A TUV attempt to snub a bid for an Irish trad music festival in Northern Ireland has been stopped by fellow unionists.
In Ards and North Down Council this week, TUV Councillor Stephen Cooper tried to stop a letter of support being issued from the council to Belfast City Council and Ards Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann who are making a bid to host the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. Despite the letter of support being recommended by Ards and North Down council officials, the TUV councillor said the council should only “note” and not support the recommendation.
He cited the controversy over the West Belfast Féile An Phobail earlier this month - in which certain audience members chanted republican slogans during a Wolfe Tones concert - as a reason for not supporting the bid to host the Irish Trad festival.
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One of the biggest festivals of traditional Irish culture in the world, the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann attracts many tens of thousands of international visitors each year. In its 60 year history the festival has only been held once in Northern Ireland, in Derry in 2013.
Ards Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, a cross-community non profit organisation promoting and fostering Irish traditional music, song and dance in the Ards area, has joined with Belfast Council to make a bid for the festival, and asked the Ards and North Down local authority to give added weight to the bid with a formal letter, with a view to events being held in Newtownards and Bangor.
The Ards and North Down Council report states: “Belfast City Council believes this event will hugely complement Belfast’s UNESCO City of Music status. The final bid is in the process of being finalised and includes reference to Bangor and Ards.
“If Belfast City Council were successful in securing the event, follow up meetings with Ards and North Down could benefit from this event.”
However, Councillor Cooper told the full meeting of Ards and North Council this week: “In light of the recent disgraceful scenes at the West Belfast, I don’t want to give any opportunity for a repeat of the glorification of terrorism.
“On a more pragmatic level, this is more about Belfast City, and bolstering their attempts at this. We don’t really get any benefit from it, and the language around it is on an all-island basis, which obviously as a unionist I find objectionable.”
He said the opinions of other parties were “rather naive,” and said Belfast City Council had “a history of intolerance to unionist traditions”. He added: “One only has to look across the province, and the deliberate attempt at diminishing our expressions of culture.
“That’s not to say this is tit for tat, or this is in any way retaliatory, because it is not. The lack of information here is a major objection, as we don’t know what this is, and whether we are going to be involved at all.”
He was supported on his proposal by three Independent Unionist elected representatives, and one DUP Councillor. 26 councillors, from the DUP, Alliance, the UUP, the Green Party, the SDLP, and one independent, voted against the TUV proposal. A counter proposal to carry the recommendation and support the bid for the festival was passed by 26 to five.
Ards and North Down Council has a thinly weighted unionist majority, with 40 elected representatives, 21 from unionist parties or unionist independents, the other 19 from Alliance, the Green Party, the SDLP, and one independent. There is only one nationalist councillor in the chamber of 40 - the smallest representation of nationalist local elected representatives of all 11 councils in Northern Ireland.
Alliance Councillor Hannah Irwin told the chamber: “In terms of Ards CCE itself, I know a lot of the members of the group are residents, and good friends of mine in the borough. It would be great if we could support our residents on behalf of Northern Ireland.”
DUP Alderman Stephen McIlveen said: “Certainly neither Ards CCE nor the Fleadh have had issues of controversy about them. We tread a dangerous line if we are talking about the West Belfast festival and the shameful activities there, and then tar all events with that particular brush.
“We would then be saying if this happens here, then we have to punish everybody who seeks to celebrate their culture. It may not be something I would take part in, but I am not going to deny other people that.”
UUP Councillor Philip Smith said: “If you look at the statistics around this event - it is a major international event. You are talking around half a million people over 10 days, £50 million income into the economy, and 25 percent of those visitors are coming from outside the island of Ireland.
“The only time it took place in Northern Ireland was in 2013 in Londonderry, and I remember at the time Lambegs and flute bands participated on the City side and the Waterside. So there is a lot of potential there for inclusion. I have been to the concerts of Ards CCE before, and I know the excellent work they do, and I think we should encourage that.”
SDLP Councillor Joe Boyle said: “I hear about unionism being threatened by this, and I think it is really pitiful. I am surprised that the lights didn’t go out when we heard that, because you would have thought the world was going to fall in.
“This is basically music, this is basically dance, this is basically trying to bring something to our borough that spins off from Belfast, and all it costs us is a letter of support.”
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