Growing up in Ireland, knowledge of the Lebanon was nearly always based on Irish contribution to Irish peacekeeping missions. It was a world similar to those who had grown up in the North of Ireland during a substantial part of the troubles. More recently, with the end of that countries civil war and the increase in emigration to Ireland as a whole Lebanon has become more familiar perhaps because of it's cuisine with Lebanese restaurants springing up in major cities across Ireland. It was perhaps because of this previous experience rather than in spite of it that a visit to the Void Gallery in Derry at it's new city centre location (more of which later) for it's most recent exhibition Before the Cypress Broke a series of works by Lebanese artists based on a recent catastrophe in Beirut the Lebanese capital, when a barrel of explosives went off because they weren't stored properly, resulting in the deaths 207 people, seven thousand people injured and three hundred thousand homeless.
Before the Cypress Broke - Reflections of Lebanon
Updated: May 4, 2022
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