Two weeks ago Séamus Carabine – the West Belfast native and stand-up comedian who uses his summer holidays every year to fly back home from Boston for Féile an Phobail – gave us a preview of what he’d be getting up to at Féile 2024. This week - despite suffering from Féile Fatigue – he gives us an update on his adventures.

WEDNESDAY July 31

5.30pm: Voices From Beyond the Grave

Féile kicked off with a book launch, Tom Hartley’s latest work, More Stories From The Belfast City Cemetery. The event was held in St Comgalls with a wonderful opening address by Féile director Kevin Gamble.

Before Kevin spoke about Tom, he informed the packed house that this year’s Féile was the biggest ever with 600 events at more than 50 venues. These included six outdoor concerts, 130 trad sessions, 37 Irish language events, 51 workshops. 43 walks and tours, 53 visual events, countless plays, talks and discussions. Kevin then spoke of Tom in glowing terms, recalling the enormous amount of work he put into helping make Féile the success it is today. There was humour and warmth in his remarks and an understanding that Féile is where it is today because of people like Tom. Kevin then handed proceeding over to Joe Austin.

 Joe began with some background on Tom and how his political work had allowed a vilified community to be made human. He told us that Tom’s approach to the media was this – if they don’t tell the truth about our community then we’ll show them the truth. We’ll create our own narrative, one different from the Six O’clock news. He said that when Tom became Lord Mayor one of the first things he did was to drive up to the street he grew up in and gave the residents old and young a ‘go’ in the chauffeur-driven vehicle.

Tom took to the floor and began by telling us that there were over 250,000 people buried in The City Cemetery and well over 250,000 buried in Milltown. He described the cemeteries as a vast repository of our history and while that history is often difficult to tell, we have to, because it’s our story.

The graveyard contains the hidden people, left out of history, not deemed good enough, even as a footnote. It’s these working-class people that Tom concentrates on. I learned from Tom that 65 people buried in the City Cemetery were killed while working on the construction of the Titanic. Tom spoke of how our community created its own commerce with people like Patrick Kane. Patrick, he said, was in the recycling business long before it was even called recycling.

Tom told how his mother would send him to Patrick’s yard with old cardigans in the 1950s, and how Patrick, acutely aware of the poverty in the district, would often send Tom back home to his mother with far more money than the clothes were worth. I could identify with this generosity of spirit because as a teenager waiter in the Rossa Club, Patrick’s son, Harry, one of the kindest men I ever met, would often show the same generosity to me, especially after the death of my father. This was my first time in St Comgalls and kudos to Gerry McConville and all the staff for this world-class venue. Hope you all scored a ticket for Frances Black there on Tuesday. 

That was the first day over, and with just a single event I was lulled into a false sense of security because when Thursday arrived it was full speed ahead.

THURSDAY August 1 

1pm: Will We Vote With The Heart or The Head in a Border Poll

This debate was brilliantly chaired by Kevin Rooney with contributions from Alex Kane, Kevin Meagher, Andrée Murphy and Ben Collins. This was a lively conversation, with Alex saying he’ll always be voting with the heart.

Ben Collins believed that Brexit had made it easier for a border poll and that head and heart will be used together when it comes time to vote. He believed that there was already a substantial vote locked into Irish unity and the 1922 border never extinguished nationalism. There was a consensus that young people who were born after the Good Friday Agreement wouldn’t have the baggage that older people would.

Andrée Murphy spoke about how Féile was a safe space to air opinions, how Section 31 had ‘othered’ us and how a border poll offered the reward of a shared future in which all of us are reconciled. She described how partition had been a war on women by two reactionary states who oppressed and suppressed a country of extraordinary women. She spoke of how dialogue and debate would make visible the people who had been hidden, how unity would give us a better constitutional future in which we would find better ways to live together. The old arrangement within the British state was no longer tenable because it denied truth and justice to those seeking it.

Kevin Meagher said the border poll was inevitable and should take place in a sensible, quick and reasoned manner. He said the head was about truth and the heart was about belief. There was a question from the audience about unionism sticking its head in the sand and refusing to engage. The panel pointed out that political unionism will not engage until after a vote and that civic unionism is already engaged. After last year’s Féile, I came away from the constitutional discussions with a great deal of hope. This year that hope has turned to expectation. 2030 is the tipping point where population and demographic change will make a border poll inevitable. 

2pm: Pádraig Ó Muirigh in conversation with Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh 

Blinne received a standing ovation as she entered the newly refurbished St Mary’s college hall. The warmth and affection for someone who had spent her career fighting injustice was obvious. She gave a brief account of her life and told the story of how her mother would push her in her pram to Troops Out marches in London. She told a pivotal story of how her mother would leave books and pamphlets around the house and tell her not to read them because she was too young.

WITNESS: Pádaig Ó Muirigh and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh before the St Mary's college lecture
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WITNESS: Pádaig Ó Muirigh and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh before the St Mary's college lecture

She was pretty sure her mother was leaving this reading material because she wanted her daughter to read it. One day, a 12-year-old Blinne came across a pamphlet about 12-year-old Majella O’Hare who had been killed, shot in the back, by a British soldier in county Armagh in 1976. The soldier was prosecuted but acquitted of all charges. Blinne complained to her mother at the obvious injustice and was told “then do something about it”. 

Blinne became fascinated in the law and would spend afternoons in the Old Bailey sitting in the public gallery listening to high-profile cases. When she qualified as a barrister, she could have had a lucrative career but she chose a different path and as a result won’t be retiring in her fifties like those barristers handling corporate cases. 

She then spoke, in accessible terms, about the legality of what is happening in Gaza and said this was day 300 of the genocide and that nowhere was now safe in Gaza.  We watched a video of her opening remarks to the International Criminal Court of Justice ICJ. Blinne then spoke of how the reaction from Irish people after that appearance had carried her through some tough times.

She told of how one Irish supporter had visited her mother’s grave with his family to show support. She spoke of how lawyers have an obligation to document events and said that human rights lawyers who had documented Bloody Sunday in 1972 by taking statements right after the event had helped in the subsequent vindication of those murdered that day. Pádraig then asked her about her work with the ‘Colston Four’ and it became obvious just how brilliant a lawyer she was, thinking outside the box to secure their acquittal. 

When she was asked if she had any regrets, she said just one, and explained that she had recently been put in touch with a man seeking justice in the murder of his sister. Speaking to the man on the phone she asked what his sister was called and he said Majella O’Hare. Her only regret was that her mother was no longer alive to see her “do something about it”.

5pm: The James Connolly Memorial Lecture

Mike Lynch, secretary general of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transprort workers, gave this year’s James Connolly lecture and it was a pleasure to listen to his talk. With a father from Cork and a mother from Armagh, Mick grew up in London and although he attended a Catholic school he was never taught Irish history. He went on to say that from an early age, Connolly was wired into him. He spoke about how James Connolly’s work cut across ethnic and religious division, across gender and aimed itself at the entire working class. He lamented that the labour movement hadn’t pulled together enough to stop Thatcher which led to collective values being wiped out in Britain. Britain was now ‘everyone for themselves’ where selfishness is good - pull the ladder up behind you and blame minorities. He emphasised that no society could be successful without working together, that outsourcing labour atomised trade unions, leading to low pay and driving people back to poverty.

LABOUR PARTY DIDN'T PULL TOGETHER: Mick Lynch with the author
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LABOUR PARTY DIDN'T PULL TOGETHER: Mick Lynch with the author

He addressed the rise of the far right and said that the people funding Farage were at the heart of the problem on immigration. He spoke about his disappointment that more union leaders were not on the marches for Gaza and called for more trade unions to support the protest. He said that in this life there were no saviours coming to our aid and we had to fight the same battles again and again and again. Mick reminded us that in unity we are powerful and to always keep our eyes on the prize. 

There was a wonderful touch at the end of the talk when Paul Maskey presented MIck with a personalised hurling stick.  

7pm: Israel’s war crimes in Gaza: Professor Ghassan Abu-Sitta, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon and UN special rapporteur, Francesca Albanese 

Professor Ghassan was supposed to be in attendance but had returned to Beirut fearing the spread of regional war and Israel bombing the airport in Beirut. Both Prof Ghassan and Francesca joined Féile over Zoom. Prof Ghassan described how Netanyahu’s visit to the US Congress and the obsequiousness of US politicians had convinced the Israel leader that he’d been given the green light for a regional war, a war which he needs if he’s to stay in power.

He said the White House was easily manipulated and that everything was in limbo until after the US elections. He painted a harrowing account of life in Gaza, with famine and bombing prevalent. Children were malnourished and there were infectious diseases everywhere with 8,000 children contracting Hepatitis B. The polio virus had also been detected. Wounds were not being treated as the Gazan health service had been dismantled.

There was no medications allowed in with the international medical teams which meant the patients were now dying from treatable wounds. Heart disease was no longer deemed chronic but was now fatal. He described Israel as the tip of the genocide, with the USA, France, Italy, Germany and the UK its enablers. He told us how Palestinian detainees had been sexually assaulted by Israeli soldiers and described Israeli society as being under a genocidal psychosis, incredulous at criticism from the outside world. There were also words of hope when the professor reminded us that humanity was stronger than Israeli Zionism and that this ideology was already crumbling.

Francesca Albanese gave us a history of the formation of Israel. She said that from 1947 Israelis were against partition and had always wanted all of the land. Israel was a settler colonial regime which operated a system of apartheid. It had operated a 57-year military occupation which the ICC had recently affirmed as illegal. She said the genocide was totally preventable if Israel had acted within international law, noting that none of this was new in Gaza except in scale.

She told the meeting that it’s an act of responsibility to stand with Palestinians. She explained that settler colonialism is a dangerous form of colonialism that seeks to exterminate the indigenous population. We must continue to hammer away at our politicians to support a ceasefire, we need to support the student movement in the new academic year and the 76-year-old system operating in Israel needs to be dismantled one brick at a time. When we feel overwhelmed by hopelessness and helplessness, remember the doctors in Gaza. We have to keep going.

Francesca continued that marches cannot be the only mechanism by which we defeat this genocide. We need to activate the justice system at a domestic level in each country. Nationals in one country joining the IDF should be prosecuted on their return. Some crimes are universal and universal jurisdiction should be applied. The Irish parliament should upgrade its bill on illegal settlements and the trade union movement should stop handling Israeli goods. If governments won’t impose sanctions then citizens must. 

7pm: Micky Bartlett and Friends.

Living back home for eight months in 2009-10, I had the great pleasure of working with Micky. Although only a relative newcomer at the time, Micky jumped straight into compering and I was lucky to take part in quite a few gigs with him. He basically arrived on the scene fully formed and it was obvious right from the get-go that he was destined to make it big.

My favourite moment in this gig was when he said he’d been in Australia for six months and that when he arrived back home a lot of changes had taken place. For instance, he said, we had a new king. Without missing a beat, an audience member then shouted ‘We?” And even Micky burst out laughing. Lovely audience and as always a great set. Micky only has an A game. Keep her lit, ye boy ya.

Friday August 2

11am: My Cosmic Quest — The Mystery of The UFO/UAP Phenomenon

Paul Gavan, a native of West Belfast now residing in the United States, gave a very interesting talk on his journey to find his ‘purpose’ in life. What originally began as a spiritual quest for Paul soon became a deeper dive into connections with the cosmos. He spoke about Karma and reincarnation and the spiritual connection between all of us. A child of the conflict, he sought a deeper understanding of humanity and our higher consciousness. His quest led him in the direction of peace and reconciliation and he felt the need to share his findings with local and international politicians. In 1990, he sent these politicians a copy of the book New Teachings for an Awakening Humanity by author Virginia Essene.

He also spoke about the Disclosure Project into uncovering what governments are and aren’t telling us about Unidentfied Arial Phenomenon. He believed that so much more has still to be revealed. He said the world was in the process of a paradigm shift and that people need not be afraid. Fear creates more fear, he said, and we need to release ourselves from the cycle of fear. Very interesting talk from a man with a noble objective.

1pm: Ireland’s future, Five Years On

Chaired by Allison Morris from the Belfast Telegraph with contributions from Andrée Murphy, Brian Feeney, Gerry Carlile and Niall Murphy. Niall began with an overview in which he told the audience that we were now in a state of constitutional change. 43 per cent of the population in the North were now in favour of a united Ireland, 39.35 per cent in favour of remaining in the United Kingdom and 17.15 per cent held no position. The threshold had been met, he said, and by 2031, in terms of population, we would be at a tipping point.

To deny a border poll would be an abuse of democracy. There was a legal mandate for this to happen provided for in Schedule 1 of the Good Friday Agreement and Article 3 of the Irish Constitution. Niall gave a background into the formation of Ireland’s Future which came into being as a limited company in February 2020. He spoke of a need to develop a physical in-person presence and partake in participatory democracy. He emphasised the need for Irish America, a guarantor to the Good Friday Agreement, to be involved. He singled out Richie Neal and the contribution he had made.

Political unionism had adopted a ‘head in the sand’ attitude but people from the unionist community like Glenn Bradley and James Nesbitt had engaged in the debate. The need for public and private conversations at a community level were important and these conversations should be respectful and framed in the context of human rights. The panel then talked about how Brexit had been a disaster for the DUP and an existential threat to the union. There were some fascinating insights into the behind-the-scene negotiations after Brexit, particularly concerning Declan Kelleher, permanent representative of Ireland to the EU. Declan, along with others, managed to get the same deal for Ireland as Germany got back in 1999: if and when Ireland unifies after a plebiscite, this new Ireland would automatically re-enter the EU.

Brain Feeney shared the story of how Arlene Foster phoned Theresa May to tell her, while May was involved in Brexit talks with the EU, that her government no longer had the DUP’s support. May and the Tories were publicly embarrassed by all this but enacted revenge. When the Tories no longer needed DUP support, they swiftly set the party adrift. 

The subject of legacy came up and Niall explained that legacy had united all parties in the North from the TUV to Sinn Féin and all in between. The panel then drilled down into the minutiae of any border poll, asking what would the question put to the electorate look like? What would be the minimum voting age – 16 or over as in Scotland? And if Ireland voted to reunite, what would the currency be? How would minority voices be represented? One speaker said that now was the time for young people to become earnest, engaged and sophisticated in their politics. And lastly, it was pointed out that in this new Ireland there would be an absolute need for a new state broadcaster.

3pm: The Economics of Irish Unity

Professor Seamus McGuinness and Professor John Fitzgerald led the debate, which was chaired/refereed by journalist Amanda Ferguson. The two professors differed fundamentally on the cost to the Republic of a reunified island but there were areas in which they agreed.

The subvention grant from the UK government formed the basis for the discussion. Fitzgerald’s analysis was that reunification meant a higher overall cost for the Republic while McGuinness’s calculations were more sanguine. Fitzgerald said that to support the North would cost the Republic 3.2 per cent of its GDP. The North’s low productivity was a major problem, one of the causes being students leaving school before the age of 18. Prof McGuinness agreed with this and described academic selection at 11 years of age as a disaster. Defence spending was talked about as was a one-island national health service. There would be savings in both these areas as duplication would no longer be happening. Prof Fitzgerald talked about the need for water charges and said the UK Exchequer has screwed the North financially because it had refused to set charges.

There was a marked difference between the two professors when it came to the time period involved. McGuinness said it would be a long drawn-out affair while Fitzgerald believed the timeframe would be much shorter. How much of the UK debt would a new Ireland have to bear was another talking point, as was pensions. McGuinness believed that the North’s UK assets could be negotiated against its UK debt. McGuinness also pointed out that both his and Fitzgerald’s analysis were static while the economy acted dynamically. “None of us have certainty,” McGuinness said, “there’s always a risk in taking action but that shouldn’t prevent us from doing so”.

There was a consensus that a border poll was inevitable and with proper planning the economic impact on the South could be reduced. It took 30 years for wages to converge between East and West Germany but if we start preparing for unity now, the time period can be reduced.

In the event of a united Ireland, the USA would provide Ireland with $10bn funding and the UK and the EU would be expected to contribute as well. One ominous warning from Prof McGuinness was that the UK may not grant generous terms to Ireland in the event of voting to reunify, for fear it might once again stir up Scottish nationalism. Prof Fitzgerald said that politics in the North had been designed to deliver peace not economics. McGuinness spoke about the Sovereign Fund down South - money put away for a rainy day could be used to invest in the North, and in fact some of it actually was in the areas of infrastructure and education. It was a very well argued debate in which I scored McGuinness 71 to Fitzgerald’s 70. I deducted one point from Fitzgerald for being agnostic on the issue of Irish unity, otherwise it would have been a draw. 

IN FAST LANE: Irish Wolfhounds' Bikers at the opening Féile parade
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IN FAST LANE: Irish Wolfhounds' Bikers at the opening Féile parade

4pm: Diane Abbott in Conversation with Joe Austin

Joe has a special ability of making whoever he’s interviewing relax and feel at ease. He’s a little cheeky and there a fair amount of irreverence but Diane Abbott was at her best with Joe asking the questons. Diane’s parents were Jamaican and were part of the Windrush generation. Her mother was a nurse and her father a welder. She grew up in a house sharing the space with different families. When the fascists came knocking at the door one night looking for blacks, the house owner, her white ‘uncle’ Jimmy, answered and when they saw he was white they went on their way. Jimmy remarked after they’d gone “they weren’t getting our Diane”.’

Diane eventually went to Cambridge. There were very few working-class people at Cambridge and practically no black people. Her mantra “just put one foot in front of the other” is what got her through her college days and she graduated with a degree in history. 

Diane spoke about solidarity between the working-class Irish and the working-class West Indians in London. She described how her campaign against police ‘stop and search’ was her way into the Labour Party. She reminded the audience that the Labour Party of the 1980s was far from free of racism. She entered parliament at a time when black people weren’t allowed through the House of Commons security.

When Joe asked her about Jeremy Corbyn, she told a funny story of how he got selected to run for the leadership from within the Socialist Campaign Group. “He was the only one left within the group who hadn’t run for the leadership and lost.” She said Jeremy’s downfall was that he was too nice. He should have expelled those right wingers within the Labour Party who were constantly undermining him as these were the people who eventually brought him down. When asked about Keir Starmer, she said, “he may have a good side”. She said Starmer was more interested in keeping in step with the American establishment than in British public opinion. She went on to say that the US could end the war in Gaza in the next 48 hours. 

She questioned why police surveillance was all to do with the people on the left while the far right were the most dangerous.

 Politics was too important to be left to old white men and the younger generation was important in this respect. She wasn’t too enamoured by Labour’s Rachel Reeves who she said was tougher on benefit claimants than the Tories. She reiterated the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and finished by saying there needs to be a strong left in Britain to call out Farage and the far right and to stand up and challenge their myth about asylum seekers. 

Saturday August 3

11am: Should Majority Voting, A Cause of the Troubles be part of the Solution

I really enjoyed this discussion because it was interactive. We, the audience, got to decide the questions on the ballot paper, and from a selection of six choices we then got the opportunity to vote. The number one choice got six points, number two got five points and so on. But before any of this happened Peter Emerson from the De Borda institute gave us an overview of all the different voting systems available in the world with all their possible permutations and outcomes. There was first past the post, single selection preference, which operates in the UK and the United States. There was a two round system which the French use (thank God). Then there was STV, the Single Transferable Vote used by Ireland and Malta. There’s MMP Mixed Member Proportional system which Germany and Mexico use.

Peter posed the question. Is simple majority voting really democratic? He continued, it’s like asking three wolves and two sheep to vote on what they’re having for dinner. 

Brexit was mentioned and the simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ referendum was referred to as a disaster because when Britain voted to leave the European Union, no one actually knew what leave looked like. Theresa May as PM was presented with at least eight options when negotiations with Brussels began. The fact that the majority of people in the Six Counties voted overwhelmingly to remain within Europe posed even greater problems. Binary voting on a multi-optional question is madness and Ireland needs to learn that a border poll cannot repeat the mistakes of Brexit, Peter said. He advised us that “we need to rationally charm the other side”. As my friend Jake Mac Siacais told me recently, “Our border poll has to be a preferendum not a referendum.”

While the votes in our mock election were being counted, Tommy Sands, the Bard of Peace, entertained the audience. His first song was about a dream he had in which all the green and orange songs got mixed into one - It was old and it was beautiful as the shade of night came down… His next song included the line respect each other’s rights and we’ll unite the human race. The man’s voice is a balm to the soul.

Before Peter announced our mock election result, he told us that our six options represented 720 permutations and that anything more than 720 would be rather greedy. A united Ireland was returned in first place with A united Ireland within the European Union a distant second and A united Ireland within the Commonwealth even further back in third. I think last place went to An independent Northern Ireland.

There’s plenty of work to be done before our border poll so let the charming commence. 

1pm: How Might The Republics General Result Affect The Prize of Irish Unity?

The meeting was chaired by Kevin Rooney, with panelists Kevin Meagher, Mark Hennessy and Rose Conway Walsh TD.

Mark Hennessy spoke first and began by saying that having Simon Harris as the new Fine Gael leader made a difference in the recent election. He speculated that Fine Gael might call an early general election because of this, and said that Harris was much more street savvy than Varadkar and engaged much better with the general public than any recent Fine Gael leader.

He said that the poor election result for Sinn Féin was partly due to the fact that their policies on immigration came across to the electorate as unclear, and Sinn Féin were now recalibrating this policy. He went on to say that the far right parties were feeding on public discontent, and noted that Sinn Féin’s policy on housing was good, one of the best policies they had. 

Kevin Meagher spoke next and started by saying that when you’re polling numbers of between 36 per cent and 37 per cent as Sinn Féin had been doing in recent years, then the only way to go is down. He said Sinn Féin may have peaked too soon. He mentioned the fact that three out of four voters in the election thought immigration was going in the wrong direction - too fast, too soon.

One in five of the population in the South were immigrants, he said, compared with one in 12 in the UK and one in 13 in the USA. When it came to the question of unity, he said that Irish political parties were generally in favour of unity but were incapable of getting anything done. Sinn Féin in government in the South was the easiest way to programme for Irish unity. He continued by saying that a solid framework needed to be put in place for unity and that reunification was not the preserve of one party. He highlighted Leo Varadkar’s speech at an Ireland’s Future conference as raising the bar and that if and when a general election is called in the South then Fine Gael need to have something in their manifesto about a united Ireland, because not to puts pressure on Harris. He spoke about the need for an actual government minister for unity and warned against making the same mistakes as Brexit. He finished by saying there was a big inflexion point coming in Irish history.

Rose Conway Walsh, Sinn Féin TD for the Mayo constituency, spoke last. She began by addressing Sinn Féin’s poor performance in the elections, saying that they had underestimated the public’s feeling in regard to immigration, and held her hand up in this respect. She was clear to separate racist elements from genuine concerns and hit out at direct provision and also the millions being made by developers. She highlighted the work being done by Mayo Intercultural Action with regard to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. She talked about an Ireland of equals in charge of our ‘own’ affairs, and the need for a broad alliance to deliver unity. She said that Micheál Martin’s political aspiration for Irish unity had to become a political objective. Comments from the audience included - in a united Ireland everyone has to have their say, the need for women’s grassroots groups and citizen assemblies. A great discussion.

2pm: Madge Davison Lecture. Betty Sinclair: A Life of Working-Class Revolutionary Struggle

I enjoyed Mike Morrissey’s lecture last year, and Brian Campfield’s lecture this year was no less engaging. Since I first heard about Betty Sinclair, some 15 years ago, I’ve been fascinated to find out more about her.

Brian began in 1932 with the outdoor relief protest in Belfast when 30,000 Catholic and Protestant workers led by Orange and nationalist bands marched to Custom House against the arrangements of government unemployment benefits. 22-year-old Betty played an important role in the protest. One year later Betty went to Moscow to attend the Lenin school. Brian showed a wonderful photo with Betty addressing the Kremlin (not bad for a wee girl from Hooker Street in North Belfast). Needless to say Betty’s activism brought her to the attention of the state and she was placed under surveillance. Brian showed us a copy of an RUC surveillance document in which Betty’s name was listed. Interestingly, also on the list was the name Malachy Gray, 60 Rockmore Road. Malachy was a strong supporter of the Spanish anti-fascist movement and because of this he switched clubs, moving from [Cardinal] O’Donnell’s GAC, seen in his eyes as too close to the Catholic Church, to my alma mater, O’Donovan Rossa. I’ve spoken with a few Rossa men and no one has any knowledge of Malachy. Rossa historian sleuths get your boots on. 

In 1940s Betty was working on the Red Hand, an official communist newspaper. The paper printed an article raising concerns about the IRA’s willingness to explore links with Nazi Germany to secure support for a united Ireland. Republicans asked for a rebuttal and the Red Hand allowed Jack Brady to write an article voicing their views. The IRA was a proscribed organisation and printing anything by them was illegal. Betty, as the editor of the paper, was arrested and eventually convicted of sedition. She was given a two-year prison sentence, reduced to two months on appeal. Brian told us that she went home immediately after her release and was hardly in the house when there was a knock on the door from someone from the prison. Apparently she had been released too early and this person asked her if she’d return to Armagh because if she didn’t the governor might be sacked and he was a married man with children. Betty put her coat back on and saved the man’s job. 

We learned that Betty campaigned to stop the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage. She also campaigned for Paul Robeson to get his passport back in 1958. Betty was the Trades Council’s representative at the talks which founded the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1967, and Brian stated that for 50 years she was at the forefront of every working-class struggle. He said her politics were incorruptible in breadth, depth and intensity.  

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stay in Conway Mill for questions from the audience as I had to rush back to St Mary’s for the Rita O’Hare’s book launch. 

3pm: Rita

This was the release of Rita O’Hare’s memoir, Rita, and it was striking for me, having just come from a talk on Betty Sinclair, how similar these women were. Both women were indefatigable in their work to make the lives of working-class people better. Both were courageous, stood up to authority, and both ended up behind bars in Armagh prison. Both women found themselves traveling to world superpowers, Betty to Moscow and the Kremlin, Rita to Washington and the Oval Office. And both women were fiercely respected within the wider community.

There was a warmth and affection to the proceedings in the packed college hall to celebrate Rita’s life and her legacy. Memories were shared and tears shed. Rita was described as the red-haired dynamo, always battling, always striving to better her people. She’d sit down with the homeless, put her arm around their shoulder, listen to their stories and press a few punts into their hands.

Rita’s leadership played a central role in the peace process and this work took her to South Africa where Nelson Mandela described her as his ‘Little Warrior’. She had a generosity in spirit, held no hatred or animosity, and although small in stature, was a giant of a human being.

Mixed up with all this seriousness, Rita was a woman who enjoyed a bit of craic. She loved the rap band Kneecap, long before it was cool. During the conflict, her work took her all round the country and she loved to stop in rural towns, buy postcards, and use these to send cryptic ‘nonsense’ messages to republicans prisoners in Portlaoise jail, just to mess with the heads of Special Branch who she knew would be trying to decipher them . 

Richard McAuley shared the story of his last meeting with Rita. As their conversation was coming to a close and Richard was withdrawing from the room, Rita offered him some parting advice- “win!”

Gerry Adams concluded the proceeding with a few lines from a Frost poem.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Sonas síoraí ort, Rita.

4pm: Laurence McKeown in conversation with Mohammed El Kurd

The genocide in Gaza has appalled everyone with a conscience and an ounce of humanity. The brutal onslaught by Israel’s military, operating with impunity and given cover by the West, has shocked even those who thought they’d seen it all. The poet and writer Mohammed El Kurd, who has gained prominence for his description of Palestinians living under occupation in East Jerusalem, came to West Belfast to speak his truth and West Belfast showed up en masse to support him. 

On October 6 last year Mohammad and Laurence McKeown met at an event in the Cultúrlann on the Falls Road. No one could have imagined what was about to unfold the next day. Eleven months and thousands of deaths later, Mohammed has returned to pick up the conversation with Laurence. West Belfast came to show solidarity and bear witness to his testimony. What he told us shook us to our core.

The sexual violence experienced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons was shocking. Mohammed said there is never a threshold for Israel. There is no act too abhorrent for the West to say that Israel has crossed a red line. He believed the recent assassination of a Palestinian ceasefire negotiator was to distract the media away from the rapes which were not allegations as the media report but fact. He described Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress as a “cult meeting”. Netanyahu was an easy scapegoat for the West, he said, but this was not a one-man show. He said that there was no reforming Zionism, the ideology was racist and bankrupt.

Some stories were unbearably sad. A nurse discovered her daughter had been murdered when the daughter arrived at the hospital in a body bag. We learned that Palestinians were choosing to stay close together and sleep in one room because as one father said “Tonight if we die, we die as a family”. Mohammed castigated other Middle East states for turning their backs on Palestine. He then asked: “Why are Ukrainians allowed to be seen as a collective in the fight against Russia but Palestinians, being interviewed by media, have first to distance themselves from any form of resistance? It’s only Palestinians that have to turn the other cheek and accept indignity.”

Mohammed spoke about defiance and there was laughter when he told the story of one Palestinian man who had gone up to an Israeli tank and shouted to the Israelis inside - “what have I told you about parking in front of my house?” That black-humoured defiance reminded me of being stopped and questioned by the Brits and the RUC in Beechmount back in 1991.  An older man in front of me had also been stopped but he was refusing to give his name. One squaddie became aggravated and yelled at him, “What’s your name, you Fenian bastard?” Without missing a beat, the old man fired back - “It's Mister Fenian bastard to you.”

Mohammed said “it was a crazy demand to ask Palestinians to share a land with people who continue to obliterate us”. He spoke about the four young Palestinian boys killed on the beach in 2014. Israel cleared itself of culpability in the murders of Ahed (9) Zaharia (10) Mohammed (11) and Ismail (9) and Mohammed posed the question: “If your enemy is a judge to whom do you complain?”

There was practical advice from BDS activists in the audience about how to support Palestine; refusing to buy Israelis goods, putting pressure on institutions and organisations to divest from Israel. Mohammed received a standing ovation with chants of ‘Free Free Palestine’. Just before the gathering dispersed, Gráinne Holland sang a beautiful song as Gaelige. Well played the Féile audience.

GENOCIDE IN THE DOCK: Patricia Mooney's powerful Gaza artwork at the Féile Visual Art exhibition
6Gallery

GENOCIDE IN THE DOCK: Patricia Mooney's powerful Gaza artwork at the Féile Visual Art exhibition

7pm: Neil Delamere

As tired as I was, I still had time to call into the Devenish and catch the incomparable Neil Delamere. His show, Neil by Mouth, was delightful. His crowd work and improv were amazing and his set was fantastic. He asked a young woman in the audience what she did for a living and when she said she was a quantity surveyor, Neil asked her to guess how many people were in the audience. She guesstimated over 500 to which Neil replied, “No. If the revenue asks, there were 57 people. Féile is a registered charity and I’m doing this gig for nothing.” Maurice, the driving instructor, Séamus, the retired bookseller, the nurse, the special needs teacher and the student studying engineering were all questioned by Neil with hilarious results. Neil made sure we were laughing with them and not at them. Remember, folks, Féile’s a safe space.  

I must also mention the Devenish audience as a whole were simply wonderful. You could have heard a pin drop, well, except for the loud scream from the ladies toilet. Anyone? While I couldn’t see faces in the crowd, I know the next time I see anyone with their arm buried elbow-deep into a recycle container at the bottle bank that they’ve probably been to Neil by Mouth at the Devenish. 

Sunday August 4

No talks or discussions today. I watched part of the Féile 10k race, got soaked, went home, got changed and went to the Falls Park for the Concert For Palestine. It was horrendous weather under mucky underfoot. Let me list the acts who gave their services for free and let me thank them for giving up their time for such a worthy cause. Here goes: AOA, The Falls, New Hollande, Roisin El Cherif, Clann Mhic Corraidh, Aoife Scott, Frances Black, Wisewolf, Aladham Abood, Tadgh Hickey, Belfast Dabke Dancers, Enola Gay, More Power to Your Elbow, Mickey Cullen. The rained died down towards the end and the crowd danced and sang and showed their support for Palestine with chants of Free Free Palestine. 

Monday, August 5

1pm: Joe Mc Kelvey, The Forgotten IRA Leader and Socialist

Óglach Joe McKelvey was a founder member of my club, O’Donovan Rossa. I marvel at the fact he was only 18 when he helped found the club and I’m saddened by the other fact that he was only 24 when he was executed by his former comrades. 

Jim McVeigh, author of Goodbye Dearest Heart, The Life and Times of Joe McKelvey, set out to explain why he thought historians had overlooked McKelvey’s contribution to the cause of Ireland. He began by exploring the life and legacy of the man.

In 1912, Joe joined Fianna Éireann, the youth wing of the IRA, founded by Bulmer Hobson and Countess Markievicz. McKelvey was then in the IRA and grew to the rank of officer in command of the 3rd Northern Division. Joe, as an IRA leader, was heavily involved in the defence of nationalist areas from loyalist pogroms in Belfast. Jim talked about McKelvey’s politics and although there’s no recorded account of him ever meeting James Connolly, Jim believed it must have happened because Connolly was living on the Falls Road. Jim believed that McKelvey’s links to socialism and maybe even to communism might help explain in part why history has ‘forgotten’ his name.

Jim went on to describe in some detail the assassination of RIC detective Oswald Swanzy. Swanzy had been named at the inquest of Cork Lord Mayor Tomás Mac Curtain as the trigger man in his assassination. After his name was revealed, Swanzy was moved to Lisburn for his own safety. The IRA picked up intel that Swanzy was now living up north and dispatched five Cork IRA volunteers, Sean Culhane (19) was one of the Volunteers and he was chosen along with Dick Murphy to carry out the Swanzy assassination. Thomás Mac Curtain’s service revolver had traveled with the Cork IRA men and was used to kill Swanzy. Joe McKelvey was an integral part in the operation, providing transport for the Cork volunteers to carry out the hit and ensuring their escape. The Cork men boarded a train in Belfast and as they passed Lisburn, seated in first class, they noticed fires burning. The burning out of 300 nationalist families in Lisburn, in what became known as the ‘Swanzy Riots’, had begun. 

Jim explained that McKelvey was extremely anti-sectarian and had kept IRA Volunteers like Roger McCorley, who wanted to carry out sectarian attacks, in check. The war continued until treaty negotiations began and when the negotiations ended with the signing of the treaty there was a split in the movement. Within the anti-treaty movement, Liam Lynch became the new Chief of Staff of the IRA and McKelvey, his deputy Chief of Staff. On the 16 April 1922, 200 anti-treaty IRA occupied the Four Courts in Dublin. The Free State forces, under pressure from the Brits, accepted two artillery guns and began shelling the building. At least 15 anti-treaty volunteers were killed and many more wounded. What followed reads like a Greek tragedy. 

Captured and imprisoned, McKelvey along with Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows and Richard Barrett were executed without trial in June 1922. The execution was a fiasco with one of the executed receiving so many bullets that his clothing lit on fire. McKelvey was found to be still alive after the initial shots. He was then shot in the chest and was heard to utter, “Give me another.”

Jim mentioned that McKelvey left behind a sweetheart named Cassie O’Hara, and one historian in the audience informed Jim that some time after the execution, Cassie was sent his IRA uniform. History may have largely forgotten Óglach Joe McKelvey but O”Donovan Rossa in Belfast never will. 

3pm: Anatomy of a Massacre 17th May 1974: Pat Finucane Centre/Justice For The Forgotten

The audience was presented with a moving documentary on the events of 17 May 1974 in Dublin and in Monaghan. One survivor on film spoke of being pronounced dead at the scene and spent six to seven hours in the morgue before someone realised she was actually alive. Over the years she underwent 30 operations for her injuries.

The documentary told the story of how four bombs were planted that day, three in Dublin and one in Monaghan. There was a military precision to it all, with the devices exploding within minutes of each other in Dublin’s Parnell Street, Talbot Street and South Leinster Street. Later the Monaghan bomb exploded.

Footage from the time was extraordinarily well preserved. One survivor described the area as a war zone, everyday life had been turned to chaos. Another said that after the blast, for a fraction of time there was a silence you could touch. One of the victims was a young schoolgirl and her uniform hung on the back of the kitchen door in the family home year after year until her mother and father had passed. One survivor described seeing a queue outside the blood bank where skinheads joined the line to give blood.

The bombing was described by one commentator as a tragedy and the subsequent government inquiry a disgrace. The inquiry lasted three months before the file was closed. No you read that right - three months. What’s worse was that the majority of forensic evidence was sent up North to the RUC when the finger for who carried out the bombings was clearly pointing in that direction. Of the forensics left, one expert was able to deduce that large quantities of nitrates had been used in the blast and the intelligence at the time concluded that loyalists lacked such quantities and also lacked the expertise to set the bombs to go off within minutes of each other. It appeared that the controlling hand in all of this was British Intelligence.

At that time, MI5 and MI6 acted separately from the British government. The UVF eventually claimed responsibility and the Glenane Gang came under suspicion. James Mitchell’s farm in Glenane is reported to have been where members of the UDR, the RUC and the mid-Ulster UVF co-ordinated the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Robin Jackson, a member of the Glenane Gang, was subsequently exposed as a British agent. 

What struck me about the Q&A that followed was the dignity with which the families of survivors and victims carried themselves. The families of the Dublin and Monaghan victims had been told by police that no stone would be left unturned to find the perpetrators. Gerry Armstrong, seated in the audience, said he was told by police after the murder of his brother Paul (18) by the UVF on November 8 1974, that no stone would be left unturned to find those who murdered Paul. Fifty years on and no one has ever been convicted for Paul’s murder. 

5pm: Inez - A Challenging Woman

Inez McCormack was a trade union leader and human right activist who fought for the rights of the working class. She gave a voice to working-class women, and was concerned more about other people than she was about herself. A short film about her life was shown and it was fantastic. Inez was active in the civil rights movement of the 60s and was marching alongside her husband Vincent at the Burntollet bridge when the march was attacked by a loyalist mob, including off-duty police officers.

Inez believed that to solve problems in society, you had to talk to the people who had the problems. In 1972, she found a job as a social worker in Ballymurphy and when her bosses tried to close the office, she and her colleagues resisted. The social workers unionised and became members of the National Union of Employees (NUPE). In 1976 Inez became the first full-time female official of NUPE and she helped increase union membership from 800 to 15,000 by the time NUPE changed its name to Unison in 1993. 

Patricia McKeown, regional secretary of Unison, was on the discussion panel and described herself as a mentee of Inez’s. She learned from Inez never to stop to keep going, “if you stand still you lose,” Inez would say. Inez’s daughter said her mother was all about love. She was loathed in high places and loved in low places. She said her mother encouraged working-class women to stand up and say they mattered because if you don’t nobody else will. 

Inez worked tirelessly to include strong, inclusive equality and human rights provisions in the Good Friday Agreement. She was also a signatory to the MacBride Principles for fair employment. In 2006, she founded Participation and Practice of Rights and Sean Brady from the organisation was also on the panel. Gerry Adams, who was in the audience, told the story of how Inez had fought against great odds to ensure that Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, was able to visit Ballymurphy at a time when that community had been much maligned in the press.

TIRELESS: Inez McCormack welcomes former President Mary Robinson to Clifton House in 2008 for the launch of the Practice and Participation of Rights project
6Gallery

TIRELESS: Inez McCormack welcomes former President Mary Robinson to Clifton House in 2008 for the launch of the Practice and Participation of Rights project

There was laughter in the room when the panel revisited one part of the film. Royal Victoria Hospital workers were on work-to-rule and laundry had started to pile up in the corridors. Senior management complained to the press about the dangers of this. And so Inez and Patricia along with several others solved the problem by carrying the laundry up to the senior boardroom, depositing it there, and then issuing their own press release, saying the matter had been resolved. Senior management saw the press release and welcomed it, saying, “common sense had prevailed”.  

7.30pm: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Ireland

I’ve performed in the Black Box several times over the years and it’s one of my favourite venues. There’s just something about the acoustics, the audiences and the general vibe. So, I was very happy to take my seat in the audience for Paddy Cullivan’s 'I Can’t Believe It’s Not Ireland'. 

It’s 2032, the people have spoken. Ireland is united. There's a new flag, a new anthem and even a new capital. Cullivan starts with the story of a loyalist cabbie who visits Dublin for the first time and finds more than he bargained for. The show is a mixture of stand-up, spoken word, song and some very fine guitar playing. Cullivan turns a slide show into a thing of hilarity and besides making us laugh, he delivers a history lesson along the way. I found his skill in choreographing with all this technology astonishing.

After a very entertaining first half, there was a short bar break with merch being sold at a side table. When Paddy took to the stage for the second half, his trusty ‘clicker’ for the slide show had disappeared. Panic ensued and Paddy joked as he searched for it in the darkness “I can see now why you call it the Black Box!” Flashlights on phones were employed and finally the clicker was found on the merch table by a sharp-eyed audience member. Paddy hugged the man, shook his hand, and away we went for the second half. We were shown our new flag which I think still needs some consultation work. Paddy sang the new anthem Hibernia which should be taught in schools immediately. We learned that our new parliament was in Athlone, and the unionist parties with 15 per cent of the vote would perpetually hold the balance of power.

Paddy’s delivery of all this was wonderful. He has a cracking singing voice and is somewhat of a virtuoso on the guitar. His multitasking ability to keep so many plates spinning at once is remarkable. I highly recommend you go see this unique and enriching vision of our wonderful shared future. Maith thú.

And with that, the half time whistle sounds of Féile 2024. See y’all next week for the second installment of my Féile exploits.