Ulla’s Nib

The Community Arts Forum,
Belfast, has developed a new
programme called a Woman’s Part.
Fifteen students, from a range of
backgrounds and two tutors, Ruth
Carr and Orla McKeagney, will use a
combination of creative writing and
drama to explore the role women
played in the Northern Irish Conflict.
This woman-centred process
will recognise the many varying
roles played by women in the
local conflict and in other global
conflicts, reassessing the models,
which have been used to describe
and explain women’s experiences.
Women in Northern Ireland were
often portrayed as more moderate
than men in their views and as
possible or actual peacemakers,
though research from conflict zones
across the world suggest that these
portrayals of women are both over-
simplified and over-generalised.
This programme will analyse and
critically challenge these portrayals
and perceptions and redefine the
role women played in the conflict
here and is likely to produce a
drama and/or a piece of writing,
which will reflect participants’
experiences.

Our Business Development
programme is under way, creating
more mentoring places, putting
professional skills into writers’
groups and professionalising the
organisation with a dedicated
training programme. Our digital
press has enabled us to print the
magazine in-house, develop our
own publishing imprint – lava
Publications, and to offer printing
facilities outside the organisation,
from short run books and
magazines to leaflets, posters and
marketing material. Through this,
we are starting to generate our own
income, which is enhancing our
resources and programme delivery.
Contact us for a quote!

Our current Development and
Outreach project is culminating in
two events. We have been working
with several community groups
on a storytelling project entitled
‘Stories my Granny Used to Tell
Me’, and are organising a family
storytelling event of this name as
part of the Young at Art Festival.
This takes place at 4pm on May 28th
at the Old Museum Arts Centre,
with local storytellers Fra Gunn
and Liz Gough, and mixes stories
from the workshops combined
with traditional tales. Tickets for
this event will be available through
the Young At Art Festival. We are
also creating an anthology from
this series, which will be launched
at the Linen Hall Library on April
28th at 10am,with a storytelling
performance by Fra Gunn and
project participants. This event will
be free and suitable for children.
Bookings can be made through the
Linen Hall Library at (028) 90 321
707.

We have been working hard to
bring out this first issue of our new
magazine, but we have many more
projects and events upcoming as
well. In partnership with the Linen
Hall Library, we are helping to
create the new Literary Miscellany
section in the Ulster Tatler. This
will be another new showcase for
local writing, including reviews and
articles, as well as short stories and
poetry. Interested writers should
get in touch with us regarding
submissions.

Ulla’s Nib is created and distributed by the Creative Writers Network.

Please send your submissions, comments and suggestions to:

The Creative Writers Network,
109-113 Royal Avenue,
Belfast
BT1 1FF

email: info@creativewritersnetwork.org

The creative Writers Network website can be found at: www.creativewritersnetwork.org

Welcome to Ulla’s Nib, a Lottery funded literary magazine by and for the writers of Northern Ireland. It is being produced by the Creative Writers Network, an organisation dedicated to fostering writing talent in our area.

We are looking for submissions for the next issue, so please send your poems, stories, articles and reviews to:

The Creative Writers Network,
109-113 Royal Avenue,
Belfast
BT1 1FF

email: info@creativewritersnetwork.com

Ulla’s Nib is the new quarterly local literary magazine from the Creative Writers Network. We hope in these pages to provide a platform and forum for local writers and writing. We are open to submissions in any genre, and are only concerned with the quality of the writing.

We will also provide news, reviews and articles on Northern Ireland’s literary landscape. Northern Ireland has a vibrant and growing literary community, with new writers’ groups, internet groups, the burgeoning performance scene and better support and training opportunities for writers. Through this magazine and our website and information service, combined with our events, workshops, training and mentoring programmes, CWN is providing a new level of infrastructure to the local
writing community.

Ulla is the ancient name for Ulster, which derives from its Viking name, Ulla Stadr - the country of the Ulla. Ulla is the name of the feminine form of the North European yew deity, the name surviving in Scandinavian place names, and also in Ullswater, Ullapool and others. The cult appears to date from the Bronze Age, when Ulla and Uller were a brother-sister pair, whose evergreen yew nature gave them dominion over the midwinter festival.

In Ireland, the ancient books give special place to the yew in Ulster. The Iron Age culture of mid-Ireland venerated the oak, and was distinguished from the older cultures of the far North and South-west, which still adhered to a Bronze Age outlook, by referring to Ulster and Munster as ‘brothers of the yew’. It is quite possible that our greatest folk hero Cuchullain was originally The Hound of Ulla, rather than the story given in the Tain Bò Cuilgne which bears the hallmarks of a literary gloss. There’s quite a history in the name the Vikings gave this land.

Mark Madden - Creative Writers Network