Comhghairdeas Féile!! Well done to all of those who planned, organised, participated in, or generally contributed to this years hugely successful Féile an Phobail. It was a colourful, imaginative, informative, entertaining, empowering and exhausting couple of weeks. This year’s published programme was a weighty volume providing information on over 600 events across the City. It was a mix of 80 debates and discussions, sporting and music events, art exhibitions, as well as the carnival parade and family fun days for children and much more. The concerts in the Park were packed to capacity each night and revellers thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Gael Stair – Na h’Abair é, dean é. During Féile I had the honour and pleasure to open an exhibition in Conway Mill on the role of the Irish language and Irish language activists in the social and political history of Belfast. At the heart of the exhibition is the archive preserved by Brighid Mhic Sheáin - one of the founders of the Shaws Road Gaeltacht in west Belfast. Over five decades she diligently collected the Gael Stair archive which reveals how connected the Irish language was with the struggle for social rights, self-determination, and for a better future free from poverty and unemployment. 🏚"Gaeltacht Gan Tithe 🔜 Gaeltacht Gan Todhchaí"🏚 Bígí linn, Satharn 20 Meán Fómhair ag Mórshiúl Náisiúnta na nGael - CEARTA - i mBaile Átha Cliath. ⭕"Seas le pobal na Gaeltachta" 🏡 Remembering Internment As we celebrate Féile an Phobail we should remember the events of August 1971 which gave rise to some of the conditions that helped shape Féile in 1988.In the early hours of Monday 9th August 1971 thousands of British soldiers swamped nationalist areas across the North and smashed their way into the homes of hundreds of nationalist and republican families. 342 men, the old and the young, were dragged from their beds and taken to interrogation and holding centres were most were beaten. Fourteen of their number were singled out for torture – the hooded men.
