feile15

Northern Ireland’s games of simultaneous political chess continue …

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 7, 2015, 11:14 am

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Even with a budgetary crisis looming over the Stormont institutions, other threads are still being woven into the political narrative. To switch metaphors, it’s like three games of chess being played simultaneously: one short-term game against the clock, another medium-term, and a long-term strategy being played out on a third board. So in the last week I’ve heard: Gerry Kelly challenge my defeatist attitude around the inevitability of welfare cuts if the Executive collapses (and the locally-tempered reforms are lost …

Building trust and policing for the present – Martin McGuinness and George Hamilton at #feile15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 6, 2015, 11:58 pm

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Around 400 people filled the assembly hall of St Mary’s University College to hear deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness and PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton discuss the challenges of dealing with the past under the eye of chair Brian Rowan. Another 100 or more stood along the pavement outside St Mary’s protesting at the presence of the Chief Constable in West Belfast and calling for an end to “British internment in Ireland”. A tannoy blasted music over the railing towards …

Austerity – is there a credible left-wing alternative? (Answer = not yet, but Sinn Féin are up for civic protest) #feile15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 6, 2015, 6:08 pm

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Against a backdrop of “working people facing an onslaught of right wing policies in Ireland and across Britain”, the panel chair explained that this Féile an Phobail event was the “first time we’ve had these progressive organisations come together and share a stage”. Twenty five plus years on since the community festival’s inception – and I understand some of the history and purpose of its creation – it’s remarkable that the organisers have allowed the programming to remain so tightly …

West Belfast Talks Back #feile15 – O Broin, Robinson, Corbyn & McKeever

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 5, 2015, 11:08 pm

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Long before the annual West Belfast Talks Back event had begun, spare chairs had been carried in and occupied, and the walls were lined with people keen to hear the debate. Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn raised an arm as he walked up to the stage to a roar of applause – perhaps his only Blairite gesture of the evening. The first questioner asked what hope the panel could bring to people in Palestine? East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson pointed …

The Proclamation for Prods: what the 1916 centenary might say to non-republicans #feile15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 5, 2015, 5:43 pm

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We are richer as people when we not only know a view point but can appreciate it. Dave Thompson is a teacher, runner, Presbyterian elder and SDLP member (who self-identifies as not being very nationalist). He delivered an hour long lecture that unpicked various perspectives on the 1916 Proclamation. The universal republican ideals – equality, liberty, fraternity – those are things we still care about in the 21st century, and things we’ll still be doing in the 22nd century. So …

Monica McWilliams – What difference does conflict or peace make for women? #feile15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 4, 2015, 11:57 pm

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Power works through dominion, but it also works through dependence … [yet] power can be changed. Wearing DDP Barra McGrory’s glasses until her own were located, Prof Monica McWilliams delivered a lecture this evening in St Mary’s University College on Conflict or Peace: What difference does it make for women? as part of Féile an Phobail. The academic and former Human Rights Commissioner highlighted instances of violence and discrimination against women in conflicts around the world, including Northern Ireland. The …

An uncomfortable conversation* at #Feile15 [*in the sense that a lack of hope leads optimism to wither]

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 3, 2015, 9:09 pm

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Pulling names out of a hat to decide the order of speaking, Presbyterian Minister and deputy Equality Commissioner Rev Lesley Carroll began by looking through “a dark lens” and delivered a downbeat assessment of the present state of reconciliation in Northern Ireland – we need to “change our tune, change our dance steps, or we’ll burrow a hole in the ground and fall into it”. She was followed by CRC chair Peter Osborne who spoke about continued segregation, relative funding …

Féile an Phobail – Jeremy Corbyn, Mairia Cahill … and the 1916 Proclamation for Prods

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 24, 2015, 9:00 am

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Left-wing Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn joins the West Belfast Talks Back panel for the annual political knockabout in St Louise’s Comprehensive College. Noel Thompson will keep the peace and chair the panel that includes Sinn Féin South Dublin councillor Eoin Ó Broin, PUP councillor Julie-Anne Corr Johnston and DUP MP Gavin Robinson. Wednesday 5 August at 7pm. This year’s Féile an Phobail runs from Thursday 30 July until Sunday 9 August. While the programme includes hundreds of events, listed …