Multitalented Northerner unlimited by borders
PAMELA HUNTER Brown, who has died aged 46, suddenly while on holiday in Kerry, lived a full and varied life and will be remembered for her generosity of spirit, extraordinary gift for friendship and often surreal sense of humour.
Her parents are Noreen and Brian Hunter of Limavady, Co Derry. Her father and two brothers, David and Sean, run the family bakery there, which has been in existence since 1920. Her sister, Julie, runs the family gift shop. Her stepfather, Brian Brown, is a local solicitor and former Independent councillor for Limavady.
Pamela was born in Limavady in 1963 and attended the Central Primary School and Limavady Grammar. In the early 1980s, she attended the College for Distributive Trades in London and the College of Marketing and Design in Dublin. Alongside Susan Moylett, she opened a lingerie shop, Susan Hunter, in Dublin in 1984, which Susan still runs today.
Pamela went back to live in London in the summer of 1986 and became general manager of the art department of Island Records, where her close friend, Regine Moylett, was also working as a press officer. Pamela left Island in 1990 to become head of video and art for Virgin Records, where she commissioned videos for pop artists such as Neneh Cherry and Mica Paris.
In 1994, Pamela returned to Limavady following a serious illness, and, during her long recuperation there, she met John Brown, a local poet, teacher and then literature officer for the Northern Irish Arts' Council.
Pamela and John moved to Belfast in 1996. They were married in the Guild Hall in Derry in September 2001 after Pamela had suddenly proposed to him while he was in the bath the previous Valentine's Day.
The wedding invitation asked, Have you seen the sea lately? and the ensuing celebrations at the Hunters' holiday house in Portnablagh, Donegal, lasted several days. That same house was an regular meeting place for Pamela's overlapping circles of friends from Belfast, Derry, Donegal, Dublin, London and beyond, a place of music, dancing, drinking, poetry - usually John's - and great food.
In 2003, Pamela became one of the creative directors of Imagine Belfast, the organisation that ran the city's failed bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2008. She produced and co-directed a memorable short film, One Belfast, an impressionistic montage of all the city's street names.
Shona McCarthy, one of the other creative directors, remembers her as "someone who saw the world differently and convinced you to do the same". Once, during a moment of high drama in the Imagine Belfast office when people were racking their brains to find a new post-Troubles perspective on Belfast, Pamela managed to convinced the entire staff to lie on their backs on the floor. When someone asked her to what end, she replied. "We're getting a new perspective."
In 2003, Pamela and John opened a bookshop, Books Upstairs, in Limavady. It was not an ordinary bookshop, but a meeting place for like-minded souls that also doubled as an art gallery exhibiting the work of local painters, well-known Irish artists such as Clare Carpenter, Martin Wedge and Rita Duffy and artists from all over Europe. Pamela ran a very active book club in the shop for women from the northwest, and the couple hosted poetry and fiction readings as well as children's literary events.
(Books Upstairs will host a memorial group art show for Pamela, entitled The Sea, from September 19th.)
Pamela continued to work closely with various community initiatives in Northern Ireland, including the Nerve Centre in Derry and the children's dance group Kids in Control, under an umbrella project entitled What's the Big Idea?, which was funded by the Paul Hamlyn trust. She also produced a DVD and oversaw the production of a book devoted to the project.
Last year, she helped set up an archive of Northern Irish music for the newly opened Oh Yeah centre in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter. For the last few years, she also worked for Swann Productions as a casting agent, caterer and co-producer on advertising shoots for the likes of Tourism Ireland, Marie Clairemagazine and the Boden clothes' company. The clothing and houseware company Toast enjoyed her catering so much they commissioned a cookbook from her that will be on sale soon.
Pamela Hunter Brown will be missed most of all for her ability to light up a room with her laughter and for her unbridled and infectious optimism. Born and bred in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, she recognised no borders, real or imagined, and walked to her own beautifully out-of-time drumbeat.
As she lay on a life support machine in Tralee, Bono dedicated to her U2's performance of MLKat the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Her presence was, and remains, far-reaching.
She is survived by her mother Noreen, her father Brian, her sister Julie, her brothers David and Sean, and her stepfather Brian Brown.
...
Pamela Hunter Brown: born April 4th, 1963; died August 23rd, 2009