Borderlands Events

01/12/2025

Join us on 9th December for Borderlands. In a season traditionally associated with anticipation and waiting, we want to explore this cultural and socio-political moment. What does it mean for us to hope in these times? What do we do with our despair? How do we carry intense longing when faced with injustice and the prevalence of a scarcity mindset? Join us for a joyful but also thought provoking night of music, poetry and reflections around the theme of Waiting.

07/11/2025

Borderlands this month is looking at AI and it’s ethical implications. Among those participating will be musician Matt McIvor and Tech innovator Sophia Devlin. Sophia is the CEO and co-founder of TechEthics, which promotes ethical innovation and utilises technology for social good and is the former Head of Technology and Innovation with Co-operation Ireland. Borderlands will be taking place as usual on the second Tuesday of the month, 11th November at 7.30pm at the Pavilion Bar on the Ormeau Road.
Join us.

15/10/2025

Decolonising.

Thanks to all of you who came out for a night that felt both somber and beautiful, rich and deep. Music came from one of Ireland’s most talented songwriters Clare Sands. Clare doesn’t just perform, she orchestrates the audience to become a choir, leading them to sing with one voice for peace and justice.

Dr Johnston McMaster spoke slowly and deliberately of settler colonialism in Ireland, South Africa and Palestine.

Dr Erika Jimenez spoke of her work in the Golan Heights and in the West Bank and showed a film she has made, centring the voices of women in Palestine where they spoke the words they wanted the West to hear.

We finished with Claire Humphrey leading an amazing conversation with psychotherapist Mandy Cook and writer and educator Andrew Cunning on the themes of domination, power, trauma, masculinity and the power of an embodied language. Claire closed the night with words from Manchán Magan who passed away last week, “I see a world where people realise they have more in common than ever divided them, and that by working together they can achieve safe and fulfilling lives and find meaning in the Irish wisdom ‘ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine’ – we depend on each other for prosperity, health and security.”

Borderlands is organised by a small collective of people who give their time to this project. One of the partners in the project is Corrymeela. Last night was an event held during which is brilliantly put together each year by Community Relations Council who help to fund Borderlands through their support of The Corrymeela Community.

13/10/2025

A reminder that we are meeting on Tuesday 14th to explore the theme Decolonising. We will have the brilliant Clare Sands playing for us. Here she is last year at our event.

This evening is part of Good Relations week. And will be an opportunity through music, conversation, insight and story to think about the way that the legacy of empire has contributed to conflict here and in Israel/Palestine. And how more understanding of the systems and structures of empire and the practice of de-colonising might help us build good/better relations.
A number of artists, academics, activists and alchemists will contribute! All welcome

05/10/2025

Hi everyone, please join us for Borderlands on Tuesday night, 14th October. This event falls during a week which the Community Relations Council are designating as Good Relations Week. So we will have short talks from academics, one of whom has just returned from the West Bank, and we will host a conversation about what we could mean by this wider theme of decolonisation. Most humanitarian organisations worldwide, including in Israel, believe a genocide is being committed on Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli government. We will make a start at asking why there is such resonance in Ireland, north and south, with the context in “West Asia” as flags are draped in communities across Belfast particularly. At Borderlands we can rarely delve into the depths of a subject, but we hope that stories, music, poetry and analysis by experts helps people face the challenges and opportunities ahead of us. James Baldwin famously said “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced”. Hopefully Borderlands is a space where we face issues and find community with others willing to walk towards justice and hope.

01/09/2025

Hi everyone, welcome to September. Borderlands is back again next Tuesday 9th and we’re going to use the theme of ‘Pilgrimage’. We’re envisioning content that reflects not only on literal pilgrimages, but also how this can be a metaphor for a painful season we are journeying through. Many who come to Borderlands have deep empathy for Gaza particularly. There are other issues, closer to home that make us feel entirely hopeless. How do we navigate this long walk to freedom. We will have reflections on actual pilgrimages but also applying the wisdom of a long journey to our quest to live authentically in this world where we are.

The Hebrew expression “tikkun olam” was explained by the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, as “a vision of cosmic catastrophe progressively healed by individual deeds which, though they seem small and local “mend the world”.

Join us at 7.30pm, 9th September at the Pavilion Bar.

*Also put the 20th September in your diaries if you’d like to pilgrimage with me and some others in South Armagh.
**And…put the 21st September in your diaries for an event at Farset International from 6pm for the UN International Day of Peace.

PS if you’d like to take part in Borderlands please DM me. Jonny

14/08/2025

We had a beautiful night on Tuesday with great local music, a couple of brilliant stories and some poetry. This was Marty McKenna with a new poem he’s written entitled ‘borderlands ii’.

08/08/2025

Borderlands is back this coming Tuesday, 12th August, 7.30pm. We will have some music, poetry and stories around the general theme of “borderlands”. There is still space if you’d like to contribute something to the night. Please come along, and bring a few friends. This photo is from last month with the brilliant Andru Kyle enlightening us with his wisdom.

21/07/2025

14/07/2025

Borderlands this month will take place during Pride week in Belfast on the 22nd July. We will be hosting writer and performer Jo Clifford with a performance from a play she has written and performed before. We will meet as usual at the Pavilion Bar on the Ormeau Road for a 7.30pm start. This month our event is a collaboration with Christians at Pride, Inclusive Faith, Spectrum, St Christopher's Community and the Larder East. In August we will be returning to our normal second Tuesday of the month rhythm, the 12th August. See you there.