On Thursday 30th August, members of Omagh Bahá’í Community met the newly elected Chairman of Omagh District Council. Councillor Barry McElduff is also a Member of the Legislative Assembly. He was presented with 3 books: "Who is writing the future", "Bahá’u’lláh" and "The prosperity of humankind" and to our great surprise, we were presented with an original watercolour of The Ulster History Park, by Dermot Cavanagh!
The following week, the Community organised a ‘Tranquillity Zone’, to mark the ‘United World Conference Against Racism’ which took place in Durban, South Africa, from the 31st August – 7th September 2001.
The ‘…Zone’ took place on Tuesday 4th September, in Omagh Library Headquarters, a frequent venue for Bahá’í activity.
The event was well-attended and was chaired by Rustam Jamshídi.
Margo Bates and Mae Olsen arrived in Northern Ireland and in Omagh, on the day of the Tranquillity Zone and during the rest of the week, were taken to 3 Primary Schools, where Margo spoke to the children about Australia. On Friday the 7th a number of friends were invited to dinner at the home of one of the families of the Community.
On 11th September, Marion Khosraví and George came to Omagh to show slides of The Terraces. The meeting also was very well-attended.
'Dancing in the streets - Ex-cellent' was the verdict of the Coleraine Times open the performance of the Bahá’í dance troop 'Express Freedom' in the Amphitheatre, Portrush before an audience of nearly 300 people on Wednesday 22nd August. The group performed dance dramas on issues confronting young people, such as extremes of wealth and poverty, the menace of alcohol and drugs, prejudice and confusion. The performance ended with folk dances celebrating a multi-cultural world.
Earlier in the week a performance in the Diamond, Coleraine was enlivened when two intoxicated members of the Coleraine public were inspired to get up and perform with the troop and the police had to be called. However, according to the report in the Coleraine Times 'their final optimistic message celebrating diversity and spiritual awareness came across loud and clear and received enthusiastic applause from the onlookers'.
The group also performed at Portneal Lodge, Kilrea, at a play scheme at Kids Club Macosquin and at the Bahá’í Summer School in Portrush. After the performance one Bahá’í commented that this was a vivid example of what involvement in the Arts could achieve.
As well as delivering a cheerful yet powerful non-verbal message, the group was instrumental in gaining recognition for the Faith in the Coleraine area. Partial funding, in the form of a Community Relations grant was secured from Coleraine Borough Council, who also circulated details of the group to all youth organisations in the area, and supplied publicity material.
'Express Freedom' dance workshop is composed of teenagers living near Hexham in the North of England, who perform in their school holidays. It is rumoured that Northern Ireland is soon to have its own Bahá’í Dance Workshop.
Newtownards community recently held a "FUN FOR FUNDS" event. We enjoyed soup and rolls with cheese followed by pudding and tea/coffee, rounding off the evening with singing, poetry and “craic”. £178 was raised for the National Fund. We would like to thank all the friends who came and made the evening such a success and such a lot of FUN!