The Fountain, a once vibrant community, is the last protestant enclave on the west bank of the city of Londonderry.

Once host to a population of 15,000 people only 318 people continue to live in this highly symbolic space folowing one of the greatest population migrations in the recent demography of Northern Ireland.

However sisters Kathleen Mc Kane and May Hamilton are not dispirited. They continue to live each day with the infectious joy that has marked the whole of their long lives.

Famed over decades for their love of dancing they are especially consumed by their passion for the tango and focus their days on every opportunity to tread the dance floor. All who meet them are uplifted by their sweet sense of humour and unstoppable ability to take the best out of life. Local historian William Temple is devoted
to his beloved birthplace and highly conscious of its significance in the cultural and political landscape of Northern Ireland.

Concerned by the rapid decline of an ageing community he is determined to do all he can to maintain the survival of this important historical place. Former resident of the Fountain, musician

Roy Arbuckle, decides to take matters in hand with a two-fold mission to highlight the threatened disappearance of an ancient
community by celebrating its heyday in song and dance.

His mission to create a CD of songs with local schoolchildren is less daunting than his challenge to reform The Signetts, once the
resident band in the Memorial Hall in Londonderry.

Forty years after going their separate ways can five disparate musicians work together in harmony to create a ‘big dance’ reunion event that will attract formerly divided communities to dance the night away together?

Derry-based production company Besom Productions followed the main characters Kathleen McKane and May Hamilton, William
Temple, Roy Arbuckle and the Signetts showband in their quest to create a climatic celebration of the Fountain community as part of the Maiden City Festival in August 2008.

Alessandro Negrini, director of Paradiso, said: “I am an Italian who has been living in Derry for many years. One day I got lost and ended up in The Fountain by mistake. I was astonished to discover this beautiful, small community hidden away in the centre of the city. From that moment it became a mission for me to make a film about the gems of human experience that lie waiting to be discovered behind a fence constructed in a time of fear.”

Paradiso is on Monday, January 19 on BBC
One Northern Ireland at 10.35pm.