Two important youth-centred events take place in Cork within the next fortnight: first there is the Graffiti-led International Drama in Education Conference (April 3rd - 7th) which is the first of its kind to be held in Ireland and is based on the theme of "Texts and Transformations". Graffiti (which received £120,000 from the Arts Council) has worked with the National Association for Youth Drama to produce an intense programme based at UCC, with contributors from America, Canada, Britain, and Australia; the formal opening will be by The Minister for Education, Michael Martin, T.D. who might well be upstaged by novelist Patrick McCabe reading from The Butcher Boy.

Then, Boomerang Theatre Company introduces its European Exchange Theatre programme to Ireland on April 13th (at the Granary Theatre). This is a 10-day gathering of youth arts representatives from 14 counties. It is not theatre-in-education into theatre. The aim of Boomerang, and its allies from Germany and the Czech Republic, is to provide performance and production training and technical resources for young people applying for community arts schemes.