WHICH is Ireland's biggest arts festival? Cat Laughs? Galway? Oh, you little Irelander you, it's the Belfast Festival of course. Under its new artistic director, Sean Doran, it may still be scheduled to take place in the depths of Belfast's chill November but it is likely to be a lot more exciting than in recent years. The big news is that the giant of New York dance, the Merce Cunningham Company, is coming with Ocean, its most ambitious work to date. The piece, choreographed to John Cage's music, is inspired by Joseph Campbell's comment that Joyce's next work after Finnegans Wake would have been inspired by the ocean - and Merce Cunningham has said that the work is "coming home to Ireland". It premiered in Brussels in 1994 but apparently the cost held the Edinburgh Festival back from staging it. A relaxing of the rules governing the Arts Council of Northern Ireland National Lottery so that projects other than capital ones could be funded, and the availability of the Waterfront Hall, have brought this joy to Belfast. Otherwise the festival, which runs from November 14th to 30th, will incorporate three special weekends, one focusing on comedy, another on jazz, and another on folk and world music.