Shared Island reconnecting culture final event this weekend
21 September 2026
The Alley Theatre in Strabane and the Donegal Railway Heritage Museum have been collaborating over the past year on a Shared Island-funded project Reconnecting Through Culture: A Cross-Border Exploration of Art & Transport Infrastructure.
The Alley Theatre in Strabane and the Donegal Railway Heritage Museum have been collaborating over the past year on a Shared Island-funded project Reconnecting Through Culture: A Cross-Border Exploration of Art & Transport Infrastructure.
The collaboration has been a huge success to date and is now coming to a close with a closing event taking place this Saturday, 26th September at the Strabane Library Civic Room with an afternoon of artwork exhibitions, artefact displays, live music from Without Willow and John Nelson, and a panel discussion with Eamonn McCann and Garbhán Downey on the theme of Culture, Infrastructure, and the Future of the North-West.
The project kicked off earlier this year with a Schools Art Competition, which asked students to produce an artwork featuring a mode of transport of their choosing alongside a short written piece describing what it represented in their piece. Submissions were received from both Donegal and Tyrone, with some wonderfully thought-provoking entries showing that the stated goal of encouraging students to think about how transport affects our lives was taken on board.
Donegal Railway Museum Manager Marty Gilroy said: “We were really impressed with the sophisticated responses we received, some approaching the topic in ways we hadn’t envisaged, and we’re very excited to have been able to facilitate this kind of creative exploration in schools on both sides of the border.”
The winners of the competition will receive their prizes at Saturday’s event, and entries will be displayed on the day.
Another element of this project saw musicians from across the North-West perform their take on a train song in the historic Donegal Railway passenger saloon that forms part of the railway museum’s exhibition space. Muireann Bradley, John Nelson, Charlie McGettigan and Without Willow all contributed to this project, and their videos were released online throughout August.
These videos will now take their place in the Railways in Music virtual exhibition that will be launched at Saturday’s event, exploring the history and characteristics of railway-themed music from the nineteenth century music hall up to the present day. Without Willow and John Nelson, from Letterkenny and Strabane respectively, will perform in a unique lunchtime performance at 1:30pm on the day, swapping songs in a reflection of the project’s spirit of cross-border collaboration and creative cooperation.
To close out Saturday’s event, the organisations have enlisted two of Northern Ireland’s best-known commentators to discuss the theme of Culture, Infrastructure, and the Future of the North-West at 3pm. Garbhán Downey is an author, publisher at Colmcille Press, and spokesperson for the Derry University Group, whose campaign emphasises the economic and cultural benefits that would accrue from the development of a new cross-border institution for the North-West region.
Legendary civil rights activist Eamonn McCann, meanwhile, is both a founding member of the Into the West Rail Campaign and a former journalist for Hot Press magazine who has published widely on politics, social issues, music and culture both in Northern Ireland and globally.
Marty Gilroy, added: “We feel very fortunate to have had the resources to explore the fascinating relationship between art, culture, and transport infrastructure with communities on both sides of the border, and we are extremely grateful to the funders for their support, to the Alley for working with us on it, and to everyone who participated. We are very proud of the work we’ve done, and we look forward to continuing this exploration in other ways in the coming years.”
Emma Devine of the Alley Theatre said: “The project demonstrated the powerful role that arts and culture can play in bringing people together, creating space for shared experiences, and exploring the connections between our communities and the places we live. We are proud to have contributed to such a meaningful programme and grateful to the Shared Island Civic Society Fund for making this collaboration possible.”
Saturday’s event will take place in the Civic Room in Strabane Library, 1 Railway Street, from 12-4pm. All are welcome to attend, and the full schedule can be found on www.donegalrailway.com/events.
Ends