refugee crisis.

The evening started with performance poetry by students from St Aidan’s C.S. Tallaght, and Beneavin De La Salle College, Finglas. The students wrote and composed the poetry themselves as part of the WRaPParound schools initiative.

Watch Beneavin College’s performance poetry inspired by the plight of people fleeing war in Syria.

This was followed by readings from this year’s Trócaire and Poetry Ireland ‘Forced to Flee’ competition winners and performances from Poetry Aloud 2015 finalists.

Beautiful poem by 10 year old Elise Carney McGibney. @poetryireland #LOVECulture #CultureNight #refugeeswelcome pic.twitter.com/3Hibz6E3ce

— Trócaire (@trocaire) September 16, 2016

Poetry performances at Dublin Castle inspired by the Syrian Refugee crisis. Photos and videos by Clare McEvoy/Trócaire.

Solidarity with the West Bank and Gaza in the Chocolate Factory, Dublin 1

Meanwhile in the Chocolate Factory, Dublin 1, we held screenings of ‘Sumud: Everyday Resistance’, a powerful short documentary telling the stories of Palestinian women living under Israeli military occupation.

Highlights from the evening at the Chocolate Factory. Video by Emmet Sheerin/Trócaire

We also teamed up with Taking Flight Aerial and Acrobatics, who gave high flying circus performances throughout the night.

Taking Flight Aerial and Acrobatics giving high flying circus performances. Photo credit: Aetherlight Photography.

Taking Flight will be launching an amazing creative project in Gaza at the end of September, teaching aerial flight and acrobatics to the Gaza Circus School (with thanks to Culture Ireland).