Royal Society for Protection of Birds

The RSPB’s Under One Roof event on 30th April will mark the return of the swifts from Africa to Northern Ireland. The event, which will be held at the newly refurbished Crescent Arts Centre, will showcase the excellent restoration of the building to accommodate the swifts’ nesting season in the summer.

The day-long event will be a cultural celebration which will bring together African and Celtic influences in a special recognition of the swift migration. The first part of the day will be devoted to education, with a local artist taking Belfast’s Botanic Primary School through an interactive morning of creating audio visual activities capturing swift noises and images. The day continues with talks from the Crescent Arts Centre and the RSPB on sustainable planning, highlighting the partnership of architects, contractors and funders on preserving the habitat of a priority species of bird in Northern Ireland. The work carried out at Crescent Arts Centre not only preserves the nest sites of swifts but also provides new ones by building special “swift bricks” into the fabric of the new build. The talks will be followed by a tour of the newly restored Crescent Arts Centre.

The Under One Roof event will contribute to a greater awareness of swifts and their migration to Irish shores. The event will highlight the RSPB’s “Swift Watch UK” campaign which engages the public in monitoring the swifts’ return by sharing the knowledge of swift colony sites on a UK-wide database. The aim of the project is to identify those breeding colony locations that need to be protected in the same way the Crescent Arts Centre has successfully preserved the colony site.

The evening’s celebrations will add an eclectic mix of song and dance, bridging the biodiversity programme of sustainable conservation with the multicultural significance of migratory patterns. The celebration of cultures will explore the rich cultural diversity within our Northern Irish community looking at...