Charity Commission 'going to bury its head in the sand' over Feile An Phobail promotion of event honouring IRA man

He was speaking after it emerged that the publicly-funded festival is helping to promote the under-13s "Joe Cahill Gaelic Tournament", named after one of the founders of the PIRA.

It is due to take place today [Saturday] in west Belfast.

The tournament has been running for 20 years, but the fact the Feile is featuring the event in its 2024 programme has led to renewed interest in the subject – and renewed criticism.

The annual Feile (AKA the West Belfast Festival) runs events from spring onwards, but its main festival period is August.

It is run by Féile an Phobail Limited, a registered charity, whose accounts show that in 2022/23 the biggest funder was Belfast City Council (£555,000) followed by the Arts Council (£118,000).

Speaking about its inclusion of the Joe Cahill tournament on the Feile website this year, Mr Bryson told the News Letter: "Promoting the IRA is hardly consistent with charitable purposes, but given the Charity Commission’s complete reluctance to take any action – at all – in respect of the West Belfast festival, this will simply be something else brushed under the carpet by the commission.”

When this was put to the commission, it said simply: "The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland has not received any concerns in relation to the issues raised."

But the commission's rules allow it to investigate a charity even in the absence of concerns being raised by a member of the public.

Mr Bryson responded that, whilst the commission will "inevitably adopt their annual ostrich act", he has now lodged just such a complaint anyway.

It focuses on both the Joe Cahill cup (which he refers to as an "overt promotion of terrorism") and the "musical terrorfest" that is the Wolfe Tones' annual performance at the festival, when "ooh ahh up the Ra" is sung by the band.

In reply, the commission tells the News Letter: “The commission is aware of, and will look at, the issues raised in line with our standard processes.

“As a proportionate and fair regulator of Northern Ireland charities, the commission cannot provide further information or comment while that is ongoing.”

Joe Cahill died in 2004. He had been involved in the IRA’s border campaign of the 1950s, and later helped to found and lead the PIRA.

He was jailed for three years in the Republic in the mid-70s for smuggling hundreds of guns and explosives into Ireland from Libya.