Belfast councillor concerns over £200,000 Feile cash boost

Sinn Fein councillors on a Belfast City Council committee have recommended that the 2019 Feile an Phobail gets increased financial support ahead of a “new cultural strategy” being adopted from April 2020 onwards.

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.

Figures released to the News Letter after the outcry revealed that the city council alone had provided £357,000 worth of funding in 2018.

A decision on whether to provide the extra cash has been deferred due to concerns around “transparency” and whether the grant could be justified.

Alliance councillor Sian O’Neill said she had concerns that access to funding could be “monopolised,” 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.”

Jim Rodgers of the UUP: “The Feile has been getting money out of different council sections and whenever it’s all added up it’s an enormous amount. It can’t continue. There are other groups who can’t get a pound out of the council.”

He added: “It’s ok saying the Feile is successful. That may be true up to a point, but we can’t continue year after year giving amount like this to them or any other organisation. Others are getting a pittance or nothing at all.”

The Maritime Festival and the Belfast International Arts Festival have also been earmarked for enhanced funding following a recommendation that all three could be developed into “key Belfast Signature events”.

Mr O’Neill said: “Where did these figures come from? Are these figures that the organisations asked for themselves? Has the Maritime Festival got in touch and said ‘we need £240,000, this is what we are spending it on and here is the justification for it?’ That’s what I want to get to the bottom of ... where has the justification for these numbers come from?”

Alliance group leader on the council Michael Long has also expressed concern.

“There is definitely an issue in the way funding is handled, and the amount of money that Feile gets seems to be huge compared to the amount other groups in the city would get,” he said.

“And that is basically because Sinn Fein are pushing all the time, and that is because they can do deals with the unionists so that groups they want funded can get money as well.”

In a Twitter post, arts sector professional Adam Turkington said he had no particular issue with the Feile, but questioned what criteria were being used to allocate funds.

He said: “This is in no way to underestimate the value of the work being done by that organisation. But our sector is on its knees though continual under investment. The lack of due process is really difficult to take.”