A week at the Féile.

A piece published in 27/02/2025 Belfast News Letter

This is the third year I have attended the debate and discussion element of the festival, and I am only speaking to this part. However, anecdotally, people I have spoken to found the community events to have been successful.

The first event I attended was Nick Hayward’s testimony of the work he was doing in Gaza as a surgeon. This was powerful, poignant, painful and an inspiration to listen to. Powerful, because he spoke vividly and with authority about his work at Nasser Hospital and the current genocide going on in Gaza. Poignant because it was moving. Painful because of the images of starvation, the human carnage, and the story of the execution of two of his medical colleagues. Inspirational, because Nick has a wife and family in England, and he has been coming to Gaza for years, a slaughterhouse in which the IDF has systematically killed 1400 medics. The depth of Nick’s fearlessness and his humanity is unfathomable; if that is not inspirational, what is?

The next event was a discussion about a report from Professor John Doyle about the subvention, chaired by Mike Tomlinson, two people singing from the proverbial same hymn sheet. In addition to Mike not acting as a chair, there was no counter-narrative/analysis to challenge what I described as a politically naive report. I also pushed back on the German unification analogy drawn by Doyle that additional costs of unification, particularly around re-rating public sector pay and welfare totalling some €8 billion, could be spread over 15 years, which may make economic sense, but would be politically completely unacceptable in a New Ireland, which remains ill-defined. I pointed out that the East Germans would have accepted any deal because they were in a political, economic, and social meltdown due to the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall. Northern Ireland may be a political farce and, as suggested by Mary Lou, “not economically viable,” but it is nothing like East Germany. I posed a question: Is this all part of Ireland’s Future, Mushroom Strategy? You can guess his response.

The following event, hosted by the Irish Border Poll Group, focused on how culture wars could impact a border poll result, specifically in terms of people not voting for unification. There were three panellists: Andree Murphy of Ireland’s Future, Mark Hennssey of the Irish Times, and Kevin Meagher. Firstly, they failed to define or understand the difference between culture and tradition. Andree then went off on a tangent about human rights, and the rest of the debate descended into a discussion about migration, housing, and its impact on host communities. Migration is a significant global issue, deeply intertwined with issues of global income and wealth inequality, political unrest, civil wars, the exploitation of resources and rare earth minerals by Western nations and corporations. In addition to the post-colonial legacy of European nations, and the yet-to-be-realised full impact of the climate crisis. An odd event that was badly chaired.

There was a debate on Palestine Day, chaired by Patricia McKeown, Trade Union Friends of Palestine and two panellists, Dr. Shahd Hammouri, Palestinian/Jordanian international human rights lawyer and Saleh Hijazi, member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee. The conversation was informative, though it should have focused on the genocide, the complicity of Western nations and neighbouring authoritarian Arab states, the decisions of the Israeli government, the acts of the IDF, and whether there is a solution, two states or otherwise.

Sadly, a discussion that should have featured and was overlooked in the debate programme was a conversation about the scenes in Ballymena and what we need to do as a society to bring our diverse communities together. This may not be an important part of Ireland’s Future agenda; however, this is a surprise considering what is going on in the 26 counties. There were no debates about our crumbling healthcare system, the oxymoronic structure of our political system or AI and its impact on the future of work and education.

Finally, there were two large paintings prominently displayed of Martin Maguiness and Gerry Adams, which struck me. St Mary’s College is an academic institution that should be seen as a safe and neutral place where people from all backgrounds can exchange views robustly, on the basis that you can disagree agreeably. The images of Maguiness and Adams, when you enter the college, did not portray this and could have been a hindrance to those wanting to attend the college from the so-called other side of the community. It would have been equally unacceptable if a similar event at Queen’s had prominently displayed portraits of Gusty Spence and Billy Hutchison.

In conclusion, the political debates were more akin to evangelical get-togethers. The conversations were devoid of the phrase ‘working class. This is part of a historical and political narrative that embedded the notion that working-class Billy and working-class Seamus have nothing in common. This is a myth that can no longer be allowed to continue.

Suneil Sharma

27th August 2025