giros1

giros

Do not lead for I will not follow.
Do not follow for I will not lead.
Walk with me and be my equal.

The existence of long term unemployment was one of the biggest issues in the 1980s, directly impacting on levels of poverty in Belfast.

Projects like the Belfast Youth & Community Group, which incorporated the Belfast Musicians Collective and Giros Cafe were a sign that young people were not prepared to accept their lot in life.

The feature documentary Giros is a study of how a disparate group of young people got together in the time of Thatcher.

This almost hidden history rediscovers the A Centre, Giros, the Belfast Youth & Community Group, Warzine and the strands of the punk movement, which continued throughout the 1980s to build and maintain resources and non-sectarian space in the city centre.

The experiment lasted for 17 years and contributed to building the foundations of the music industry in Northern Ireland.

Many of the young people went on to build other successful projects and are as enthusiastic today about their experiences of that time as they were thirty years ago.

The documentary contains footage from the period from the Northern Visions archive.

Watch documentary

Working in the Centre allowed me to learn how to do lots of different things, meet loads of different people, and listen to an interesting array of new ideas. Things were done as equally as possible (well, sometimes having a loud voice can assist in getting your point of view across....), and people sorted out their own strengths and talents. The best way to learn how something is done is to do it, so an off the cuff "Oh, put my name down for that" at one of the many (and lengthy) meetings could lead you into a very steep learning curve.
Kate Wimpress 1996

Ramshackle Bohemia...born out of that old punk D.I.Y attitude, it isn't happening so let's make it happen!
Mairtin Crawford 1996

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