A Co Fermanagh musician is one of the many throughout Northern Ireland sharing his joy at the Executive's announcement on the return of live music this month.
It was announced on Thursday that live music had been given the green light to resume as of July 5.
The move is significant for countless people in the Northern Ireland live events industry, whose careers and livelihoods have been put on hold since March 2020.
When the news was announced, dozens of venues, festival organisers and musicians themselves began to plan for the return of their live shows.
Among them was Fermanagh singer Ciaran Carson. A noted performer, he had desperately missed live music since its ban last year.
"Thursday's announcement actually came as a surprise," he said, "I honestly thought it'd be delayed until later. With the uncertainty of the last few months, I didn't think we'd see it coming.
"But I was honestly just delighted. I was ringing other musician friends we were all just quite emotional about it. We all have families, many have mortgages to pay off, so it's not been the easiest 16 months. Whenever you go back to March 2020, how we were cut off from doing something full time like that, it was all slightly surreal."
Ciaran said that he's looking forward to venue owners and all those who work in the music industry getting back to having their jobs again.
He said: "Whenever you work at something all your life, it's so hard to just be cut off like that. And it's no one's fault, we all knew what was happening, and what we had to do it. But that doesn't make it any easier. I had to take two jobs on, on top of everything else, to keep everything going, I know others who had to do similar."
Despite the challenges, Ciaran is excited to get back to gigging and is hopeful of a busy summer.
"Basically from yesterday evening at 5pm, my phone hasn't stopped ringing," he said.
"I'm delighted obviously. There's a small issue about this 'ambience rule', what decibel you have to have the live music at indoors. With a live guitar I'd probably be fine, but with a live band - we still don't know where we stand with that. So there's still a bit of confusion which needs to be ironed out, but from next weekends onwards, all being well, I'll be back at it and looking ahead to a good summer of gigs."
For those who want to see Ciaran in action, he's a regular performer at the Lough Erne Golf Resort and the Crowe's Nest in Enniskillen.
