麻豆约拍

The poet Seamus Heaney once memorably referred to Northern Ireland as a limbo land - a territory that has existed on the fault line between two different cultures.

In the face of more than two-and-a-half years of a political vacuum following the collapse of Stormont鈥檚 power-sharing government, five months since the fatal shooting of writer and journalist Lyra McKee during sectarian riots, and with ongoing Brexit negotiations that put the question of the Irish border firmly back into public scrutiny, some are feeling a sense that Northern Ireland is currently suspended somewhere between the past and the present.

Anna McNamee travels to Belfast and Londonderry to find out how artists like Christopher James Burns and Locky Morris are negotiating the complex relationship between memory, identity and place. The writers at Abridged magazine talk about the way the legacy of the Troubles is impacting on how young creatives define themselves today. At UV Arts, street artists are working to reclaim the walls, hoardings and spaces that have been billboards for political slogans.

Produced by Anna McNamee
A Whistledown production for 麻豆约拍 Radio 4

Photo credit:
Christopher James Burns: Limbo Land (exhibition detail).
Image courtesy the MAC, Belfast. Photography by Simon Mills.