Three first timers at tenx9 tell their stories from our Aug 5 2018 event with EastSide Arts Festival held in the Park Avenue Hotel: David Mitchell draws none too complimentary comparisons between Iceland & Ireland; Nandi Jola thinks about the home she left behind in South Africa; Norman Meharry remembers growing up with a posh neighbour & a best mate. Paul Doran is your host.
Richard O'Leary with a story about RTE news, Aengus MacGrianna, the Angelus, standing up to the government & a Gerry Adams impersonator. Honestly. Told at the Black Box on 22 July 2018 when the theme was Stand Up.
We teamed up with Belfast Pride and here are four warm, brave, funny stories from 26 July 2018 in the Black Box when the theme was Stand Up: Fidelma Carolan on her "Dyke Power" days; Patrick McKiernan standing up to school bullies; Donna Black who wants to marry the woman who nursed her back to health and Walker Ewart who refused to stand up and go to the missions. Padraig & Paul are your hosts.
Three great stories from different events in 2018: Jane Searle who told of coming home at our evening in Hillsborough; Malachí O'Doherty who admitted he was a stuck-up wee bastard when the theme was Regrets; Geraldine who was "Lost" in anxiety and fear, a story touching on issues of suicide, which she told at the Solas Festival in Scotland in June.
At the NHS tribute David Burke referred to a story about a 'personal' donation he made after a diagnosis of cancer. After a rummage through the tenx9 archives, we found it. So here it is recorded at Corrymeela on 1 April 2018.
Tenx9 was honoured to be asked to take part in a celebration of the 70th birthday of the NHS on 5 July 2018 at Stormont. Here are two stories from that day plus a poem: David Burke tells how becoming a patient made him a better doctor; surgeon Mark Taylor pays tribute to his grandad and those who treated him over his final years while Colin Dardis has a rousing poem to say Happy Birthday to the health service.
Three more stories from June's Roadtrip evening: Eliza MacCafferty on a field trip from hell; a brooding tale of menace from Paul Hutchinson and Sean Mullin with a story from New Zealand which features a Swedish football team & Radiohead...yes, Radiohead.
Competing with record heat and the World Cup, there was a full house at the Black Box on 27 June for Roadtrip and the audience did not miss out: Richard O'Leary almost got engaged in China; Gareth Higgins had an excruciating encounter with lovely waitress Melani; Heather Fleming lived to tell the tale of an ancient camper van, just about. But Paul kicks it off with an appeal.
It was a glorious, hot Scottish summer's day at the Solas festival in Perth on 24 June. Tenx9 was there to hear stories on the theme Lost - here are three of them: Gyda won hearts & broke hearts with a tale of depression and loss; Ciaran McQuaid found something just as he thought he had lost it and Rachel Weiss, mother of three, who really should not be allowed near children.
Four stories from a sunny Saturday evening in a marquee in South Belfast, 16 June 2018, on the theme Habits as part of the Belfast Book Fair Lit Crawl. Margaret McClory on life in a habit as a nun, a debut from Louise Reddick on teenage habits, Caroline Orr - the girl who can't say no and Jane Searle on childhood rituals. Your hosts are Pádraig & Paul.
