The Thomas Devlin Fund
"A dark hatred stole the life of an ordinary boy with light in his heart"
Thomas Devlin was a normal 15 year old teenager who was murdered in an unprovoked attack about 200 metres from his home as he was on his way back from buying sweets with his friends on 10 August 2005. He and his friends were out on a balmy summer's evening enjoying the school summer holidays.
Thomas was about to go into his GCSE year at his school, Belfast Royal Academy and had a bright future ahead of him. He enjoyed playing computer games, listening to heavy metal music, playing the tenor horn, socialising with his pals. He had many friends from across the Northern Ireland community.
Thomas was, and his friends are, the future for Northern Ireland. It is vital that Thomas's generation have hope and confidence for their futures.
The family hope that this fund will ensure that public awareness about the effect and impact of violence on young people will be raised. The Trust Fund will commission a sculpture which will be a visual metaphor for the futility of violence as well as for the hopes, aspirations and ambitions of Thomas's friends and other young people of his generation. The Trust Fund will also engage in other activities specifically targeted at young people and focussed on the arts and music.
At Thomas's funeral service Father Emerson said "The worst possible thing that could happen is for those who believe in evil and violence to be allowed to terrorise the rest of us to become like them. Therefore I would ask all of you, especially the young people among us, to continue to focus on doing good things and showing that good will always overcome evil."
The Thomas Devlin Trust Fund will hopefully help young people to focus on the good things just as we know Thomas did. Despite the family's suffering of great pain and personal loss, his Mum and Dad, Penny and Jim, his sister Megan and his brother James, would all like Thomas's death to be a catalyst for young people to acknowledge and appreciate the futility of gratuitous violence against young people.
Find out more about the fund aims and objectives
You can make a donation to support the work of the fund online using your credit or debit card, in person at any bank, or by post.
Full details and a form to make your contribution benifit from gift aid are on our Donations Page.
Thank You
Fortwilliam Golf Club
THURSDAY 24TH MAY 2012
Contact Rickie Pro shop 0n 028 90770989 for booking Four Ball.
QUIZ
Landsdowne Court Hotel Belfast.
30th May 2012
doors open 8.0pm Quiz stars 9.0pm.
Calling all Marathon Walkers, Fun Run, Relay Teams and Marathon Runners to join in the 2012 Belfast City Marathon for the Thomas Devlin fund on the Monday Bank Holiday the 7th May. Contact Penny or Jim to in enrol.Tee Shirts Provided.
Belfast Flags Installation And Exhibition.
Belfast Flags of Hope - target of 10,000 ‘art flags’!
More than 12 months ago Belfast Flags ambitiously embarked on a project to create a massive community arts event. The goal of the Belfast Flags was to use art to create a grand total of 10,000 individually painted and colourful canvasses to be flown along the Belfast peace line!
Scores of community groups, schools and individuals young and old, from all sides of our society volunteered their creative talents. All the unique art ‘flags’ colourfully express thousands of hopes for a brighter future for all.
Artist and Project Organiser, Raymond Watson said, ‘At the most recent count there was a fantastic total of almost 10,000 colourful flags of hope and the number continues to rise. This is a fantastic and massive expression of good will and hope for the future.
Installation and exhibition.
The art works is installed and exhibited to the public along a stretch of the Belfast peace line from Saturday August 6th. Please visit Springfield Road, Lanark Way and Cupar Way to view the flags.
New World Record!
When exhibited together on a continuous line the flags create a beautiful flight of bunting that is more than 1 ½ miles long. This sets a new Guinness World Record for the longest line of bunting ever. The Belfast Flags is an official Guinness World Record project.
More Information
The project uses art on the blank canvass format of the flag. Thousands of people took the creative opportunity to visually express their hopes for a brighter future. Traditionally the flag has often been a symbol of division. This is a project that aims to reuse this traditional format in an inclusive way to express thousands of collective and cross community hopes for a brighter future for all.
Following discussion between the Thomas Devlin Fund and OMAC it has been agreed that the artwork in memory of Thomas will be part of the new museum and arts centre planned for the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast.
see News Section for details