What the focal! is a short comedy film adapted by playwright Jonathan Burgess from an original idea by Linda Ervine.

When Maggie, a Protestant from East Belfast, decides to learn Irish her husband Jimmy, a Loyalist, puts his foot down and tells her that there will be no Irish spoken in ‘his’ house. However, Maggie and her best friend Anne decide that they will secretly enrol for Irish classes, under the guise of learning French.

Following the film, Linda will deliver a brief talk entitled The Miracle that is Turas (turas being the Gaelic word for journey), followed by a Q&A panel session, including some of her students. When the Turas Irish Language Centre opened in East Belfast in January this year, it was called ‘a miracle’.

Until recently, no one could have conceived of the idea that people would learn Irish on the Newtownards Road, yet today over 120 people, of all ages, attend classes every week. The evening concludes with a music session incorporating tunes and songs from both traditions

£3 from St Michael’s Irish Centre