Northern Ireland welcome for Aung San Suu Kyi visit
Human rights campaigners in Northern Ireland have welcomed the announcement of details of the visit by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to Ireland next month.
Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International, said:
"Over many decades Amnesty's members have campaigned for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and for thousands of other prisoners of conscience in Burma / Burma.
"We are delighted to welcome her to Ireland for an event that will celebrate our shared values of freedom and human rights and to honour her commitment to justice at home and abroad. We know that many of our members in Northern Ireland will be planning to travel to Dublin to honour her and hear her message of hope."
Amnesty International members in Northern Ireland have campaigned successfully for the release of prisoners of conscience over the last twenty-five years and continue to campaign against human rights abuses.
Irish and international artists from the worlds of music, drama, cinema and dance, will perform and give readings at the Electric Burma concert for Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi. The concert will take place at 4.45pm on Monday 18th June, in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre (formerly the Grand Canal Theatre), Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2.
The centrepiece of 'Electric Burma' will be the presentation by Bono to Aung San Suu Kyi of Amnesty International’s prestigious 'Ambassador of Conscience' Award that he announced live on-stage in Croke Park during U2's 360 tour in July 2009.
'Electric Burma' will be a celebration of music, dance, and spoken work, and will include contributions from Damien Rice, Angelique Kidjo, Vanessa Redgrave, Bob Geldof, Riverdance, Jack Gleeson and others. Artistic direction and set design has been created by celebrated Catalan designer and director Lluís Danés.
Announcements on further artists and details of the concert will be made on www.electricburma.com. Tickets for Electric Burma will go on general sale this Friday, 2nd June, at 9am via www.ticketmaster.ie, with prices starting at €25 each.
'Electric Burma' is being organised and promoted by Bill Shipsey, founder of Art for Amnesty – Amnesty International’s global artist engagement programme.
Aung San Suu Kyi is travelling to Ireland and attending the 'Electric Burma' concert directly from Oslo where she will deliver the acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize that she was awarded in 1991 having been under house arrest or in prison for 15 of the last 24 years. This will be her first trip to Europe since 1988.
Amnesty International will host a public celebration outside the Bord Gais Energy Theatre on the evening of the concert at which it is expected that Aung San Suu Kyi will make a brief address to the assembled crowd. Further details will be available in due course.