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Inspiring creativity and encouraging personal and social change through the arts

The Prison Arts Foundation is as important as it is unique. Thanks to our pioneering work with people with convictions lives are being transformed and patterns of behaviour changed for good.

Our team of experienced professional artists working across the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland are offering people with convictions a life-line, helping to improve their creative and communications skills, which is key to personal and social development, building self-confidence and unlocking people’s potential.

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Writing (Poetry)

My Home Town

Wee streets with cobbles

So dark and so grey

Street lamps all busted

From riots an’ affray—

 

Oul dolls with trolleys

Are rushed of their feet

Searching for bargains

To make tight ends meet—

 

A big pot of stew

On a wet winters night

Slopped into big bowls

For families just right—

 

The heel of a loaf

To soak up the juice

Pass me the HP

A dinner time truce—

 

Who’s up for seconds?

My wee ma would shout

Get back in line son

And she’d give me a clout—

 

The olde days in Belfast

I remember so well

The riots and the Troubles

We were dragged up through hell

 

We grew up with nothing

No materialistic things

But in Belfast in them days

We did live like kings.

HMP Magilligan

2nd Prize Poetry Intermediate, Listowel Writing in Prison Awards, 2020

Showcased at John Hewitt Digital Festival of Literature & Ideas, Northern Ireland, Listowel Writing in Prison Awards, 2020

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