‘Māori are not entirely unlike the Irish in terms of sense of humour and ties to the land, family, song and culture’

Gerry Paul lives in Kerikeri, very close to the most northerly tip of New Zealand’s North Island. The small Northland community around him is predominantly Māori, and Paul describes the area around the Bay of Islands as “a tropical paradise, a bit like a Pacific island such as Fiji or Tonga”.

Paul moved to the far north from Wellington in 2021 and is general manager of the Turner Centre, a 400-seat theatre and performing arts venue with conference and exhibition space in the centre of Kerikeri.

He took on the job at a difficult time in the centre’s history as the venue was struggling both financially and artistically, having failed to attract a big and broad enough audience for its events. It might have put a lot of people off but as a musician with a background in project management within the arts and years of running large festivals under his belt, Paul saw turning things around as a challenge his breadth of experience fitted him well to take on.

“I’m known for my creativity and enthusiasm and for successfully delivering complex, multifaceted projects,” he says. “So, I’m good at juggling multiple stakeholders, getting the money needed to make things happen through fundraising and sponsorship and balancing artistic and commercial demands to achieve good outcomes. This experience has stood to me at the Turner Centre,” says Paul who spent his youth travelling the world playing Irish traditional music.

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Within a year, he had pushed through big changes at the centre, including setting up a new ownership structure that moved the centre from what he describes as an “unsustainable trust-owned model to a strategic asset owned and maintained by local government to ensure its long-term sustainability”.

He also engaged extensively with the local community, and this initiative subsequently “informed the curation of a relevant and reflective programme which has been very successful in attracting audiences that were not coming to and using the facilities before, including Māori, young people and the local primary and secondary schools,” says Paul.

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He was born in Ireland, but when he was six, his parents, who were finding life tough in the recession of the 1980s, decided to relocate to New Zealand, where his father is originally from.

At 18, Paul moved back to Ireland to pursue a career in traditional music before leaving again for New Zealand in 2013 for a change in lifestyle “as the music industry can be hard on the body and mind with late-night partying and burning the candle at both ends for many years”, he says.

“But by having to book international shows, manage tours and manage the band’s accounts, business plans, record deals, licensing and publishing, I learned the ins and outs of the music industry and this has led to roles as festival director, music programmer and most recently as the general manager of a theatre. The international connections and skills I developed while travelling as a musician have also greatly helped with these positions.”

Paul says that Ireland is similar to New Zealand in a lot of ways. “Both are small countries, have small degrees of separation and good business ingenuity and innovation.

“New Zealand feels a bit more formal in a work setting as people are a bit more PC and more reserved in the work environment,” he says. “The only people I have met that get away with outrageous and colourful language over here are the Irish and the Māori, maybe because it’s done with storytelling and great humour.”

There are reasons why musicians like Steve Early, Bruce Springsteen, the late John Prine and so many more, keep coming back to Ireland and hold it so dear

Paul lives in Kerikeri with his wife, Josie, and their young daughter, Odelia, who is fast becoming proficient in Māori and quick to pull her dad up when he makes mistakes. One of the things Paul loves most about where he lives is the easy access to the sea as his dual passions are free diving and spearfishing. “This is my happy place where you become one with the ocean,” he says.

“The scenery in New Zealand is spectacular and the lifestyle is very outdoors orientated, but there is also an active arts and culture scene.

“I am still involved with four different bands (two in Ireland and two in New Zealand) and still programme a few festivals outside of my day job in my spare time at nights.

“The main reason I moved from Wellington to Northland was because it’s slightly more relaxed. People are more up for the chat and want to know about your whakapapa [your family and where you come from] before getting down to business. The people here are not entirely unlike the Irish – 55 per cent of the population is Māori – and there are a lot of similarities in terms of sense of humour and ties to the land, family, song and culture.

“I absolutely love it here – the diving is especially awesome – but there are things I miss about Ireland like the people, the music and the pubs,” says Paul. “The storytelling you get on a daily basis in Ireland – especially working in the music industry – is second to none.

“There are reasons why musicians like Steve Early, Bruce Springsteen, the late John Prine and so many more, keep coming back to Ireland and hold it so dear. There are more characters around with jokes and good craic. I miss going into a bar and someone belting out a song and the whole bar going quiet.”