Conor Shields’s weekend: ‘We love going to the Strand – we’ll miss it while it’s closed for renovation’ (2024)

The best time to get up at the weekend is?

Ideally I’d rise at 11.30 or later. Having been a gigging musician for a lot of my life, mornings were what other people did! That has obviously changed. Sometimes, my lovely wife Aiveen does let me lie on though.

But as CEO of Community Arts Partnership (CAP) for over 20 years, mornings may not be too early but evenings can be very late. Anyone who runs an organisation in the arts can work very long and often stressful days. CAP is the lead organisation for the development, advocacy and delivery of community-based art-making in Northern Ireland and I lead a wonderful team of dedicated creatives. Our principal funding for all this comes from the Arts Council of NI.

Until June 14, we were delighted to be partnering the National Gallery in London in celebrating its bicentenary. We brought NG200 Art Road Trip to venues and community organisations right across the country. This is just the sort of partnership that we love supporting.

Breakfast or brunch?

Saturday breakfast during term-time is much like any weekday – getting our 11-year-old daughter Jemima up and out and away to orchestra and then to swimming classes. Porridge, smoothie, coffee and run… But when we do get the chance, we all enjoy long lie-ins followed by leisurely breakfasts of fresh fruit, and croissants and pain au chocolate are big faves in our house.

What does an ideal Saturday look like?

Saturday tends to revolve around our daughter, but ideally it would be a chance to catch up on bits and pieces around the house, watch the footie and maybe practise my guitar for an hour or three! ​

What would your perfect Sunday be like?

Sundays are always a slower day – late rising, long breakfasts and then decide where to head. St George’s Market for lunch and a potter about is always a treat, and a walk on the coast or around Stormont is usually on the cards too. There may be a chance to go to the cinema or theatre on a Sunday evening too of course.

Do you prefer to be indoors or outdoors?

I’m definitely an indoors person – making and listening to music, writing poetry and prose, enjoying films, watching theatre, catching up on current affairs and football, which is my form of weekly worship. As I have a disability, any outdoor sporting pursuits are long gone, but I can still watch… and shout at the screen.

If you could eat out anywhere tonight in NI, where would you go and why?

As a vegetarian, I’m always looking for a restaurant that offers some variety of plant-based food. And that can be quite hit-and-miss here. Neill’s Hill in Ballyhackamore offers a consistently good array of tasty veggie and vegan food. I must also say that Chris, the pizza chef in Greens in “Ballysnackamore”, produces the most original spicy veggie pizzas I’ve ever had. We’re always down there at some point over the weekend.

What would you have?

A curry, or a chilli-laden pizza – I like it hot.

A perfect weekend night would be catching an intimate gig in town, perhaps in the Black Box, grabbing a searingly hot and delicious curry and washing it all down with pints in the John Hewitt or the Duke of York. ​

At weekends you’ll always make time to…

Catch up with family and friends.

Who would you most like to go for a drink with and why?

Apart from a host of great people who have moved on to the premises upstairs, so to speak, of the living, the American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne would be a great man to have a long night’s craic with over a few pints. I spoke briefly with him a few years ago when he played a solo show in Killyleagh Castle, but I’d love to have a heart-to-heart with him.

Who do you normally eat Sunday dinner with and where?

I enjoy cooking and prepare most family meals during the week.

My daughter is a huge fan of a slap-up Sunday dinner with all the trimmings, and I enjoy preparing meals for the family. I cook most days, and though I’m far from a chef, being a vegetarian for over 34 years has sharpened up my kitchen skills. My daughter will eat a frightening amount of my roast potatoes – and she and my wife will opt for chicken while I make nut roast or something like that for myself. But I’m useless at cakes and puddings.

Too tired to cook – what are you ordering from the takeaway?

We’re spoilt for choice locally. Greens Pizzeria and the Squid Shack, both in Ballyhackamore, have brilliant plant-based and traditional menus that suit all our tastes.

Heading for the cinema? What are you going to see?

My wife and I caught Ian McKellen in Hamlet on screen in the Strand cinema just last week. We love going to the Strand – we’ll miss it while it’s closed for the massive renovation and renewal that’s about to start. Actually, the first gig I ever saw was Roy Orbison in the Strand. I was four! That’s a long time ago, but I still remember my father holding me up to get a better view.

I’m a sucker for sci-fi, I guess I’m from the Star Wars generation, but I love so many different film genres: (Ridley) Scott’s Blade Runner, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, (Lana and Lily) Wachowski’s The Matrix, Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, (Harold Ramis’s) Groundhog Day. Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, (Jean-Jacques) Beineix’s Diva, the Three Colours film series from (Krzysztof) Kieślowski… I could go on.

Staying in... what TV/streaming/catch-up programmes are on the menu?

My wife and I tend to watch a contemporary crime/thriller show and a half-hour comedy to settle the nerves afterward. We loved Blue Lights, but Severance really caught our imaginations. Our perennial come-down comedies are The IT Crowd and The Big Bang Theory – both so cleverly written and fun.

What are you reading?

I have the terrifyingly good Prophet Song by Paul Lynch on the go – it’s so credible and therefore more scary as a result – and the poetry of Imelda May I’m finding enchanting. I’ll be bringing (David) Grabber and (David) Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything with me as a holiday read.

I enjoy academic works on critical theory or politics as much as novels. There’s really only a handful of authors that I’ll return to, like Colm Tóibín, Joseph Conrad, Carson McCullers and John Updike.

Bedtime is…?

Bedtimes can vary, but getting to sleep around midnight is always my aim. But my wife and I are really night-owls who enjoy a glass of wine once the trials of the day have been put aside. But my evenings often are only getting started when I sit down to watch Newsnight or Question Time!