Sir, - Judging from Pol O Muiri's article (Summer Times, August 7th) headlined "The Arts Struggle", he must have gone to a different festival than this year's Feile an Phobail.
It's too bad he missed the pageantry and humour of the opening parade, with a samba band, over 40 floats and peppered with enormous papier-mache characters - some on stilts - doing spontaneous street theatre along the way.
And as a resident of West Belfast, Mr O Muiri must be suffering a memory lapse, or else he surely would remember that the Feile's origins lie in the tragic events of the summer of 1987, when funeral after funeral threatened to turn the entire community - especially the younger generation - towards bitterness and violence. To have a community-wide festival 10 years later showcasing so much talent - local and otherwise - in so many venues with such positive spirit is an achievement of which we are unashamedly proud.
He also must have been on holiday when Belfast City Council tried to cut our funding earlier this year after certain councillors took issue with last year's prize-winning theatre piece, Just a Prisoner's Wife . . " This year's production of Binlids is sold out, even though we added four extra shows due to popular demand.
He fails to mention our 16 sit-down concerts, including Christy Moore, Dickie Rock, Kieran Goss, Ceolathon, our open-air concerts, our very successful comedy night with Kevin McAleer, Barry Murphy, Ann Gildea, Eddie Bannon. We also had an international food fare with dance and entertainment from all over the world. This was attended by hundreds of people.
Feile an Phobail has a very dynamic radio station running for four weeks which has been a phenomenal success. It has been a vehicle for discussion and debate with participation from all communities here. Many of the artists who participated in the Festival have been on this station, including Christy Moore, who spent over an hour singing live and playing requests on our bilingual show.
Mr O Muiri's other complaints are puzzling. It is a measure of our success that some venues are crowded, and while it is ambitious to mount such a range of programmes in so short a time, we do not sacrifice quality to breadth. The Feile operates largely on volunteer energy, and admittedly there always are loose ends. But the unusually high number of visitors from outside West Belfast - and outside the North - this year testifies to the popularity of a truly community- based festival.
Moreover, no local talent is intentionally neglected or slighted, and anyone who wants to organise an event is welcome at the Feile office to begin planning for next year. Mr O Muiri also failed to mention the work of the 47 local committees who organised activities within their own corners of West Belfast and where an enormous amount of both creativity and pride were displayed.
Feile an Phobail celebrates the life of West Belfast in all its dimensions: art, politics, sports, and community solidarity. The Feile's politics are a reflection of this community's survival against all odds, and anticipate a future when West Belfast will not face the continued indignities and injustices of British rule. Prisoners, plastic bullets, and internment may not seem like festival themes to Mr O Muiri, but for this community they are facts of life, and we draw strength from the Feile and from each other to continue the struggle for peace with justice. - Is mise,
Caitriona Ruane,
Director, Feile an Phobail, Bothair na bhFal, Beal Feirste.