 afternoon. Now Adele Murphy from Movil has been appointed the new CEO of a leading Northern Ireland disability arts organisation, the University of Atypical. Adele is actually originally from Count Donna but moved to Movil when she was just eight and doctors told her that she wouldn't live past the age of 12 but after 19 operations she has just landed her dream job at 45 years of age. Hope she doesn't mind me mentioning her age but anyhow she joins me now on the line hopefully. Adele are you there? Hello how are you? Yes I'm here. Very good Adele. Good to talk to you. Let's go back to when you were very young it was a tough time and what was your diagnosis? What was the problem? Well I was living in Count Donna at the time and I had a lump on my neck and had it investigated by the local GP and a small lump turned into me a little bit more than that and I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of eight in 1986. And along the way you've had 19 operations? Yeah the press release said major operations some of them were small some of them were large some major operations in there but all in all I've had quite a number of operations over my life and I've become quite used to the hospital environment. One of the operations was on your throat when you were very young and then after that you struggled to be understood you struggled to speak. Unfortunately the removal of the tumour back then affected my voice box so I have a very sexy tone now to my voice and back then I struggled to speak and my mum noticed that that was something that possibly I needed to get a little bit of help with and I started drama lessons because of that reason. Okay so the drama lessons helped? Yeah I started working with Mrs McCluskey and Derry and she was a renowned allocution teacher who had worked with many people over the years. I didn't know at the time but she was around 85 years old when I met her and she worked with me and brought me back to a position where I was speaking so that I could be heard projecting my voice using my voice and she did that through poetry and drama and reading and really getting me involved in loving poetry and drama and that's where it all started for me in terms of getting a real handle on the arts and yeah. Well doctors said that you wouldn't live past the age of 12 but over the years and beyond the age of 12 you went to Queens and you had a career as a drama teacher you also have worked for the Arts Council and ironically I suppose the Arts Council now would be the major funders of the University of Atypical. Explain what what the University is about. The University of Atypical used to be called the Arts and Disability Forum and it was set up as an organisation in 1993 it was set up to support artists and to have equitable standing alongside their counterparts who were not disabled people but to recognise disability in a positive light which is something that was very revolutionary and is still something that we strive for equity in terms of disability equity across the arts across general society but the arts are a great mobiliser for people in terms of understanding social issues and the two are very interlocked so equity for people with disabilities and equity for the artists are sometimes someone the same one and the same thing. So yeah so what the University does is it offers supports and campaigns for disabled artists. Yeah we have a lobbying remit to support artists and campaign for change at the highest levels in Northern Ireland but we also support people practically so we give grants out to artists who are deaf disabled or neurodivergent and to support their creative practice. We've have the most wonderful art gallery professional art gallery called the Atypical Gallery and that is on the main street in Royal Avenue in Belfast near enough the old Belfast Telegraph building if you might know that and the library that beautiful library building and we have the Bounce Arts Festival and both of those are main cornerstones of what we do to promote artists who are deaf disabled and neurodivergent so our gallery hosts up to eight exhibitions a year by a professional artist who also identifies as deaf disabled or neurodivergent and that's wonderful there isn't anything like it on these islands and the Bounce Arts Festival was started by Chris Ledger 11 years ago we're going into our 12th year with Bounce in 2024 and the Bounce Arts Festival is the only disabled led arts festival that promotes deaf disabled and neurodivergent artists on as the main thing and so it started off as a very small thing in 1993 associated with the cultural Olympiad in Northern Ireland which was an agree from there and we attract artists now from all over the UK and the Republic of Ireland to the Bounce Arts Festival I'd love to see somebody from Dury Gogh going and getting involved with our 2024 festival please do get in touch with me if you're an artist who wants to perform or showcase your work with us we'll see what we can do okay well there the words out now and you've been involved along the way in some of the programs that you've just referenced there but it sounds to me like your your life and your career has been sort of almost leading to this point it has I have dipped my toe in the water of being an actor and a writer and I have taught drama to children and we shout out to Karamena and County Donegal that gave me my first opportunity to work as a teacher with 30 young people in Karamena and County Donegal you know who you are so thank you for that um but I went on taking that as a stepping stone into working with other people in Belfast working with the Simon community through the arts working with children in care through the arts and ultimately working with disabled and deaf and neurodivergent people through the arts and the arts are so much more than an entertainment while they're a very important source of entertainment and something I particularly enjoy in my social life they're so much more than that um and they highlight and invigorate people in all areas of their life and invite people to take part if they can get involved yeah absolutely it's very important when it comes to inclusivity and and the university by the sound of things playing a huge role across northern Ireland and if somebody wants to check it out just remind or remind them about the name against University of atypical and you said there that for the bounce festival in particular that you'd like if possible to have um somebody involved from Donegal so how should they where can they get in more information or how would they reach out to you my email address is edel edel at universityofatypical.org and you will find information on facebook and twitter and all the other platforms um but uh yeah I feel very much that there's some growth to do with the organization and that growth I consider to be a little bit cross-border to engage people from Donegal from other border counties um and I'd love to see the festival have more representation from um cross-border as well okay well um um hopefully it will and um and hopefully it will you know thanks to your efforts but listen that aside the best of luck congratulations on on your appointment and the best of luck in the rollerdale thanks for having a week out with you very much all the best cheerio