CEAN Doran, the new programme director of the Belfast Festival at Queen's, has more venues to play with than Ted Turton, but in divided Belfast it will be an uphill struggle to get people to feel they own the festival. Doran, who began his working life as a conductor and clarinettist, is well known on the arts scene in the North, as director of Derry's IMPACT 92 festival and Octoberfest in 1993, but his major credit has been as director of the UK Year of Literature and Writing festival at Swansea last year.

Doran is well aware of the challenges he faces: "The festival has a loyal but narrow audience. There are many other audiences out there to tap. It must be the Belfast Festival, not just south Belfast, and it must also be a festival for Northern Ireland and Ireland. There must be a balance between consolidation and change, but festivals need periods of change or they die on their feet." Regarding the Queen's connection, which some might say is precisely what has anchored the festival so firmly in south Belfast, he says: "Having a university set up is unusual for a festival, but it has a lot going for it."

Doran will have a watching brief this year, before joining the existing team of executive director Robert Agnew and marketing manager Rosie Turner in 1997. One could say, therefore, that Michael Barnes, who directed the festival idiosyncratically and charismatically for many years, until his departure in 1994, has finally been replaced by three people.

Another new appointment, to which we will be returning at greater length, is that of Luke Dodd as Head of the Irish Film Archive in Temple Bar. Dodd is best known for his work in developing the Famine Museum in Strokestown, but he is currently working as curator of the Irish exhibition at the Frankfurt Book Fair.