The Muni was once a church, a place where people came  to gather, sing, rejoice and celebrate who they were. Now more than ever in its incarnation as an Arts Centre it fulfils that original brief.  A public arena where people can flex their creative muscles, listen, laugh and learn, and sing and dance and shout and play. Quite simply a place where people can find a collective voice and call themselves a community. Without such places, be they churches, village halls or theatres, a sense of community is undermined.

For fifty years as a writer and punter I have always gone to the Muni to dream a little. It’s Ponty’s Field of Dreams where a community discovers itself. Take that away and you have a dying community and an abandoned town.

We need places like the Muni to remind the world that ‘We’re Still Here!’ Still singing and celebrating who we are.

Laurence Allan