Swell

19/08/2026

Swell Festival 2026 is fast approaching (!!!) and, while the details are being finalised, here is a short article about why we commandeer our Town Hall as part of the festival and why we would love you to use it!

~The Keys Were Always In The Door~

https://www.absurdintelligence.com/the-keys-were-always-in-the-door/

Follow the link for the full article featuring some Portrush faces, inspiration from Fun Palaces, NCCE and a CREATIVE RIOT!

If you have a passion or activity you would like to bring to the TOWN HALL TAKE-OVER this year please drop us a message!

North Coast Community Exchange -NCCE
Repair Café North Coast

22/07/2026

Two weeks left!!! ⏰✍️💬

Local writers you have two weeks left to submit your entry for consideration at this year’s Sound Waves Showcase.

This wonderful event is always a highlight in the Swell Festival programme 💙

🔥 Less than three weeks left! 🔥
C’ mon you writers, get your entries in - one piece of poetry or prose. Good luck to everyone
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Competition Rules:
No Single Theme, simply write about what inspires you.

Closing date for Submissions:
Wednesday, August 5th, 2026

Accepting places: The successful writers will be contacted via their email account on or around the 1st September. There will be a limited amount of time to reply to accept your place before the spot will be offered to one of the runner-up entry’s.

Submissions: Writers may submit one entry only to either part of the competion, in other words only one Prose or Poetry piece. Each Prose piece must be less than 1400 words & take under ten minutes reading time.

🔥 NB remember to include a bio and photo

Entry Winners: Ten Winners will be chosen to perform their piece in Portrush Town Hall in a Showcase Event, as part of the Swell Festival, on Saturday,10th October 2026. By entering you are confirming your availability for the physical performance. All the winning finalists will have their work published by Charlie Cawte, Editor of Impspired, in Impspired Online Magazine (out 1st November 2026), and the subsequent Print Edition (out in January 2027).

Showcase Night: At the Showcase event, a panel of local judges, after having heard all the Winning Readers, will present a trophy for the Best Performance on the night. Two other trophies, one for the Best Prose piece and one for the Best Poem, will already have been chosen by the Impspired International Panel

Judging: The three winning finalists will then be asked to join the judging panel for the following years competition.

Submission Guidelines:

One Submission only per person of either Poetry and/or Prose.
Please submit your piece:
*in the body of an email
*send it to maryfarrell85@ hotmail.com
*in Times New Roman, Font Size 12,
*with ‘Impspired Soundwaves Competition’ AND your Name in the email subject line.

This submission will then be forwarded anonymously to an International Overseas Panel of Impspired Judges chaired by Charlie Cawte. There must be no name or any information about the Sender in any entry. If you have your name in the header or footer of your work remove it prior to submission.

NB Please also send a short biography (about 200 words or so) and a good resolution photograph with your submission. This is needed for those Winners who will be published in the Impspired Online magazine and subsequent Print Edition.

We accept reprints or simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if the piece has been accepted elsewhere.

This information can also be found at
www.maryfarrellwriting.com.

22/07/2026

Skateboarding has always attracted those on the fringes of society that are a bit different and didn’t want to join the sports team or whatever boring pigeon-hole society said we should be in.

Skateboarding is an international culture, we travel and have friends from all corners of this tiny world we’re supposed to share.

We’ll be skating around town this Saturday from 11am , just like every day, being your Friendly Neighbourhood Skateboarders.

Dogs Welcome, Racist F**k Off.

NIPSA Riley Quinn The A Centre skateboardni Skate Stopped? Get On Board Portrush!

21/07/2026

We’re thinking Co-operatively!

Swell has been accepted to the Regional Co-operative Support Programme - starting now!

This is a new initiative which supports emerging and growing cooperatives in Northern Ireland with mentoring, seed funding and practical, hands-on support for groups (like Swell!) exploring cooperative models.

With our new Swell Co-op Futures Steering Group, made up of voluntary Swell founders, we will explore the role of a potential co-operative in the area, as well as investigating further into our/Swell priorities, working on development tasks, and agreeing how best to use our seed funding (£1,000).

We are so fortunate that our allocated mentor for the programme will be Tiziana from Co-operative Alternatives, who spoke with Swell last year about what makes a co-operative and the values embedded in working co-operatively: values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity, all things we already strive to embody within Swell.

We will keep you all updated on the process and hopefully progress!

20/07/2026

Some Swell folk will be in attendance this Wednesday along with our friends North Coast Community Exchange -NCCE

We’ll be sharing our experiences of building community and connection through our many small exchanges, interactions and initiatives and the benefits of coming together.

📍Coleraine Town Hall - Wed 22nd July - 10am -12noon

17/06/2026

Portrush FILM Theatre presents an action movie with a difference - community action!

Don’t miss Everybody to Kenmure St - tomorrow night The Playhouse - Portrush

🎬 Everybody to Kenmure St (2026)

Join Portrush FILM Theatre on Thursday 18th June at 7.30pm at the Playhouse Cinema, Portrush, for this powerful and uplifting Scottish docudrama.

In May 2021, residents of Pollokshields, Glasgow came together in a peaceful protest to stop the deportation of two neighbours, sparking a remarkable display of community solidarity.

Blending documentary and drama, Everybody to Kenmure St tells this inspiring true story of ordinary people standing together to make a difference.

📍 The Playhouse - Portrush
📅 Thursday 18th June
🕢 7.30pm
⏱️ Running time: 1hr 36min
🔞 Certificate: 12A

🎟️ Tickets available on the door or online:
https://www.ticketsource.com/pftcommunitycinema

🌊 NCCE users: 4 Waves + £3

🎥 Watch the trailer:
https://youtu.be/JOY5T03hHbk?si=n2t9hRUCLh4tfQ1V

Thank you to the volunteers at Portrush Film Theatre for continuing to bring thought-provoking Irish, British and international cinema to our local community.

NCCE 🌊

21/05/2026

How it growing??? 🌱

Some Swell folk are in the process of cultivating a whole range of fruit and vegetables and herbs and we are hoping some of this wonderful homegrown produce will form part of a community food sharing event later this year 🍅🥒🧅

So far our growers have held community seed swaps, plant exchanges, info sessions and meet-ups in Portrush Library and even some guerilla gardening!

If you’d like to grow along with our Swell Community Gardeners it’s not too late to get involved - join the community newsletter here:

https://swellcommunitygarden.aweb.page/join-swell-community-garden

If you’re already growing we’d love to see a few photos of how you’re getting on and where you’re growing - whether it’s your garden, window sill or balcony, wherever!

23/04/2026

BE PART OF SWELL FESTIVAL 2026

🌊🎨🎻🌱🛹🪩🎟️☕️🛶📸

Swell Festival 2026 is taking shape! But we still have a bit of space in the programme for anyone who would like to share their skills and talents.

Portrush is positively brimming with creativity and passion and so far we have confirmed offers of mental health and wellbeing worships, sound bath, storytelling, spoken word, creative writing, illustration, gardening and comedy.

If you would like to participate in any way please email us and we’ll get chatting!

[email protected]

23/04/2026

Have you seen Portrush’s new trees? Some Swell folk joined .ht to help plant native trees along Dunluce Avenue and The Bowl. They also helped with wild flower seeding in order to improve Portrush’s biodiversity.

If you’re feeling green fingered and inspired .ht are planning some marram grass planting in the the near future- keep and eye on the Swell or .ht socials for upcoming dates and another opportunity to gather with Portrush folk in the outdoors.

📷 Charlotte, Una, Colm