McCausland: Public money poured into the West Belfast Festival
Angela Rolfe: While I think the festival is great, it didn’t start off with all the funding, sponsorship and organisation. It was done with hard work. It has evolved over 30 years to what it is today, and now it attracts the likes of Olly Murs. Anyone can buy tickets. You don’t have to recite the Hail Mary in Irish to get in. This year there was a festival in Woodvale, which was great to see. They are at the start of their journey, and I really hope they grow and evolve, just like the Féile. But it won’t just take cash, it will take hard work and a lot of volunteering. The Féile wasn’t given to west Belfast.
Una Campbell: The difficulty is the lack of real heritage and culture for the loyalist tradition. It inherited its symbolism and visual rhetoric, and celebrates having dominance. Also, this heritage, based on supremacy and a parroting of their colonial overlords, is fairly contemporary — a mere couple of hundred years old. What’s to fund? Interesting situation.
Chris Montgomery: So funding a big wipe-out on a Wednesday night in Falls Park is part of tradition?
Stephen Thornbury: And there you have it. Elitist condescension in a nutshell.
Michael Fee: And what part of Irish culture is Olly Murs ? Una Campbell: None of you have actually responded to the defensive and colonial nature of the loyalist heritage and culture currently ‘celebrated’. I’m not taking sides — just curious. Loyalism could actually start celebrating Henry Joy McCracken for instance. Why not make this part of culture?
Stephen Thornbury: Loyalism is a political manifestation, as is nationalism. If it is, as you say, a recent development, then so is French republicanism. Are the Bastille Day celebrations cultural ? Are the US Independence Day celebrations ? The Irish Volunteers of the 18th century celebrated the Glorious Revolution, yet many became United Irishmen. Depends what you mean by ‘culture’. Going down the route of ‘my culture is better than yours’ is a dangerous course. On the other hand, a pop concert is a pop concert, either on the Falls or the Shankill.