Did something of a whistle stop visit to Belfast yesterday and today, to speak at the Sustain Exchange event organised by Kevin Kelly and his team at Podiem at the ICC Belfast. First time I had been back to the city since the 1980s, when I visited as one of the judges of the RSA”s pollution abatement technology awards, having also spent three years as a child in Northern Ireland in the 1950s, near Limavady.
Rather moving to see an exhibit in memory of the flax and linen industry (whose legacy, via a carpet of wriggling elvers, triggered my foundational epiphany at age 7) on the floor above the one in the ICC venue where our event was held. That experience led on to many things, along them by ongoing support for the Sustainable Eel Group, including a memorable moment in 2014 when I helped release 30,000 elvers into the River Severn.
Really enjoyed speaking alongside the likes of Lucy Siegle, who chaired the event, and Chris Hines of Surfers Against Sewage (who among many other things showed a slide of the event in 1992, I think, when he turned up at our book launch at the Portland Baths in a wetsuit covered in condoms and other debris), alongside Eamer Manning of the National Youth Council of Ireland, Chris Martin of Danske Bank and Katrina Thompson of Artemis Technologies.
The Artemis story, focused on decarbonising marine transportation, was particularly interesting.
After the event, alongside Marc Duffy, I did a session with masters-level students from the University of Ulster Business School, the first day of their course – and they all got a copy of Tickling Sharks for their pains. Very enjoyable exchange.
Then, as Philippa Spiller of Podiem drove me back out to the airport, we talked of everything from Bentley racing cars through to family backgrounds – and, among other things, I mentioned my father Tim’s time during the Battle of the Atlantic with the CAM (Catapult Aircraft Merchant) ships, where he was a Hurricane pilot on convoys to and from the Soviet Union.
Having said goodbye, I trundled towards the airport – and, out of the blue, spotted this memorial to a couple of CAM ship squadrons. Though here CAM was translated as Catapult Armed Merchantmen. It was almost as if someone was dangling clues and cues around me. History can be weird. And a bit of digging suggests that “Armed” is the right version. In any event, can’t wait to go back.
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