Tonight will be the closing concert for Féile An Phobail and tomorrow no doubt the Twittersphere and polemical radio shows will be ablaze with furious indignation. It’s incredible to think that Féile An Phobail is thirty-five years old this year and how far it has come in those thirty-five years. I was born in the lower Falls in 1967 and in 1970 moved to a house in one of the housing estates clustered around the top of the Whiterock Road, …
Mike Nesbitt’s contributions to a Reimagining Unionism event I filmed at this summer’s Féile an Phobail – along with remarks by fellow panellists Dawn Purvis, Senator Ian Marshall and Sophie Long – are worth considering in light of the decisions around UUP strategy that need to be taken in the changing political battlefield.
Three years ago, the same hall was venue to a conversation between the then deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and the PSNI Chief Constable, again chaired by Brian Rowan. That night, the atmosphere was electric. This afternoon, the conversation seemed less extraordinary, certainly less unexpected. Unfortunately, the political stalemate has become as normal yet unacceptable as the stretched patience of victims and survivors who seek truth and information about incidents during the Troubles.
There was a time, not very long ago when the only reason people from unionist areas would have gone to West Belfast would have been to pick up their car after it had been stolen and abandoned. These days West Belfast is a far less frightening place which welcomes visitors, particularly those who would have formerly shunned it. Féile an Phobail has played an enormous part in changing the reputation of that part of the city and opening it up …
DUP ABSENCE changed the tone of the debate at the annual West Belfast Talks Back community hustings. Listen back to the evening which discussed world peace, Brexit, amnesties, free speech and Kevin Myers, a Sign Language Act and victims.
TALK, TRUTH & TRUST … the three Ts of peace processes says Rev Harold Good who was in conversation with journalist Brian Rowan this afternoon. As well as adding Time as a fourth, he agrees with Rowan that Tea or Tetley might also be required. Listen back to the 105 minute conversation.
RHI & THE MEDIA – Listen back to a refresher of the issues and key moments in the reporting ahead of the public hearings beginning in the autumn. Sam McBride and Allison Morris reflected on the media’s handling of RHI, and listed some of the weaknesses and lessons learnt along the way.
Lessons for Belfast Urban Regeneration at Féile an Phobail 2017 By Peadar Kirby & Peter Doran While Ireland was living through the most severe economic collapse of its history since independence, a group of pioneering people were sowing the seeds of a new society through founding the ecovillage of Cloughjordan in County Tipperary. Seeking to model sustainable living for the 21st century, the ecovillagers conceived their project during the boom years of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger in the late 1990s and …
UNITY & UNIONISM are just two of the many, many topics being tackled at Féile an Phobail this week. David McCann will chair a discussion about RHI and media, Rev Harold Good will reflect on peace processes around the world, party leaders will discuss a ‘New Ireland’, and another panel will dissect the shrinking unionist vote. And then there’s the annual West Belfast Talks Back ding dong … #feile17
Dealing with our past, never mind healing its wounds, has been an ongoing challenge since the signing of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement nearly twenty years ago. So far our politicians have not been able to form a consensus on how best to address the past. In the absence of any formal political agreement, it’s crucial to keep the conversation going and to provide platforms for people from different backgrounds to offer their perspectives on the issues, and to challenge existing …
Talking alongside Kinglsey Donaldson at Féile, Declan Kearney appealed to political unionism to stop holding back on reconciliation with its “active commission or omission [that] reinforces, incites and perpetuates sectarian mind-sets and division, and blocks progress and positive initiatives”.
Féile an Phobail, the West Belfast Festival will shortly kick off with this year’s selection of debates, music, discussion, cultural events and comedy to mention some of the key elements within it. It runs from 3rd August – 14th August though the programme gives details of some events outside these dates. Féile began in 1988 as a way of showcasing the positive side of the west of Belfast city and to channel energy into creative expression. That time of the …
Around 400 people filled the assembly hall of St Mary’s University College to hear deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness and PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton discuss the challenges of dealing with the past under the eye of chair Brian Rowan. Another 100 or more stood along the pavement outside St Mary’s protesting at the presence of the Chief Constable in West Belfast and calling for an end to “British internment in Ireland”. A tannoy blasted music over the railing towards …
Against a backdrop of “working people facing an onslaught of right wing policies in Ireland and across Britain”, the panel chair explained that this Féile an Phobail event was the “first time we’ve had these progressive organisations come together and share a stage”. Twenty five plus years on since the community festival’s inception – and I understand some of the history and purpose of its creation – it’s remarkable that the organisers have allowed the programming to remain so tightly …
Long before the annual West Belfast Talks Back event had begun, spare chairs had been carried in and occupied, and the walls were lined with people keen to hear the debate. Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn raised an arm as he walked up to the stage to a roar of applause – perhaps his only Blairite gesture of the evening. The first questioner asked what hope the panel could bring to people in Palestine? East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson pointed …
We are richer as people when we not only know a view point but can appreciate it. Dave Thompson is a teacher, runner, Presbyterian elder and SDLP member (who self-identifies as not being very nationalist). He delivered an hour long lecture that unpicked various perspectives on the 1916 Proclamation. The universal republican ideals – equality, liberty, fraternity – those are things we still care about in the 21st century, and things we’ll still be doing in the 22nd century. So …
Power works through dominion, but it also works through dependence … [yet] power can be changed. Wearing DDP Barra McGrory’s glasses until her own were located, Prof Monica McWilliams delivered a lecture this evening in St Mary’s University College on Conflict or Peace: What difference does it make for women? as part of Féile an Phobail. The academic and former Human Rights Commissioner highlighted instances of violence and discrimination against women in conflicts around the world, including Northern Ireland. The …
Pulling names out of a hat to decide the order of speaking, Presbyterian Minister and deputy Equality Commissioner Rev Lesley Carroll began by looking through “a dark lens” and delivered a downbeat assessment of the present state of reconciliation in Northern Ireland – we need to “change our tune, change our dance steps, or we’ll burrow a hole in the ground and fall into it”. She was followed by CRC chair Peter Osborne who spoke about continued segregation, relative funding …
Left-wing Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn joins the West Belfast Talks Back panel for the annual political knockabout in St Louise’s Comprehensive College. Noel Thompson will keep the peace and chair the panel that includes Sinn Féin South Dublin councillor Eoin Ó Broin, PUP councillor Julie-Anne Corr Johnston and DUP MP Gavin Robinson. Wednesday 5 August at 7pm. This year’s Féile an Phobail runs from Thursday 30 July until Sunday 9 August. While the programme includes hundreds of events, listed …
Noel Thompson swapped the comfy chair in the Good Morning Ulster studio to be ringmaster at West Belfast Talks Back this evening with Danny Kennedy (UUP, Minister of Regional Development), Fr Tim Bartlett (Catholic Church), Rev Dr Leslie Carroll (Presbyterian) and John O’Down (Sinn Féin, Minister of Education) in front of an audience of three hundred. You can listen back to debate in two halves [two MP3s]. listen to ‘1/2 West Belfast Talks Back at @feilebelfast’ on Audioboo With no …
