President MacAleese Visits Axis Centre
President Mary McAleese and Ray Yeates (thanks to Ballymun Concrete News)
In a tremendous coup for Ray Yeates, Director of the Ballymun Arts and Community Resource Centre (Axis), the President of Ireland, Mary MacAleese visited the Ballymun Centre to formally launch the Axis 2005 programme of events.
The well choreographed visit included:
• Greetings to the Axis Centre by the Ballymun Gospel Choir.
• A musical piece by the Ballymun Wind Project.
• Introducing the President to some of the pupils of St. Michael's House.
• Introducing the President to representatives of community organisations that are ‘tenants’ of the Centre.
• A remarkable insight to the struggles and hardships endured by young aspiring actors in New York, given by Ray Yeates and his good friend Clarke Middleton, whose film roles include “Kill Bill 2” and “Sin City”.
The first speaker, Clarke Middleton, who had been invited and had flown from New York to speak at the launch of the Axis 2005 programme, described the difficulties endured by actors and other artistic folk who suffer from physical disability. Clarke suffers greatly from arthritis, a debilitating illness that without the greatest of courage, determination and talent, can prematurely end the career of an actor. However the renowned film Producer/Director Quentin Tarrantino, looked past the disability and recognised and focused on the talent of Clarke Middleton when casting him for roles in his films.
Ciaran Murray, Managing Director of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL) and Assistant Dublin City Manager, outlined the very positive developments and attitudes in and about Ballymun that are flowing from the regeneration programme.
Formally welcoming and introducing President MacAleese, Ray Yeates pointed out that the President’s visit “comes at the end of a remarkable year”, crowned by winning ‘Best New Play’ award at the Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards ceremony. That award winning play, ‘From These Green Heights’ was performed in part by some of the actors, for the benefit of the President.
President MacAleese
The President congratulated the Axis team on their work, successes and their excellent programme of events for 2005.
"Axis represents the success of partnership between the professional and community, excellence and inclusion without compromise. This approach was not always in Ballymun but history has taught us some painful lessons about not listening to people".
"It was wonderful to see Axis win the Best New Play at this years Irish Times/ESB theatre awards. The community of Ballymun must have been very proud that night to take its place among the best theatres in the county", she said.
Having met with some pupils of St. Michael’s House Ballymun, President MacAleese also unequivocally praised the work of the myriad of organisations who work tirelessly to improve the quality of life for the Ballymun community generally and in particular for the disabled.
This page was updated on 19th July, 2006