Cross-cultural ceilidh brings communities together

Hala Ahmed only arrived in Londonderry five months ago from Sudan.

She was one of the many who gathered at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin in Derry for a cross-cultural ceilidh to mark world diversity day.

And it lived up to its name with participants from as far away as Syria and Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen.

The event was organised by the North West Migrants Forum in partnership with the theatre company, Sole Purpose Productions.

Hala said the evening was important to her because it allowed people to learn more about different cultures.

Proceedings kicked off with traditional Irish music along with a lesson in how to dance during a ceilidh.

Then came musicians from Sudan, Syria and Turkey.

People also brought traditional foods from their native countries.

On the menu from Hala was a traditional sandwich from Sudan. It was a spicy chicken sandwich with a special type of hot sauce.

"You can say it's unique because we made it from peanut butter, a green chilli and lemon and, of course, salt," she said.

Another person who brought traditional food from his country was Syrian Mohamed Outabacci, who impressed with his take on baklava, a dessert dating back to the Ottoman empire.

He has been living in Derry for six years with his family and said they were made to feel at home at the event.

"As Syrian people, we lost our country and so to come to activities like this, to make friends and to have fun, it's important and good for us to be a part of this community as well."

Event organiser Gaëlle Gormley said the aim was to "generate a bond between Northern Ireland's two traditional communities and those from overseas who have made it their home in more recent times".

Clodagh Warnock enthralled the international audience with her fiddle during the ceilidh and said it was great to see people's faces when she started playing.

"We were ripping into a couple of good, fast tunes, and you can see they were genuinely interested," she said.

"Now we've just been listening to a bit of singing, which has been accompanied by drums, so it's very different, it's very, very diverse," she said.

The evening was also a good opportunity for people to make new connections and friendships with others from different cultures and religions.

This was one of the reasons Ahmed Alweasbi decided to go along.

Ahmed came to Northern Ireland seven months ago as an asylum seeker from war-torn Yemen.

"It's important for integration and they might help people in of diversity. So it's really helpful for people to ," he said.

Iryna Vorna, from Ukraine, has been living in Derry for two years and attended the event with her son Dmytro and mum, Liubov.

"This is a new country for us and in our country we didn't see so many nationalities so this is good for our children but it's useful for everyone," she said.