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An interview with Feargal O’Kane from BT48 : Work, Life and The beauty of open source software

Published: May 3, 2017

Long-time Blick residents BT48 have been working on lots of exciting projects over the last few years. We caught up with BT48‘s Feargal O’Kane at our Malone Road studios to find out more about their company and some of the exciting new things they are working on. Here’s the interview!

  • Tell us a bit about yourself!

My name is Feargal O’Kane. I’m a director of BT48. I do a bit of everything within the company – development and project management.  There’s 3 of us, we’re distributed in 3 separate offices throughout Northern Ireland – we don’t really spend much time together! We’re split between Derry-LD and Belfast. The BT48 is because of Derry-LD!  Being from Derry-LD it’s sometimes hard to say where you’re from so BT48 works well.  It was actually one of our other directors – James – who came up with the name and has been BT48 for years – and we gradually took on the name on as we started working together on small projects about 10 years ago and became a co-operative and then a company (which we have been for around 6 years now).

  • What are some of the current projects you are working on?

Linen Hall Library

We’re actually working on a really interesting project with Linen Hall Library called “Divided Society.” Essentially, it is an archive project. They’ve got the Northern Ireland political collection which is an archive collection from the mid-60s until now. Pretty much anything that’s happened in Northern Ireland – they’ve got it.  They got funding from the heritage lottery fund to digitise and archive everything from 90-98 about the Peace process. It is an amazing project – about a quarter of a million archive documents are going to be scanned, recorded and put into a system for retrieval. It’s really very exciting.  We’ve been involved in the infrastructure, branding, the technical build – just the whole way through it – which has just been great and really really exciting.

Department of Finance

We’ve just finished a project with the Department of Finance here on digital transformation services looking at changing how government interacts with citizens. That was a focus project and we were brought on for delivery which was interesting.

Queen’s University

I am working on a project for library services – another archival project where we are looking at building a better system to allow researchers to find content.

Other projects

Kevin in Derry-LD is building a Windows 10 app for a museum up in Portaferry to enhance their virtual tour. James is also working on a couple of other local design projects.

  • What areas of design and development have you worked on?

This year we have been much more focused on web stuff – it’s just happened, it’s just what’s come through in terms of tenders. Last year we were doing 3D modelling – we were creating interactive touch screens for Ulster Museum and for the National Museum in Ireland we were also creating interactives. We also worked with school children in Bangor Grammar and North Down Museum.  We applied for a tender to create a touch-screen application but they wanted the children and the young people to get involved because it was a history project and was going to tie in with ICT and history and across the curriculum.  There was a broad mention that there might be a game and we thought it would be a very simple game. So we went in and they wanted Call of Duty – essentially! – on a boat, which we said we couldn’t do, but then we looked at it and they were so enthusiastic and wanted this so much that we ended up building a 3D first-person game where they got input into the graphics, the look and feel and the sound effects. We built up a lot of skills on that! There’s lots of things in the works – we’ve tenders out for projects including ones for UN Development.

  • Why is open source software so important to you?

For me – my background is I’m a lawyer – my entire focus was to do intellectual property law. I spent a year in France. I studied EU property law and patent law and I was going down a totally different route. I came back from France and did a Masters at Queen’s University in Computers at the School of Law. The guy who took it was like nobody else in the School of Law – this was back in 2001.  We had to use this weird system where there was no mouse and you had to type everything in and I was a lawyer and knew nothing about it! It was Linux and it was an open source operating system.  He really taught the course from the basis of if you don’t understand the tools you’re using, then you can’t adapt them and you can’t adapt the law and you’re totally caught into the license terms and software terms and it totally clicked for me that open source was the right way to do software and there as potential to do good and change and that code had the potential to change things.  So I started working for non-profits and they had no money and of course, open source was free.  I initially intellectually went to it and then realistically went to it and then realised we could actually build a business on it.  It was a struggle at the start – I have to say! – there were a lot of companies when we first started that wouldn’t go with us because they thought we would steal their code because we used free or open source software, but it’s really changed so much. There’s only been one tender over last year that they said they wouldn’t use open source.  ‘Cos there are only 3 of us, we partner up with a lot of companies – all over the world actually – and they are using open source as are we so we know we can use what each other is doing which makes it much easier.

We’re very lucky that we picked Drupal as a technology back nearly 10 years ago and that it has been adopted by the European Commission and the UK Government as their de facto standard platform and that there’s not many people that do it or specialise in it. That’s why we got called in to the Department of Finance project and that’s why we get called into a lot of European Commission stuff – so we are very fortunate!

  • What are some of your inspirations in work and life?

A big thing has been stepping away from work. I do a lot of running and keep time away from work. I have 2 children and they are 2 and 4.  If my wife hadn’t pushed me to do this, I wouldn’t be doing this.  I gave up a pretty secure well paid job to maybe build stuff with software that we don’t own and now I go to conferences and tell everybody how we do things and for free and my wife still can’t get her head around how this works but is still supportive! I couldn’t have done it without her support.

The other thing is, when we started our company, we all had full time jobs and this (BT48) was our part time job and whenever we went into it there were 3 of us going into it – so we weren’t on our own. I did freelancing before and it was really stressful because if you went on holiday, there was no one there to pick the work up.  Now, we play off each other’s schedules and have complimentary skills. We’re very lucky.

  • Find out more and get in touch:

bt48.com

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Loving these summer evenings in our South Belfast Studios 🌞 ☀️ 🌤

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Loving these summer evenings in our South Belfast Studios 🌞 ☀️ 🌤

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- - AVAILABLE WORKSPACE - BLICK SHARED STUDIOS, SOUTH BELFAST - -

We have one dedicated deskspace in our shared creative coworking space available:

– South Belfast location just off the Lisburn Road with lots of shops, coffee shops and bars within walking distance

– £150 per dedicated desk with allocated storage all inclusive (rent, rates, utilities, broadband) no VAT

– 24 hour access

– Breakout area

– Minimum 3 months contract then on a rolling monthly contract

– 1 months rent required as a deposit

Email christine@blickstudios.org for more info or to arrange a viewing or visit our website for more info (Link below and in profile)
https://blickstudios.org/locations/great-northern-street/

Jul 21

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- - AVAILABLE WORKSPACE - BLICK SHARED STUDIOS, SOUTH BELFAST - -

We have one dedicated deskspace in our shared creative coworking space available:

– South Belfast location just off the Lisburn Road with lots of shops, coffee shops and bars within walking distance

– £150 per dedicated desk with allocated storage all inclusive (rent, rates, utilities, broadband) no VAT

– 24 hour access

– Breakout area

– Minimum 3 months contract then on a rolling monthly contract

– 1 months rent required as a deposit

Email christine@blickstudios.org for more info or to arrange a viewing or visit our website for more info (Link below and in profile)
https://blickstudios.org/locations/great-northern-street/

Our latest roundup of local and international funding, support & opportunities for NI creatives

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Applications are now open for the Cathedral Quarter Art Market – a new Sunday market celebrating handmade and independently designed work, set in the heart of Belfast’s most creative district.
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• Sligo (ROI)
• Derry/Londonderry (NI)
Delivery Period: September 2025 – September 2026
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A quotation and proposal
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Date: 20th July
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Full listings including links on our website: https://blickstudios.org/blog/12766/

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Open post by blickstudios with ID 18100113277582049
Our latest roundup of local and international funding, support & opportunities for NI creatives 

 01. Cathedral Quarter Art Market 

Applications are now open for the Cathedral Quarter Art Market – a new Sunday market celebrating handmade and independently designed work, set in the heart of Belfast’s most creative district.
Event Details:
Location: Hill Street, Cathedral Quarter, Belfast
Time: 10am – 3pm
Pitch Fee: £60 (includes your gazebo and trading licence)
Dates: Every Sunday from 27 July – 28 September
Spaces: Strictly limited to 24 traders per week 

 
02. Tools for Togetherness – Tender Opportunity 

Tools for Togetherness seeks to commission a series of pilot projects based around the concept of an ‘Artist-led Library of interventions; as shared Citizen Resource’. They are excited to empower creatives to create thoughtful interventions which align with fostering community togetherness in public spaces. 
Closing date: Friday 22 August 2025 at 12 noon 

 
03. Hawk’s Well Theatre Artist in Residence 2025 

Project Lighthouse is a 12-month cross-border, cross-community peacebuilding project. You’ll work with young adults (aged 18–25) to co-create a powerful performance and legacy work in two border locations:
• Sligo (ROI)
• Derry/Londonderry (NI)
Delivery Period: September 2025 – September 2026
What to Submit:
A quotation and proposal
A budget breakdown (quotes considered, max €20,000 + VAT)
Contact: director@hawkswell.ie
Deadline: August 1st 2025, 5pm 

 
04. Northern Ireland Screen – Camera Trainee (CINE Programme)  

Location: Various production locations across Northern Ireland
Salary: £12.60 per hour (Real Living Wage)
Contract: Fixed-term training placements (non-continuous)
Hours: 40–60 hours per week, depending on production schedule
Closing Date: Friday 25th July 2025 at 1pm 

 
05. Bring Your Own Art Art Show 

This weekend in the Black Box Belfast and there’s still time to register and submit your work
Date: 20th July
Location: Black Box Belfast 

Full listings including links on our website: https://blickstudios.org/blog/12766/

To celebrate the end of our Nurture Creative Incubation programme and its participants we have put together a small exhibition of the interviews they did for us and some examples of their work in our Great Northern Street studios!

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To celebrate the end of our Nurture Creative Incubation programme and its participants we have put together a small exhibition of the interviews they did for us and some examples of their work in our Great Northern Street studios!

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Jul 9

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As we enter this quieter holiday period, today we are looking back to May, a fantastic busy month for us at Blick that included a creative talk with artist and illustrator Danni Simpson, conversations and catchups around Belfast Design Week. 2 fun-filled bank holidays and the end of our Nurture Programme and its final activities which included a fieldtrip visit to Maven and Bag of Bees design studio on the Lisburn Road, as well as a celebratory lunch (we forgot to take pics) and an exhibition and creative talks to celebrate the programme and its participants!

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Working from our lovely Great Northern Street Studios breakout space this evening on some plans for the rest of 2025. Lots of exciting things to come after the summer!

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The end of programme talks and exhibition

Our group weekly peer mentoring sessions

Our group fieldtrip to Maven

Interviews with the participants Bethany Millican @bethanysmillican , Vera Hylands @verahylands and Grainne Mullan @point_angel_

A pic of us all together at the end of the programme!

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Looking back to some of my favourite bits from our Nurture Creative Incubation Programme which ran from October last year to the end of May. Including:

The end of programme talks and exhibition

Our group weekly peer mentoring sessions

Our group fieldtrip to Maven

Interviews with the participants Bethany Millican @bethanysmillican , Vera Hylands @verahylands  and Grainne Mullan @point_angel_

A pic of us all together at the end of the programme!

I had such a great time working with all the participants at our weekly peer mentoring and monthly one-on-one sessions and at the monthly workshops with different creatives (such a good time I mostly forgot to get pics) and look forward to keeping in touch and seeing how they progress!

Evening light ✨️

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Full listings including links on the blog on our website (link in profile)

Jul 1

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Our latest roundup of local and international funding, support & opportunities for NI creatives

01. £550,000 in funding available to support 5G-driven innovation in local industries

Organisations can apply for grants of between £50,000 and £100,000 for projects that make innovative use of 5G and other types of advanced wireless connectivity to deliver economic, social, and environmental impacts.

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Deadline: 15:00 on Friday, 25 July 2025.

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Four awards of up to £15,000 each are being offered in 2025/26.
Deadline: Friday 11th July, 2025, 12:00PM

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Our next Blick 'Meet the Team' video all about how the Blick team sisters Christine and Rosy find working together!

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In our latest 'Meet the Resident Interview' we get to know Sarah Baecher @art_by_sarebear an artist from the U.S. and one of our latest residents in our Cotton Court studios!

You can read her full interview on our website link below and in profile: https://blickstudios.org/blog/12724/

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Participants who complete the course will also be eligible to apply for the Future Foundation Technical Mentorship Programme. This opportunity pairs artists with XR experts to develop and test a creative concept. The programme includes:
- Access to XR equipment and facilities
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Deadline: 27th June

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Full listings including links on the blog on our website (link below and in profile) https://blickstudios.org/blog/12721/

Jun 24

Open post by blickstudios with ID 18051679085381566
Our latest roundup of local and international funding, support & opportunities for NI creatives

01. FutureStage XR: XR Training for the Performing Arts
What participants will gain:
- A clear understanding of XR technology and its creative possibilities
- Foundational skills in Unity for XR development
- Insight into crafting compelling stories in immersive media
- A practical roadmap for applying XR to new or existing projects

Participants who complete the course will also be eligible to apply for the Future Foundation Technical Mentorship Programme. This opportunity pairs artists with XR experts to develop and test a creative concept. The programme includes:
- Access to XR equipment and facilities
- A training support grant of £1500
- A chance to showcase work in progress.
Further details about the technical mentorship programme will be announced later in the year.

Deadline: 1st August

02. Digital Art Studios Residencies
The DAS Home Residency provides four months for you to develop a project of your choice, expanding your skills and practice. Open to artists across Ireland and the UK, we welcome proposals from artists whose work employs digital technologies to challenge artistic boundaries and reimagine the cultural landscape.
Deadline: 27th July at midnight

03. August Craft Month 2025 exhibition, (Un)Bound, is now accepting applications
Craft NI are delighted to welcome applications to take part in the 2025 August Craft Month Exhibition! This exhibition will have a number of prizes aimed at supporting makers at different stages of their careers and will take place during August as part of the August Craft Month celebrations, held in the Craft NI Gallery,
Deadline: 27th June

04. Belfast City Council Business Growth Support – Go Succeed Grow: Creating Video Content on Your Smartphone
Date: 27th June
Time: 10 - 12.30pm
Venue: Innovation Factory

05. Magnetic 4 Artist Residencies
Magnetic is a joint Franco-UK initiative that brings together ten institutions to create a programme of artist residencies of 2 to 3 months each.

Full listings including links on the blog on our website (link below and in profile) https://blickstudios.org/blog/12721/

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been working with Queen`s and Ulster University on their DesignLink collaborative design sprint project to help us come up with some new ideas for relaunching @belfastdesignwk

For the project emerging designers Hollie and Deirdre came up with some great ideas for us that were showcased on Friday at Queen`s University.

We`re looking forward to seeing what we can do with these ideas next and seeing how we can implement them into @belfastdesignwk

Jun 23

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Over the last couple of weeks, we have been working with Queen's and Ulster University on their DesignLink collaborative design sprint project to help us come up with some new ideas for relaunching @belfastdesignwk

For the project emerging designers Hollie and Deirdre came up with some great ideas for us that were showcased on Friday at Queen's University. 

We're looking forward to seeing what we can do with these ideas next and seeing how we can implement them into @belfastdesignwk

Our second Blick `Meet the Team` video, all about where the idea for Blick came from!

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Our second Blick 'Meet the Team' video, all about where the idea for Blick came from!

Our latest roundup of local and international funding, support & opportunities for NI creatives

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The Ballaí Bana Gallery in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, Belfast seeks submissions from EMERGING ILLUSTRATORS for wall-based artwork for either solo or group exhibitions for our 2026 programme.
Successful artists will be paid a fee of £300 and there is a 20% gallery commission charged on sold artwork.
Deadline: 16th June

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Deadline: 20th June

03. Horizon Europe Pump Priming collaboration opportunities 2025

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Date: 19th June
Time: 9.30 - 2.30pm
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Full listings including links on our blog (link in profile)

Jun 13

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Our latest roundup of local and international funding, support & opportunities for NI creatives

01. Illustrators Exhibition Open Call

The Ballaí Bana Gallery in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, Belfast seeks submissions from EMERGING ILLUSTRATORS for wall-based artwork for either solo or group exhibitions for our 2026 programme.
Successful artists will be paid a fee of £300 and there is a 20% gallery commission charged on sold artwork.
Deadline: 16th June 

02. Future Makers

Established in 2009, Future Makers is one of the largest prize-funded award programmes in Europe, creating a platform to showcase talent, as well as providing much needed financial support. Divided into student and emerging practitioner categories, Future Makers supports this crucial time in the career path of young designers.
Deadline: 20th June

03. Horizon Europe Pump Priming collaboration opportunities 2025

Innovate UK and British Academy are pleased to announce funding schemes for Horizon Europe Pump Priming Grants, open to all disciplines. Successful applicants will have access to grant funding of up to £5,000
Deadline: 15th July 5pm

04. An Introduction to Business Planning workshop 
This insightful half day session will give you practical knowledge, tips and advice on what to put into your business plan and will also get you thinking about the bigger picture, including your strategic vision, mission and more!
Date: 19th June
Time: 9.30 - 2.30pm
Venue: University of Atypical 

05. Call Out for Creative Connections Cluster Facilitators – Creative Connections 2025/26

Are you a creative practitioner or educator with a love for creativity? The Creative Connections Shared Island Pilot Programme needs you to join their team

Full listings including links on our blog (link in profile)
Our locations:

Blick Shared Studios, Hill Street

46 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2LB
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Blick Shared Studios, Cotton Court

30-42 Waring Street, Belfast, BT1 2ED
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Blick Shared Studios, Great Northern St

65 Great Northern Street, Belfast, BT9 7FL
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info@blickstudios.org
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Blick Shared Studios is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland registration number NIC102158
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