Opinion

Jim Gibney: Time to hang out our brightest colours as Féile hits 30

Last year's Feile an Phobail parade along the Falls Road. Picture by Cliff Donaldson.
Last year's Feile an Phobail parade along the Falls Road. Picture by Cliff Donaldson. Last year's Feile an Phobail parade along the Falls Road. Picture by Cliff Donaldson.

‘Hang Out Your Brightest Colours’ is the name of a documentary made in 1973 by Welsh actor and film maker Kenneth Griffith about the life and death of Michael Collins.

It has been a while since I saw the documentary so I cannot recall it in detail.

But I just love the title for the mood it instils and the effect it has on you when you say it in your head.

And on this very special anniversary for Féile an Phobail, ‘Hang Out Your Brightest Colours’ is what the organisers have done. The title captures the mood of the clár with its 210 pages packed with events – over seventy of them political.

Féile is celebrating its 30th la breithe, birthday, next week and its programme reflects this very special occasion.

The clár also reflects why Féile has a well-earned reputation across Ireland as the foremost festival.

It combines laughter and fun with serious political debates about national and international affairs.

And it is this mix which the organisers have jealously guarded for thirty years which gives Féile its special appeal and niche.

Féile tapped into a community steeped in conflict resilience whose MP, Gerry Adams, knew the community intimately, and knew its capacity to resist and its capacity for creativity.

A man with big ideas he has changed the politics of Ireland and in 1988 his idea for Féile was born in the midst of much loss of life in the aftermath of Gibraltar, the attack on mourners in Milltown Cemetery and the deaths of two British army corporals in Andersonstown.

Where and why it all began and why it is a success is told in ‘Féile Voices At 30’, a community memoir by Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh and Michael Pearse, funded by Féile.

With contributions from those there at the beginning the book demonstrates Bobby Sands’s quote in action, ‘our revenge will be the laughter of our children’ as the community’s joy overcomes exclusion, demonisation and deadly state oppression, with a smile on its face and its inclusive voice in these better times.

Féile’s experience travels well and it is connected to festivals in Cork and East Belfast.

To coincide with Féile’s special anniversary Belfast City Council have just completed works in the Falls Park on a purpose built, year-round site, to cater for major outdoor events.

In this year’s clár women’s struggles feature significantly; legacy and its implications sit alongside Brexit and its implications as two of the most prominent issues on the clar; the powerful film, ‘This is Palestine’ reminds us all of the horror and betrayal of this nation; the viability of an all-island single economy will be debated and for the first time a panel of ‘unionists only’ will discuss if a united Ireland can be a ‘warm house for unionists’.

And also, for the first time there will be a leaders debate, involving representatives of Ireland’s main parties. The disappointment of a post-apartheid South Africa will be discussed and contrasted with other struggles in Scotland, Catalonia and Corsica and the question posed: can the promises made on the barricades be delivered in government?

History casts its shadow as debate revolves around slavery and Frederick Douglass; James Connolly’s socialism and today’s left. The 50th anniversaries of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and the birth of the north’s civil rights movement will be assessed. Other items include: the 1970 Arms Trial and Charles Haughey’s prosecution and the significance of the 1932 Eucharistic Congress.

Important events which will definitely be in competition for an audience and maybe squeezed include citizenship and the Good Friday Agreement; ‘Resilience’ – a film about the long-tern impact of childhood trauma; the magic money tree – does it exist?; homelessness and children; social isolation in an age obsessed with digital communication; disability rights; education in English and Irish; and psychiatry and its part in overcoming mental health problems.

The internationally acclaimed Irish artist Bobby Ballagh, long a supporter of Féile, and popularising art and culture through community and politics will open Féile’s art exhibition, profiling new and not so new artists.

Visit Féile and enjoy its birthday celebrations. Listen carefully for the distinctive sound of the children’s laughter, young and not so young as west Belfast is transformed into a ‘party of the people’ looking out into the world, the world invited in.