Online Zoom Forum: Our Spirits Were Bruised Not Broken: Phyllida Anam-Áire in Conversation with Roy Arbuckle.
Date: Sunday 23 November 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description: Roy Arbuckle is a singer-songwriter, dramatist, and community activist. He was born in Derry-Londonderry Northern Ireland, and has lived there most of his life with a couple of sojourns in North America and Donegal.
Phyllida and Roy worked alongside each other in Derry and she invited him to a conference she held in Bavaria 2011.
They will share with us from some of these experiences.
Dr Anne Tracey will be invited by Roy to contribute a few songs to the evening.
Bios:
Roy Arbuckle:
Bio: Roy has been with music since his teenage years and has continually re-invented himself in music ever since, from showbands to contemporary and traditional folk, folkrock, Celtic/world to musical theatre. He has been involved with many community arts, community development, and community relations projects.
Roy conceived and founded the internationally acclaimed music project Different Drums of Ireland in 1991 as a community relations project, and has led its development since. The group has performed for Presidents Clinton, Mary Robinson, and Mary McAleese and has taken their music and message to China, Japan, Israel, Poland, France, and the USA.
In 2008 Roy wrote and recorded "Songs of the Fountain" a CD of songs based on peoples’ memories of the Fountain district of Derry-Londonderry. This became part of the award winning BBC TV Documentary ‘Paradiso.'
He was member of the N. Ireland Advisory board of BBC Children in Need and a Trustee of Hoylwell Trust and Oakgrove Integrated Primary School. He co-ordinated the Holos Project, a healing and personal development training organisation operating in the border counties.
In 2003 he graduated from the University of Ulster with an M.Sc. in Professional Development Within the Community.
“Roy Arbuckle is a musician who sees above the walls of history, and this song like his inter-community work with Different Drums, is all about acknowledging the footsteps of different traditions while, at the same time, laying a finger on the common pulse of humankind." Colum Sands for Folkways Smithsonian Recordings.
Roy will sing some of his own songs during this sharing.
Phyllida Anam-Áire:
Bio: Phyllida Anam-Áire is a grandmother, a former Irish nun, author, poet and therapist.
She has worked extensively with the sick and dying and has just finished her 5th book.
Having reached 81 years of age, she is truly in love with her beautiful life and grateful for it too.
Phyllida lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Dr Anne Tracey:
Bio: ‘Songs for the Soul’ with Roy Arbuckle: Roy’s timeless songs touch the heart and soul and it was a great privilege to be invited to record the album with him.
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Booking: By Paypal.
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you are having a difficulty paying by Paypal, then you can pay by bank transfer instead.
NB: you must also email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can send you the Zoom sign-in details.
Here are the bank transfer details:
Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000
Some international transfers also ask for an IBAN number:
The IBAN number:
GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59
BIC:
BOFSGB21168