They huddled under umbrellas which couldn’t seem to fend off the swirling rain as they stood beside a Belfast round-about and sang Christmas carols.  Cars swished past them.  Takeaways were ordered and collected in the chip shop opposite.  Life seemed to pass them by.  It was a moment that could so easily have been missed.
This [...]

It was almost twilight on a cold autumn’s evening on Belfast’s Shankill Road - and it was time.  Time for the vampires to come out to play.  There were three of them and their mission was clear - to invert the traditional practice of trick or treating and spread a bit of hope in west [...]

It was a former ice-cream shop - that then lay derelict - before volunteers in Carnmoney transformed it into a thrift shop, which hands out free school uniforms and food hampers to struggling families.
“The whole intention,” says Paul Elliot who has been involved in the project right from the start, “was to create a thrift [...]

The girls had never worn formal dresses before; the guys had never cruised about town in a limo.  But then a truly Cinderella story unfolded as a north coast community got behind an idea to organise a formal for the young people of Sandelford Special School in Coleraine.
The beautiful initiative was spearheaded by Causeway Coast [...]

Flags: they can define us, divide us, inspire us, provoke us… These pieces of coloured material that flutter in the breeze, decorating our neighbourhoods, can often spark some deep reactions…
And so a visual artist from Belfast decided to try and use flags to forge new links between our communities here.  Raymond Watson was in Tibet [...]

If there had been no intervention they probably would have remained as faceless enemies their entire lives.    One came from the Falls, the other from the Shankill.  Both had lost brothers in the Troubles.  Both had witnessed so much harsh history.  But Sean and Rab forged a unique affinity, which has taken them into [...]

“It’s less about sandwiches and buns and more about days like this - seeing the community come together.”  The words of one elderly lady on Shaw Street after the second year of their ‘Big Lunch’ street party.  It was a grey, rainy Sunday afternoon but this little east Belfast street was lit up with laughter [...]

The traffic lights turned red on Belfast’s Albertbridge Road.  Jonny drew his car up to the line, lost in thoughts of life, exams and student banter. But then his eyes were alerted to a scene of confusion going on outside.  People running, punches being thrown, a guy in a white tracksuit approaching his car…
Jonny’s mind [...]

It was a Saturday afternoon when two motorbikes sped into an empty church car park in Antrim, writes Nicole Murray.  The two riders, Steve and Mel, saw a sign for a ‘prayer room’ and entered.  Kattie was there.  She welcomed them and listened to their story; how they were over from England on holiday for [...]

He was just an old guy at her bus-stop.  She was just a young woman rushing to get to work.  But they struck up a random friendship which is helping both see how making a difference can be the most natural thing in the world.
Denny and Ashleigh got talking as they waited on the bus [...]