Recently-arrived Iraqi refugee to speak at Bloody Sunday event

A recently arrived refugee from Iraq is to be a speaker at one of the events being held this week to mark the 44th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

Aza Ali Ahmad will give an address at 'Refugee' being held at 7.30pm in the Eden Place Arts Centre on Wednesday.

The event will feature the screening of the short film, ‘Reunited Lives', on refugees from the North going South in the early 1970’s followed by panel discussion on the current refugee crisis.

Chaired by Bernadette McAliskey those taking part will include Briege Voyle (featured in the film), Agim Kryeziu a refugee from Kosova living here some 20 years and Eamonn McCann activist and journalist. . Key events in the programme include:

Tonight (Monday), Eden Place Arts Centre

Launch of an exhibition by photographer Joe Gilmartin exploring life in Ardoyne and North Belfast over recent years and the experiences of its residents in their daily struggle against state control, sectarianism and marginalisation.

Ardoyne residents will be in attendance to launch the exhibition. It runs until the 31st Jan.

Thursday, 28 January, The Nerve Centre, 7.30pm

The State We’re In – Panel Discussion

2016 marks the centenary year of the Easter rising in Dublin and this event will explore where Irish society now finds itself when set against the aspirations and avowed ideals of that time.

Patrick Murphy, Irish News columnist, will offer his own inimitable take on the subject while journalist Chris Moore will approach the subject through the lens of the Kincora scandal contrasting it with the ideal of "cherishing all of the children of the nation equally"

Geraldine Dunne, Dublin Southside Travellers Action Group, will speak from a traveller perspective on her community’s place in modern Ireland.

The event will be chaired by local journalist and political commentator, Paul McFadden.

Thursday, 29 January, 8.00pm, The Playhouse

Drama - Hairy Jaysus

Award-winning playwright and actor Donal O’Kelly’s solo play is about pacifist, feminist and socialist Frank Sheehy-Skeffington, shot dead in Portobello Barracks, 26 April, 1916, told through the eyes of a Dublin street beggar today.

Dubbed “Hairy Jaysus” by his friend James Joyce, Seán O’Casey said that Sheehy-Skeffington was, “the soul of revolt against man's inhumanity to man, the ripest ear of corn that fell in Easter Week”. Admission £8 (£6 concessionary). Saturday, 30 January, Pilots Row, 12 noon

Panel Discussion - The Whole Truth

Where to now for truth and justice for murders legitimised by the state?

The experiences of three women seeking redress for the murder of their loved ones: Kate Nash sister, of William murdered by the British Army on Bloody Sunday, Janet Donnelly, daughter of Joseph Murphy shot dead by the British army in the Ballymurphy massacre and Shauna Moreland daughter of Caroline Moreland killed by the IRA, under the direction of British agent, ‘Stakeknife’.

The event will be chaired by Eamon McCann.

Saturday, 30 January, Pilots Row, 2.30pm

Panel Discussion - Out of the Shadows A discussion exploring the state’s coercive methods of control through its police, army and secret organisations: Is Britain using strategies developed in the north against Black and Asian communities in English inner cites? Looking south, ‘political policing’ by the Garda is overtly used to suppress anti-water charges protests. Is this to be the new norm?

Speakers include Prof. Mark McGovern, (Sociology) of Edge Hill University Liverpool his research is in human rights, state violence and transitional justice; Suresh Grover, Director and cofounder of London based ‘Monitoring Group’, who works supporting those experiencing racial prejudice and violence; Aidan Ferguson, Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective (GARC) work to oppose: sectarian marches, militarised curfews and advocate on behalf of the community; Helen Steel, one of seven women who sued English police after being deceived into relationships with undercover policemen infiltrating environmental and social justice movements and Clare Daly, TD for North Dublin, founding member of the United Left Alliance who has been recently instrumental in exposing malpractice within the south’s Garda Siochana

Saturday, 30 January, Nerve Centre, 7.30pm

Film and Discussion - The Hard Stop The Irish premiere of George Amponsah‘s new film exploring the life and death of Mark Duggan.

Shot by armed police in London, on 4th August 2011, his death sparked riots in London and other English cities.

George Amponsah and the film’s two main protagonists Marcus Knox-Hooke and Curtis Henville will attend the post screening Q&A. Admission £3.

The annual Bloody Sunday March for Justice will take place on Sunday afternoon.