SINN FÉIN’S 26-year-old Lord Mayor of Belfast paid a visit yesterday to the Shankill Road – once a no-go area for republicans – in support of a threatened community scheme.
Niall Ó Donnghaile, elected to Belfast City Council for the first time on May 5th and selected shortly afterwards as the city’s first citizen, dropped in on the Art Ability project which needs an estimated £150,000 (€171,000) in public funds to keep it going for another three years.
The scheme provides day care for those with special needs and able-bodied children and adults from the lower Shankill and surrounding areas.
Following the loss of funding from Children’s Fund run by the Department of Health, the centre was unable to pay its care worker, play worker, supervisor and driver. However they have kept working on a voluntary basis.
Some 60 people use the scheme weekly, “People who would be just sitting at home,” says Richard Long, the organiser at Art Ability.
“Art is the vehicle here,” he says, and there is plenty of it on show. Belfast street scenes, the iconic shipyards and, given the Titanic centenary, plenty of images of the White Star liner decorate the walls of the modest drop-in centre in Agnes Street, a short walk from the peace line and the lower Falls on the other side.
Mr Ó Donnghaile, presented with a striking image of Belfast’s most famous ship, was pressed by Michael Mullan to try on his mayoral chain of office. It was duly transferred on to the shoulders of the Art Ability enthusiast with rather less ceremony than the occasion when Mr Ó Donnghaile received it on to his only last week.
On the small issue of money, Mr Ó Donnghaile suggested that the group put its case to the Special Investment Fund at Stormont which is run by the office of Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson.
“I’ll do whatever I can to give you a lift,” he said, adding an impromptu invitation for the centre’s many artists to display their work in City Hall. That seemed to go down well with Art Ability’s volunteers and with officials from Siptu which is representing them and pressing for more protection for all in community services.
As for a Sinn Féiner on the Shankill, the Lord Mayor played it cool. “It’s great to bring some media attention for these people who are doing such great work here,” he said.