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Roddy Doyle was in Belfast earlier today. UpÌýon the train from Dublin forÌýthe day to promote his new book.

That's me and him and the new book "The Dead Republic" in our studio this afternoon, before he legged it to get the train back to Dublin. It's 340pm on the clock behind Roddy. The train is due to leaveÌýCentral Station at 410 and he wants on it.

He told me so as we stood outside the studio at 315 waiting for the religion department to finish recording Easter programmes. Someone says it'sÌýa bit like waiting outside the Head Master's office. Doyle the former teacher laughed. As two ministers file past us having recorded their Easter messages I wonder what kind of teacher he was?

He gave up teaching seventeen years ago he tells me later as we're getting our photo taken. He taught Geography and English. Sometimes more Geography than he wished too, when someone was off on maternity leave. He said he used to pray for infertility at the beginning of each term so he could get a chance to teach English!

I hope he made that train!

They're called . They were supporting last night in the Black Box.

It's the first time I've seen the star of the show introduce the support but Rachel Unthank bounded onto the stage and basically told us how great the music we were about to hear was.Ìý

On a recent tour she said " we stood in the wings every night listening to them". So what happens when the support act gives the main act a run for its money?Ìý

While The Unthanks were great, Becky and Rachel's voices perfectly balancing the other, Adrian, Rachel's husband promoted from lighting to onstage piano, and the cellist praised for making it to the stage after eating a dodgy scallop in the Isle of White the day before, the Newcastle duo Kearney and Farrell were stunning.Ìý

They took to the stage at 830, apologised for being late "we were eating noodles" and started.

The music was gorgeous, a mix of English Ìýtraditional folk songs and original songs by Kearney, including one about a man he once met called Benjamin Brown which "doesn't have much content...I just liked his name", and the wonderful "Lullaby" dedicated to an ex girlfriend who had had too much Buckfast. He changed it to rose wine when he wrote the song cos he thought it sounded more sophisticated!Ìý

They were selling a 6 track cd "The North Farm Sessions" afterwards. I'm listening to it now. It got a bit wet as I left it lying on the floor under my seat during The Unthanks gig and what I hope was just beer washed over it. It dried out on the radiator this morning and sounds even better I think!

got a birthday bash and a half this week. His 80th birthday was celebrated at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland HQÌýwith family and friends, including the Nobel LaureateÌýSeamus Heaney and his wife Marie. The photo was taken in TP's house with Seamus, Marie, TP and his wife Sheila just before they headed to the birthday celebration.

Terry is a much loved man. Heaney dedicated "Bogland" to Terry, a poeticÌýcompliment to Terry'sÌý1967 painting

Leading artists, writers and painters including Heaney, Basil Blackshaw and Jack Packenham gathered at a special reception in McNeice House in Belfast to celebrate Terry'sÌý two score years and ten.

And while honouringÌýa genius painter of landscape they were also celebrating the man, someone who isÌýgreat company, full of stories and mischievous humour.

I know what good company TP is. Last year I spent a day in his childhood home of Fermanagh with himÌýand his wife Sheila for anÌýartsextra special.

We all piled into a hire car, me,Ìýthe producer, the FlanagansÌýand the sound man driving.ÌýTP refused theÌýfront seat and let Sheila sit there. I'm not a great car traveller and reluctantly squashed myself into the back seat between Terry and the producer, thinking that if I scanned the horizon I might ward off nausea.ÌýBut as we headed down theÌýM1 to FermanaghÌýTerry told story after story which made me forget any carsickness.Ìý

HeÌýtook me around his childhood haunts, from a wood outside Enniskillen, to a muddy field which inspired much of his boglandÌýpainting, even gallantly helping meÌýputÌýmy welliesÌýon and finally we sat onÌýa bench beside Lough Erne. And he talked and he remembered and he painted with words.

And then we all got back into the car again. And I didn't want the M1 to end.Ìý

You can hear TP Flanagan on Arts Extra here

Ìý

Sometimes you wonder if someone is trying to tell you something. Friday afternoon I'm in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, my 40 p mix of sweets in hand, andÌýIÌýsee one of thoseÌýNorthern Ireland Digital Film Archive portals. Is that the right word?ÌýBasically it's a computer dotted around arts centres, museumsÌýand libraries.ÌýIt's free access so youÌýcan watch films, documentaries, animations, tv news and sport allÌýfrom the archive. There'sÌýaÌýfilm of the BangorÌýYacht race filmed in 1898, feature films including Alan Clarke's chilling "Elephant" and a report by Gloria Hunniford from 1970 about chestnut treesÌýbeingÌýuprooted in Portadown to make way for the motorway. Ìý

On screen in the cinema lobby,Ìý"Midnight Dance", John McCloskey's 1996 genius animation based on Saint-Saens "Dance Macabre".ÌýThe superstition isÌýthat Death appears atÌýmidnight on Hallowe'en and,Ìýby playing his fiddle, he summons the dead from their graves. Pretty creepy stuff but brilliantly made.Ìý

ThenÌýSaturday I'm in theÌýQueens Film Theatre to have a look at art exhibition, theÌýBelfast street artist who is showing his workÌýwhile Banksy's film "Exit through the Gift Shop" is showing there. Just don't call him the BelfastÌýBanksy please!

Anyway, there's another Digital Film Archive portal/computer set up, and what's on screen again?Ìý"Midnight Dance".

Then I come into work to present "Sounds Classical" and at 23 mins past 8 on the running order it says Saint-Saens Danse Macabre. Ìý

Now I really am spooked.

Ìý

So here's the question. If Samuel Barber'sÌýgreat great great grandfather had stayed in Derry, would the world have had "Adagio for Strings"?Ìý

According to Barber's biographer Dr. Barbara Heyman, who talked to me on artsextra, the Barber connection can be traced back to a man called John Beattie who moved from Derry to the United States as a boy.

His family settled in Pennsylvania and John went on to fight in the Revolutionary war. He ended up in Valley Forge,Ìýthe now iconic military operation of the new United States of America under General George Washington that lasted 6 months from December 1777 to June 1778.Ìý

Even though no battle was fought there, those 6 months sound awful, a grim siege, with no food, inadequate clothing and housing, all set against freezing conditions.Ìý

I'm trying to imagine this young Derry man in the middle of it all. Has he lost his accent? Is he remembering the streets he grew up in? Is he wondering should he have stayed in Derry?Ìý

Little does he know that he is going to have a great great granddaughter whose nickname will be Daisy. On the 9th March 1910 she will give birth to a boy called Samuel. He will go on to write some of the greatest music of the 20th century. Perhaps his most famous will be "Adagio for Strings".Ìý

It will be chosen by Albert Einstein to be played at his funeral, it will be used as the soundtrack for the Vietnam war movie "Platoon", a war centuries forward from where John Beattie is now standing, and it will be the same music that we will hear on countless tv documentaries against images of the twin towers coming down on 9/11.ÌýÌý

And yet it's a piece of music that transcends the horror of war. A fitting tribute for his Derry ancestor standing in a frozen field in Pennsylvania.Ìý

Ìý

I met the man from the HayÌýon Wye Literature Festival this morning.

Peter Florence was over in Belfast for just 3 hours.ÌýAfter last year when Hollywood legend Tony Curtis and The Wire's creator David Simon came over, he'sÌýlooking into a possibleÌýpartnershipÌýthis year.

But whenÌýhe asked me who would I like to interview if I had the choice,Ìýmy mind went blank.

I was remembering last year.

I had been asked to do the onstage interview at the Ulster Hall with Tony Curtis. Before hand, I was taken to hisÌýdressing room, where his wife, his mother in law and his agent were sitting. Suddenly the room emptied and it was only me and Tony Curtis.ÌýHe didn't say a word. I couldn't think of any small talk. How do you bring up Marilyn Monroe when we'd only just met? And so we sat in silence until his wife, mother in law and agentÌýcame back.ÌýÌýÌý

As soon as we gotÌýon stage and he got sight of theÌýpacked house, who gave him a standing ovation before he'd even opened his mouth, he lit up.ÌýOut of the traps,Ìýhe didn't look back, ignoring meÌýfor the first fifteen minutes, thenÌýturningÌýand mischievously asking me was I going toÌýask him a question?ÌýThe crowd loved it. I loved it.ÌýÌý

Now, having never watched a single episode ofÌýthe ground breaking tv drama The Wire, a few days later, standing outside the hotel room door of David Simon I felt a fraud.

Through the door I could hearÌýhis muffled answers to another reporter's questions.ÌýThis wasn't good. I felt the weight of all the fans, chat rooms and endless websites devoted to The Wire. He would see my Wire lack of knowledgeÌýin my eyes.

All I had up my sleeve was that I was at university in Dublin the same time as Dominic ("Detective Jimmy McNulty")ÌýWest. 1986 andÌýI'm in a coffee shop off Grafton Street.ÌýI stared at him.ÌýObviously for too long as he made hisÌýgirlfriend shift seats with him so his back was to me.ÌýÌýFriends of mine who are Wire fans regularly make me tell that story so they can fall about laughing. I was mortified then and now.

The door opened and I was brought into the suite, the memory of Dominic West's back swimming in front of my eyes.

I babbled hello. He was keen to talk about his new tvÌýproject. Treme. Set in New Orleans,Ìýthree months after Hurricane Katrina. "Do you know that Beyonce is in theÌýroom next door?" I squeaked. She actually was. She was playing Belfast that night.ÌýHe was impressed. Feeling a bit more confident, I suggested maybe he couldÌýknock on her door and ask her if she wanted to do the soundtrack.ÌýI don't know if that meeting happened. But at least itÌýbought me some time before we eventually talked about The Wire. Ìý