Allison Murphy and Friends - dramatised presentation of excerpts from the Jim Blaney Archive.

PAST were very fortunate to be given the extensive archive of Jim Blaney following his death on 31 December 2014. It is currently stored in 120 containers ranging from box files to large storage boxes and is being catalogued.

The topic areas are mainly maritime (shipwrecks, lightvessels, local seamen and their families, miscellaneous maritime episodes usually with a Portaferry connection) but also cover local history, Lurgan history and various aspects of Irish culture (language, music, folklore, religion). It includes numerous notebooks, copies of documents and newspaper articles, original correspondence, photographs and 35mm photographic slides, a small number of artefacts as well as approximately 800 published books. There are many treasures in it.

Allison, who has a teaching background and is a co-founder of the Belfast Titanic Society is a remarkable communicator. She has appeared on radio and television, presented regularly on a wide range of topics to a variety of audiences, written the text for major visitor exhibition in Belfast City Hall charting the City's history and written a number of well-received books.