Belfast council Feile funding row: DUP won’t back Sinn Fein bid for extra £200,000

Councillor Lee Reynolds was commenting after a council committee refused to rubber stamp the additional funding package – with some committee members expressing concerns over “transparency” and “justification”.

Last year the DUP and Sinn Fein were accused of a “carve up” over public money being used to fund projects in their own strongholds.

However, Mr Reynolds said there was no question of the DUP voting with Sinn Fein to overrule the decision of the City Growth and Regeneration Committee.

“It has to be referred back to the committee and we are perfectly content with that,” he said.

“We get special requests all the time from different organisations, but the Feile has a particular habit of doing it – more than most others – but it is a case of, there was a committee decision that there was to be no commitment made this month and that it was to go out to party groups for briefings.”

Referring to a similar request from Sinn Fein last year, Mr Reynolds added: “The Alliance and SDLP’s concerns are a bit odd considered they very happily voted for an extra £200,000 before, based on the committee request.”

Speaking to the News Letter on Wednesday, Sian O’Neill of Alliance said she had concerns that access to funding could be “monopolised,” by the largest festival in the city, and added: “There has to be an open call for submissions, there has to an application process and there has to be a criteria. Any other funder in any other walk of life will tell you that.”

In 2018 the city council provided more than £350,000 to the Feile, which also attracts grants from other public bodies and money from private sponsorship.

The UUP’s Jim Rodgers said: “It can’t continue. There are other groups who can’t get a pound out of the council.”

However, Feile director Kevin Gamble has defended the festival’s track record.

“Everything the Feile an Phobail does and our festival represents is open and transparent, and always are, year round for anyone to come and look at,” he said.

“What the festival represents is the heartbeat of our community and we’ll never apologise for doing our job in seeking more funding and seeking more support,” Mr Gamble told the Nolan show on Thursday.

Feile organisers were widely criticised last August when videos posted on social media showed people waving IRA flags and chanting pro-IRA slogans at the festival’s closing concert in Falls Park.

Asked if the festival could claim to be open to all sections of the community when the music includes rebel songs, Mr Gamble said: “I am not going to be a hypocrite and apologise for booking the Wolfe Tones. The Wolfe Tones have been a core part of the festival programme over the last number of years, and I think it’s also fair to say, we are in a time of peace, and the Wolfe Tones support peace.”

Asked if it was appropriate for ratepayers’ money to fund a Wolfe Tones performance accompanied by pro-IRA chants, Mr Gamble added: “That is paid for out of money that the Feile brings in itself. The money that we receive from Belfast City Council, or any other funders, does not go in any way to pay for one of the biggest and most successful bands. It comes out of money that comes in through other sources into Feile.”

Freelance arts manager and activist Adam Turkington said: “I am not saying that his amount of money is not an appropriate amount for the Feile, but I would like to see money also going to other worthy festivals. You can’t say that none of the others are not worth anything at all.”