Marie Jones and Ian McElhinney, sometimes described as the first couple of Ulster theatre, met in the Waterfront hall with a Newtownabbey group that had just completed a Conflicts of Interest course. The well-known couple presented certificates of achievement to thirteen citizens of the borough who had undertaken the course delivered by project coordinator Oliver Corr and Dr Alan Bruce of Universal Learning Systems.

The group, convened by Ms Kathy Wolff under the auspices of the Newtownabbey Community Relations Forum, met weekly over the past months and all agreed that the experience enhanced their understanding of the Northern Ireland situation.

Talking with the course participants before the couples’ new production ‘Rock Doves’, Marie Jones and her husband Ian congratulated the group on its accomplishment and then told them of the relevance in the play’s message of underlying social difficulties afflicting our society.

“It was an entirely appropriate conclusion to a very useful course”, Ms Wolff told the Conflicts of Interest team.