MY daughter Siobhan and her three children are in Honley this week. Her husband Ronan is in Hong Kong taking part in a dance and music production about political oppression.

The timing, it appears, couldn’t be more apposite in a region of seven million people that is, at the moment, in political turmoil.

Ronan and Siobhan met at Huddersfield University. He was studying music and she was studying media. When they married, they lived in Honley and he worked for 10 years for Kirklees Music School before moving to Donegal, where Ronan launched his own company teaching percussion.

He has performed with brass bands, worked with the Ulster Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic, and was percussion tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. He also plays in a blues band and is specialist at African and South American drumming. He has visited Senegal - now racked with Ebola - several times to attend drumming seminars and has helped raise thousands of pounds for children’s projects in what is one of the world’s poorest countries.

So how is he in Hong Kong in such a troubled time?

Ronan met Israeli choreographer Hofesh Schechter when Derry was UK City of Culture last year. Schechter staged his world famous modern dance production Political Mother with Ronan a prominent member of the percussion team.

“We got on straight away,” says Ronan. “He’s an amazing guy. Then I got a call out of the blue from him, inviting me to take part in the Hong Kong performances.”

When the concerts were first booked, there was no trouble in Hong Kong.

But students and pro-democracy supporters have been occupying central parts of the city for more than two weeks, demanding free elections for the next leader of the territory.

China has control over Hong Kong and says the elections will be free but it will vet which candidates can stand. Political Mother is a dance and music production about state oppression.

Ronan has mixed with the protesters, talking to them and taking photographs.

“The atmosphere is incredible,” he said.

A circular staircase wall leading to a pedestrian bridge near the Central Government Office has been dubbed the Lennon Wall after John Lennon and is filled with messages of freedom on post-it notes, alongside a picture of the Beatle with his quote: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”

Thousands in Hong Kong continue to dream and hope their peaceful protest will have results.

We hope Ronan gets home safely.