February 2016

Ljubo Sirc CBE

BSS members are welcome to attend a Lecture in honour of Ljubo Sirc CBE

A Nonviolent Hero against Communism to be given by Dr Jože Dežman

 Keith Miles OBE in the Chair 

Wednesday, 2^nd March 2016 at 6.45 for 7.00 pm

House of Lords – Committee Room 4A

About the Speaker

Dr Jože Dežman, who has a BA in history and philosophy, is a member of the Board of the Gorenjski Museum in Kranj.   His fields of study are history, anthropology, and museology. He is researching the WWII, revolutionary terror, the civil war in Slovenia 1941-1945, consequences of a radical division of Slovenian society in Titoism, the processes of transitional justice, self-management, and the pilgrimage culture.  He has edited several anthologies, prepared more than 10 exhibitions, published several books and numerous articles. He was director of the Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia 2005-2010 and director of the country’s official Archive 2012-2013. Since 2005 he has led the the Slovene Government’s Commission for Concealed Mass Graves.

If you wish to attend, please contact Lisl at CRCE to receive an invitation.

Tel: 020 7352 0559. Email: crce@trident-net.co.uk

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Please bring your invitation with you, and allow at least 30 minutes to pass security at St Stephen’s Entrance. Just ask for directions to the Committee Room when you reach Central Lobby.

A spellbound audience at the annual British-Slovene Society Prešeren Evening heard Slovene poet, singer and song-writer Vlado Kreslin celebrate his country with a magnificent concert that raised the roof at the Hotel Russell in London.

By turns wistful, touching and passionate, influenced by the gypsy traditions of his Prekmurje home, he brought diners to their feet to join him in songs which for many were familiar favourites.

Kreslin sang of a Slovenia that stretches from Goričko in the east to Piran on the Adriatic coast in the west – “not long, not broad, but deep!” He composes his own songs, often invoking the Mura river. In one he asks with haunting humility:

Instead of whom a flower blooms?

Instead of whom am I?

Whose song needs my voice?

In response to this poetic tour de force, those attending the dinner contributed a generous £496 in a raffle for the Barka charity for people with special needs in Slovenia, which the Society supports.

HE Slovenian Ambassador Tadej Rupel with his wife Valentina

Ambassador Tadej Rupel welcomed the guests (the Slovenian Embassy kindly donated wine), and Chairman David Lloyd gave a brief talk on Preseren’s greatness. After Shirlie Roden performed Kam? (Whither?) in her own rendering, Kreslin sang O, Vrba, and members of the audience studying Slovene read English translations.  

Shirlie Roden and David Lloyd, Chairman of the British-Slovene Society

The evening before, Kreslin enchanted 120 diplomats invited by the Slovenian Embassy in London, likewise to mark Prešeren’s Day. What better ambassador for his country?

Photos by Ian Božič. For more pictures see Gallery.