The City of Belfast Archers has been in existence for 20+ years. Modest fees ensures that the club meets twice a week. In the winter months an old snooker hall in the city centre has been their clubhouse for a couple of years. During the summer they practice at the Council owned playing fields off Boucher Crescent. This arrangement is under threat with a proposed rate increase from the Council which is extortionate at 1100%. It’s the hope of the membership that this increase has come about as a result of a new accounting system at the council, preferring to think of it as a computer error.
The club runs and enters competitions and is open to all. Their youngest archer is a 5 year old and they have a potential para-olympian as a member. The closure of the club would surely dash any hopes he might harbour of becoming a medal winner.
There is to be a meeting in the next week or so to discuss this increase in rates which threatens the club with closure. The members i spoke to were fairly upbeat but under no illusion as to the possible outcome.
Photographer and visual artist based in Belfast.
I have facilitated community based workshops with groups as diverse as visually impaired individuals in Dungannn, Travellers across Northern Ireland, Young Offenders and many community groups across Belfast.
My work has exhibited extensively here in Northern Ireland in group and individual shows and has been shown in North America and i had my first solo international exhibition in New Zealand. I have been the recipient of a number of grants from the Arts Council Northern Ireland.
I’ll be blogging about Arts and Culture, primarily in Belfast
check out www.moochinphotoman.tumblr.com
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