Bobby Ballagh agus mise
Féile
on Phobail is celebrating its 30th birthday this year. In the three
decades since its establishment a lot has changed, not least the growth of the
Féile. It’s now the biggest community festival on these islands. One example of
that growth is the amazing number of visual art exhibitions. This year there are almost 50 exhibitions with
hundreds of images.
Last
Thursday evening renowned Irish artist Robert Ballagh, who has been a regular
contributor to Féile, came to St. Mary’s University College on the Falls Road
to formally open the exhibition. It was a marvellous evening.
I was
asked to say a few words of thanks to mark Bobby’s long association with Féile.
I was very happy to do so. It’s really important in the busyness of all of our
lives that we take time to thank people. And I’m especially talking about people,
who take a stand when they don’t necessarily need to. People who continue to
make a stand. People who have remained faithful.
Robert
Ballagh is one of the great stalwarts of progressive politics and the struggle
for peace in Ireland and internationally. When we founded Féile it was to
celebrate and to showcase the creativity of this community, of the people of
west Belfast.
It
was also to provide a platform for others from outside of west Belfast to join
us, to use their creative genius in solidarity with us, to uplift us and to
encourage us. And they came. Musicians, writers, poets, actors, actresses,
playwrights, film makers, camogs, hurlers, dancers, chancers, fly men and wise
women.
They
all came and Robert Ballagh was there also. He is one of our island’s greatest
visual artists. He’s passionate about his work but he’s also very passionate in
the help and support he gives to others. He was there with the Birmingham 6 and
the Guildford 4, with the families of Bloody Sunday, with the victims of the
Dublin Monaghan bombings, with Pat Finucane’s family, with the people of
Palestine, with the anti-apartheid movement. He is there with all of the other
little causes when somebody says ‘will
you go and get Bobby to do a print, will you get Bobby to do a painting, will
you get Bobby to do something’ and Bobby Ballagh has always delivered.
He
established with others the Ireland Institute for Historical and Cultural Studies on Pearse Street in Dublin. It
is the birthplace of Padraig MacPiaris. The historical significance of the
building was being ignored by Irish governments and it needed citizens to
develop it. There would be nothing to mark where Pearse was born but for their
efforts. The same thing happened with Kilmainham Prison which successive
governments failed to protect properly or to develop its potential.
Robert
was the chair of the Irish National Congress which campaigned for unity and for
justice. He has designed over 70 stamps for An Post. So most of us will have
had some of his work in our hands at some time in our lives. He designed the
last batch of punt bank notes which featured James Joyce, Daniel O’Connell,
Douglas Hyde and Charles Stewart Parnell. And he also created and designed the
set for Riverdance. Robert has also been responsible for the sets of many Sinn
Féin Ard Fheiseanna.
Apart
from exhibiting his own work at Féile he helped some of our fledgling school of
mural painters back in the day. In 1988 Bobby came to west Belfast to judge our
murals. It was our first Féile and there was a group of young mural artists, who
were being helped by Danny Devenny, Marty and Mo Chara. We asked them what they wanted to paint for
Bobby to judge and they chose to paint a mural of Nelson Mandela. It was Madiba’s
70th birthday and 25th year in prison. Under the banner ‘Father of
Freedom; the future belongs to you,’ they painted ‘Happy
Birthday Comrade’ on a gable
house at the corner of Leeson Street and the Falls Road.
Bobby
has been back here year after year after year.
Two
years ago we had a very big celebration to mark the centenary of the 1916
Easter Rising. But it isn’t that long since Irish governments didn’t
commemorate 1916. In fact, not only did they not celebrate 1916 but they banned
others from commemorating it.
In
one famous instance in 1976 Nora Connolly O’Brien, the daughter of James
Connolly, was arrested for taking part in a commemoration outside the GPO.
In 1991 Bobby and a group of concerned citizens - aware
that the Irish government was determined to ignore the 75 anniversary of the
Easter Rising - organised a ‘Reclaim the
Spirit of Easter’ commemoration. It was a brave step to take.
That
was a great initiative and it wouldn’t have happened without Robert Ballagh and
without the creative and colourful way in which those men and women were
celebrated. I was there. It was a great day of music and craic
and drama.
Two years ago Sinn Féin organised our own programme
of events as part of the ‘Reclaim the Vision of Easter 1916’. We worked closely
with Bobby as he, and his broad alliance of activists, organised a series of
events, including a national march which took place on the date of the Rising,
April 24th 1916.
So, on this the 30th anniversary of
the Féile an Phobail I am delighted to say thank you to my
friend Mr. Ballagh for all of that activism. Thank you especially for your art.
Art, culture, the work of the imagination, should be applauded for its own
sake. Because it moves us. It makes us think. It makes us marvel. It gives us
pleasure. It can empower us. It takes us out of our of ourselves. That’s
whether we are the artist or we are the person enjoying the piece of art.
And
all of that is very, very important. It seems to me that the imagination is
probably what the soul is – it is the essence of our spirit. To live in our
imagination and to move people by the use of our imagination, by artistic
expression is a very fine and joyous experience.
But art
that stands up for itself, that highlights injustice, as well as being art of
the highest quality, it what Robert Ballagh does and by so doing he leads the
way for others who don’t.
And
Bobby Sands had a word for them.
‘The men of art have sold their heart
They dream within their dream
Their magic soul for price of gold
Amidst a peoples screams’
Robert
Ballagh never sold his magic for the price of gold. He used it to empower and enrich
us all. Long may you keep doing so. Míle buiochas Bobby.
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