SECTARIAN division and bigotry of several varieties dominate the news from the North as this is written, but the irrepressible folk musician Tommy Sands is determined to show that, in the cultural field at least, people from all traditions can talk to each other constructively.
Tonight and tomorrow, his Rostrevor Cross Cultural Institute has called a Citizen's Assembly at the Mandela Hall in QUB which will use an innovative "consensus methodology" to bring people from all political parties, and none, together to discuss what is euphemistically called "the Constitutional Problem" in an atmosphere of "music, drama and humanity". The basic principle of the method is to seek and explore areas of agreement rather than contention. Just to keep everyone sitting in the same room will be a small historical advance in the present atmosphere, lighting a candle rather than cursing the encircling gloom. Information from Belfast 665161 or Rostrevor 3857".
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