WITH spring slowly giving way to summer, community organisations across the Upper Springfield have once again come together for an annual celebration of community, health and the local environment.
 
Glór na Móna, Upper Springfield Development Trust, Newhill Youth Club and the Frank Cahill Resource Centre, have collaborated to produce a packed programme of events for this year’s Féile na gCloigíní Gorma (Bluebell Festival).
 
Each year, from the month of May the Black Mountain comes alive with sight and smell of our indigenous wild bluebells, which have become a symbol of rebirth and hope for the communities below.
 
The Féile will run from 14 to the 22 of May and will feature everything from outdoor excursions, sporting events, reading events, debate and a finale concert with some of the area’s best musicians.
 
Niall Enright, from Newhill Youth Club, explained how the festival was founded in 2017 in response to an “array of issues” including poor mental health, educational under-attainment, and a sense of “disconnection” in the Upper Springfield area.
 
With “community, solidarity and wellbeing” as their watchwords, the team behind the Féile hope to foster a sense of belonging and communal connection on the slopes of the Black Mountain.
 

“It’s basically about bringing people together again,” he explained. “Contemporary society has forged disconnection amongst people, especially working-class people.
 
“Our community, which has borne the brunt of the years of conflict oftentimes hasn’t borne the brunt of the peace, and that was one of the things that we felt was being suffered.  Our idea was to do something modest as a collection of community activists to try to rebuild some of that solidarity again. A community like ours has a long history of solidarity, community activism, struggle and self-help. We wanted to bring some of that together again, but the focus was on the outdoors, the focus was on using the mountain as a symbol.
 
"When you saw the bluebells come out here in May, even during the tough years of the military conflict, it signalled a new beginning, it signalled hope and renewal, and that was the idea behind the festival.”
 
Last year, saw the Féile cancelled due to the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, giving this year’s festival some added excitement and purpose.
 
“We believe that people are going to be really hungry for it because they haven’t seen each other, they haven’t come together, and this is the chance for them to do that,” Niall added.

Féile na gCloigíní Gorma will be officially launched at 12pm on 14 May at Whiterock Close playpark.