Press Releases19 Nov 07

Hard Gospel Project in Rathcoole - The Road to Success

For many years Rathcoole in Newtownabbey on the outskirts of North Belfast has endured a bad press. Loyalist paramilitaries dominated the estate, their feuding and violence blighting the lives of local residents.

Yet there is another side to life in Rathcoole - the success stories of people born and brought up in the area. To celebrate these individuals a four-day exhibition highlighting their achievements is to be held at Rathcoole Youth Centre from Monday 26 November to Thursday 29 November 2007.

The exhibition is being organised by the Church of Ireland’s Hard Gospel Project in conjunction with St Comgall’s Parish in Rathcoole. It will feature individuals who live in the Rathcoole community or who attended one of the local schools.

“At a time like this, when people are trying to build a new future for Northern Ireland, it is important that the churches find a role in bringing hope to people in areas like Rathcoole,” says Stephen Dallas, the Hard Gospel Project’s Northern Ireland officer.

Called “Our Kind of People” the exhibition will document the life stories of 85 people. Some still live in Northern Ireland while others have forged successful careers in countries around the world.

They include the former Northern Ireland and Manchester United footballer Jimmy Nicholl, the BBC sports commentator Alan Green, the playwright Gary Mitchell, and George McKim, a former loyalist paramilitary who’s now senior pastor of the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle.

“Rathcoole has suffered from high unemployment and poor take-up of training and third-level education for a long time. St Comgall’s, along with other churches in the area, are trying to highlight the difference that education and training has made in the lives of the people included in the exhibition,” says Stephen Dallas. “We hope to inspire others to have a bigger vision of what is possible for them.”

The exhibition will be officially opened by the North Belfast MP and DUP MLA Nigel Dodds at 12.30pm on Monday 26 November.

The Hard Gospel Project was founded by the Church of Ireland to help counter sectarianism and racism, and to find fresh ways of developing a shared future in the Ireland of the 21st century.

For further details about this event, please contact:
Stephen Dallas, (m) 0783 4992895 or via e-mail