Willie Doherty may not consider himself a "professional Derry person", but growing up in Northern Ireland's second city has had a considerable influence on his art.

Since first coming to prominence in 1985, Doherty has gone on to become one of Northern Ireland's most successful artists.

He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1994 and 2003 and also represented Northern Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2007, an event which is billed as the world's most prestigious visual art festival.

Ghost Story, the work he created for the festival, is going on display at the Ulster Museum in Belfast for the first time this Friday as part of their exhibition of contemporary Irish art.

Doherty has also been asked to curate a series of films for the Queen's Film Theatre to coincide with the exhibition.

Born in Derry in 1959, there is no doubt that growing up in a city he describes as being "constantly under surveillance" has had an effect on the work he produces.

"I grew up in Derry and certainly at that point in the 70s and 80s we had a level of surveillance that wasn't experienced elsewhere.

"You were very conscious as a citizen walking around the city that you were being watched. And for someone working with a camera there is the possibility of returning the gaze.

'Daily grind'

"I was trying to make work from the perspective of someone who lives there.

"So for me, the daily grind of the place, the continual presence of surveillance was part of the landscape."

It has been said that Doherty has spent his professional career making art about the Troubles, however, this is something he does not necessarily agree with.

"I don't really think about making a piece about the Troubles, it's more that I'm interested in the kinds of images we make of ourselves and the kind of images that surround us," he said.

"I see the work I make as a kind of parallel to the work of the media.

"I was always critical of journalists being parachuted in for a couple of days getting their stories or pictures and then they are out again and onto the next one."

The centrepiece of the Ulster Museum's Visions exhibition is Doherty's work, Ghost Story.

It has been described as a study of Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement and is said to challenge the political desire to bury the past.

However, Doherty says that the themes behind the piece can be linked to other landscapes and conflicts where people have been traumatised by their situation.

"Ghost Story is a work about landscape, as much as it is about the particular landscape of the north of Ireland," he said.

"It is just one of the ways in which the peace process has been worked out.

"On the one hand, we are being asked to move on and kind of forget about the past, but obviously if you are someone who has lost a relative, or you perceive yourself to be a victim of some sort, it might be difficult to just move on.

"I think the physiological trauma that people have suffered has not really been fully worked out."

Celebrity culture

The films Doherty has selected for the QFT also have the issue of surveillance as one of their underlying themes.

Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, Elephant by Alan Clarke and Red Road by Andrea Arnold are included in the series of eight films he has chosen.

"I like all kinds of films, but I thought that maybe for the purpose of this, I need to try and select a group of films that are more thematically connected and (surveillance) is one of the recurrent themes," he said.

"I think now more people feel the effects of living in a state where you under constant surveillance and how that infiltrates through all aspects of your life.

"As an internet user, usage is being monitored and how people interact with sites like facebook. They also post their lives on the internet.

"I guess one of the elements of it is a celebrity culture that people want to participate".

"One of the films I have included in my selection is one from Warhol, an early film 'Blowjob', which is about a particular kind of looking.

"I think one of the things Warhol was really interested in was his obsession or his dealing with celebrity culture and I think that drives how people interact with the internet and grabbing their 15 minutes of fame."

Doherty's work will be displayed as part of the "Visions" exhibition at the Ulster Museum from 26 March until autumn 2010.

His film series will be shown at the QFT from 26 March - 1 April.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Willie Doherty may not consider himself a "professional Derry person", but growing up in Northern Ireland's second city has had a considerable influence on his art.

Since first coming to prominence in 1985, Doherty has gone on to become one of Northern Ireland's most successful artists.

He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1994 and 2003 and also represented Northern Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2007, an event which is billed as the world's most prestigious visual art festival.

Ghost Story, the work he created for the festival, is going on display at the Ulster Museum in Belfast for the first time this Friday as part of their exhibition of contemporary Irish art.

Doherty has also been asked to curate a series of films for the Queen's Film Theatre to coincide with the exhibition.

Born in Derry in 1959, there is no doubt that growing up in a city he describes as being "constantly under surveillance" has had an effect on the work he produces.

"I grew up in Derry and certainly at that point in the 70s and 80s we had a level of surveillance that wasn't experienced elsewhere.

"You were very conscious as a citizen walking around the city that you were being watched. And for someone working with a camera there is the possibility of returning the gaze.

'Daily grind'

"I was trying to make work from the perspective of someone who lives there.

"So for me, the daily grind of the place, the continual presence of surveillance was part of the landscape."

It has been said that Doherty has spent his professional career making art about the Troubles, however, this is something he does not necessarily agree with.

"I don't really think about making a piece about the Troubles, it's more that I'm interested in the kinds of images we make of ourselves and the kind of images that surround us," he said.

"I see the work I make as a kind of parallel to the work of the media.

"I was always critical of journalists being parachuted in for a couple of days getting their stories or pictures and then they are out again and onto the next one."

The centrepiece of the Ulster Museum's Visions exhibition is Doherty's work, Ghost Story.

It has been described as a study of Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement and is said to challenge the political desire to bury the past.

However, Doherty says that the themes behind the piece can be linked to other landscapes and conflicts where people have been traumatised by their situation.

"Ghost Story is a work about landscape, as much as it is about the particular landscape of the north of Ireland," he said.

"It is just one of the ways in which the peace process has been worked out.

"On the one hand, we are being asked to move on and kind of forget about the past, but obviously if you are someone who has lost a relative, or you perceive yourself to be a victim of some sort, it might be difficult to just move on.

"I think the physiological trauma that people have suffered has not really been fully worked out."

Celebrity culture

The films Doherty has selected for the QFT also have the issue of surveillance as one of their underlying themes.

Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, Elephant by Alan Clarke and Red Road by Andrea Arnold are included in the series of eight films he has chosen.

"I like all kinds of films, but I thought that maybe for the purpose of this, I need to try and select a group of films that are more thematically connected and (surveillance) is one of the recurrent themes," he said.

"I think now more people feel the effects of living in a state where you under constant surveillance and how that infiltrates through all aspects of your life.

"As an internet user, usage is being monitored and how people interact with sites like facebook. They also post their lives on the internet.

"I guess one of the elements of it is a celebrity culture that people want to participate".

"One of the films I have included in my selection is one from Warhol, an early film 'Blowjob', which is about a particular kind of looking.

"I think one of the things Warhol was really interested in was his obsession or his dealing with celebrity culture and I think that drives how people interact with the internet and grabbing their 15 minutes of fame."

Doherty's work will be displayed as part of the "Visions" exhibition at the Ulster Museum from 26 March until autumn 2010.

His film series will be shown at the QFT from 26 March - 1 April.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

US broadcaster HBO is to begin filming its epic fantasy adventure series Game of Thrones in Belfast in June.

The series pilot was filmed at locations around the city.

Nine more programmes based on the first book of George R.R. Martin's multi-volume A Song of Fire and Ice series have now been commissioned.

Rather than focusing on special effects, the series is said to feature realistic battles and is pitched as "The Sopranos in Middle Earth".

Location filming has also taken place in Scotland and Morocco, amid fevered internet anticipation among fantasy fans.

It will star Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Alfie Allen, the brother of pop star Lily Allen.

The makers' long-term ambition is for each novel in the series to fuel a season's worth of episodes.

HBO has been behind a string of popular programmes including The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Northern Ireland singer Keith Semple's experience of television talent shows could at best be described as bittersweet.

In 2002, he won his way onto boy band One True Voice, on ITV's Popstars: The Rivals show, who were formed alongside Girls Aloud.

But while the girl group went on to enjoy a career of success, fame and fortune, One True Voice released just two songs and split up less than a year after being formed.

Despite this setback, Semple said he remained determined to carve a career in the music business and last month hit the headlines in the US after being kicked out of American Idol following an initial successful audition.

Semple, who is from Larne in County Antrim, won a coveted golden ticket to the latter stages of the contest in Hollywood.

However, his dreams of stardom were dealt another blow when he was asked to leave the show when the producers found out he was not eligible to enter the competition.

"You have to be a permanent resident to enter the show, I was trying frantically to get everything done in time and unfortunately it was a postal error which cost me," he said.

"I am extending the visa I already have while applying for my permanent status.

The singer moved to the US in 2006 after a member of Chicago based band 7th heaven heard him sing on Myspace and asked him to join them.

"I plan on living in Chicago for good, although I will always come home from time to time.

"Home will always be Northern Ireland. I love and miss Larne, however, for my music I have no choice but to live in the USA.

"I could never be as busy, or play to as many people or make as good a living back home in the music scene. I have played to twice the population of Northern Ireland since I arrived here."

"The biggest crowd (we have played to) to date has been 62,000 people opening up for Huey Lewis in Chicago, the year before we played to crowds of between 10,000 and 20,000 festivals almost all summer long.

Visa issues aside, Semple said he is uncertain as to whether or not he will enter next year's American Idol, however, he still has high hopes of making it as big as the likes of the Kings of Leon with his current band.

"We could make it that big, any band could, its nothing to do with the band after a certain point, they can have the talent, the stage presence and the songs, but its up to the people with the money after that -it's an unfortunate part of the business.

"I have an amazing career here in the USA., I play to more than 1m people a year in over 225 shows and make a good living.

"This is all I have ever done since I was 16 and wouldn't ever consider doing anything else, I will go on performing until I am 90."</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Actor Liam Neeson has hosted a star studded dinner in New York that raised nearly $400,000 to help rebuild Belfast's Lyric Theatre.

Actors Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn, Ciaran Hinds, Conleth Hill and singer Brian Kennedy were among the guests at the distinctly Irish event.

Celebrity chef Paul Rankin designed a menu featuring traditional Irish fare.

Neeson, who is from Ballymena, is patron of the Lyric which was where he began his professional career.

Speaking on Gerry Kelly's Saturday programme on Radio Ulster, chef Paul Rankin said the event was "an out of the world experience".

"It was held in a very cool penthouse near Broadway in New York.

"As we were sitting down, you could see Manhattan glittering in the background. It was an out of the world experience... it was just a stunning event."

About 50 people from the arts community were invited.

Chairman of the Lyric, BBC NI's Mark Carruthers, joined Liam Neeson in urging guests to support the theatre's fundraising campaign.

Guests were treated to readings and performances from Neeson, Hill and Brian Kennedy.

Paul Rankin had drawn up a menu which started with Glenarm smoked salmon with potato pancakes; lobster, cod, potato and dulse chowder followed by rack of lamb, colcannon cakes and braised skag. It finished with barmbrack bread and butter pudding, Bushmill prunes and buttermilk ice cream.

"Meryl was very complimentary... Kitty Neeson (Liam's mother) said it was the best dessert she'd ever had," he told Gerry Kelly.

"It was a stunning event."

The theatre needs to raise £800,000 by June towards the cost of the new Lyric which is being built on the same site.

The original theatre opened in 1951 and moved to premises on Ridgeway Street about 20 years later.

However, ongoing problems with the buildings and dated facilities led to a decision to close it.

The new theatre will consist of a 394 seat main auditorium, a 150 seat studio theatre, a rehearsal room, extensive riverfront foyers and bar, backstage facilities and office accommodation.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.