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Wasn’t
Féile an Phobail 2019 great? 11 days, covering over 300 events, which attracted
tens of thousands people. Amazing. Comhghairdeas to all of those who made it
happen. To everyone involved in planning, organising, or participating in this
year’s Féile. The best ever. Buiochas to Kevin and the entire Féile team. Well
done. As Emma Goldman said “A revolution
without dancing is not a revolution worth having.” She was right.
Dancing is
an essential part of Féile an Phobail. And singing. There were sold out
concerts in the Falls Park – Boyzone, Wolftones, and Dance night. Other seisúns
everywhere. The Michael Conlan Fight Night was televised live to millions of
people across the world on BT Sport and ESPN+. Phil Coulter packed out Clonard
Monastery. Féile comedy night was hugely successful. There were dramas, art
exhibitions,film, debates and discussions, lectures, the carnival parade,
sporting events, and the visual arts. And the Cribby World Championship.
There were
also an unequalled series of debates and discussions - over 75 in total -
making Féile an event to rival any of the summer schools that take place across
the island of Ireland. The main themes for the debates this year were Irish
Unity, including a referendum on Unity, the imperative of engaging with
unionism on this, building an all-Ireland health service, the made a keynote
contribution on the issue of the so-called British subvention. Breaking it down
and explaining that it is not as great as claimed and concluding that unity is
affordable.
On the
Monday night John McDonnell, the British Labour Shadow Chancellor, was warmly
welcomed as he gave the James Connolly lecture to a capacity crowd in St.
Mary’s University College. Brexit and a referendum on Irish Unity were the big
issues. McDonnell said that the constitutional future of Ireland was a matter
for the Irish people.
The
following night the leader’s debate saw representatives from all of the main
political parties participate, including An Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo
Varadkar TD, Mary Lou McDonald TD, Sinn Féin President, Naomi Long MEP,
Alliance leader, Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith, SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan, East
Derry MP Gregory Campbell for the DUP, UUP MLA Doug Beattie.
This year
the Féile organisers ensured that most of the debates and discussions were live
streamed as they happened on the internet. Some were later put up on youtube. I
have friends in the USA and Australia who watched the leader’s debate.
When we
started we had a battle a day to get the tourism agencies interested in Féile
and West Belfast. This year a major global Tourism Conference was held for the
first time, hosted by Fáilte Feirste Thiar. It brought together tourism experts
from New Orleans, Barcelona and many other places. World tourism expert Dr Terry
Stephens was involved in organising the event.
The
diversity of events was staggering. Discussions included – Stop Female Genital
Mutilation: Belfast women and the vote, war and socialism (held in the Shankill
Library): Who says that Protestants can’t be socialists (in Áras Uí
Chonghaile): Collusion: The End Game with Professor Mark McGovern: The
Conversation about Irish Unity with Professor Colin Harvey. Sean Murray’s
expose of the Glenanne Gang – Unquiet Graves – was shown, as was the
Ballymurphy Precedent. A play by Patricia Downey tells of the grief and trauma
of Gina Murray, whose 13 year old daughter Leanna was killed in the Shankill
Road bomb in 1993. The play received a standing ovation from the audience.
This is
the other part of the Féile story. Féile an Phobail was born out of the
devastation of war. West Belfast was a different place in 1988 when the first
Féile took place. It was a community under military occupation. Thousands of
heavily armed British troops patrolled our streets stopping and searching
citizens. Those stopped were often abused. Homes were frequently raided and
wrecked. There were menacing British military and RUC barracks scattered across
west Belfast monitoring and controlling population movement. State collusion
with unionist death squads, including their rearming with South African sourced
weapons, saw hundreds killed across the North at that time and over the
following years. Shoot-to-kill was government policy and part of the plethora
of repressive laws used by the British state.
1988 saw
the introduction by the Thatcher government of official political censorship
and the extension of political vetting of community groups, including the
denial of funding to crèches and other community groups. Discrimination in
employment and housing, and unionist efforts to control local councils and
exclude Sinn Féin representatives, were part of everyday life.
The
catalyst for Féile was the killing in Gibraltar of three young people from this
area in March 1988 – IRA Volunteers Mairead Farrell, Seán Savage and Dan
McCann. In the two weeks following the Gibraltar killings a further nine people
died - another four from this constituency. It was a tragic, depressingly sad
time for the victims and their families but also for the citizens of west
Belfast. They were demonised. Seamus Mallon, the then Deputy leader of the
SDLP, said that the people of this area ‘have turned into
savages’. Others said we were ‘animals’.
A lesser
people could not have survived the years of insults, lies and invective. But we
knew that wasn’t a true reflection of our people. We knew that the people of
west Belfast were proud and courageous and resilient. We knew that despite
almost 20 years of war the community of west Belfast was still standing strong
against injustice and inequality.
A small
group of us got together and out of our conversations grew a community festival
– a peoples’ festival – Féile an Phobail. It was to be our alternative to the
bonfires and the riots that usually marked the August internment anniversary.
It was our way of demonstrating to the world that the people of west Belfast
are a generous, humorous, talented, gifted and inclusive community. It was to
be positive, upbeat reflection of everything that is positive, and loving and
hopeful. That first festival was, by the scale of recent years, very modest but
it was also a huge success. This 8 August, there were no bonfires in west
Belfast. Apart from one anti-community bonfire in the New Lodge, almost 12,000
young people participated in a dance night in west Belfast.
Now the
Féile is Ireland’s foremost community festival. Despite all the begrudgers and
the naysayers Féile an Phobail has gone from strength to strength. Our culture
of resistance built over many decades has transitioned into a culture of
change. Of reconquest. Of dancing and singing.
So, well
done to everyone who over the last 31 years has played any part in this
inspirational story of resistance and change. Maya Angelou’s words speak to all
of you.
“Leaving behind nights of terror and
fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wonderously
clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors
gave,
I am the dream and hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
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