Unionists react as Feile an Phobail ends with glorification of IRA killer Bik McFarlane
Unionists have condemned a tribute to IRA killer Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane at the close of this year’s Feile an Phobail festival.
An image of the senior IRA man, who died this year, was broadcast from the stage in Falls Park, west Belfast, during a concert drawing the 17-day publicly-funded festival to a close on Sunday evening.
At the same time, the group Shebeen played a song called Marcella in tribute to McFarlane.
It is a song McFarlane himself had written for his former comrade Bobby Sands, about how “they killed you in a H-Block cell and hoped that all would turn away… but we're stronger now, you showed us how freedom's fight can be won".
The concert was titled Let the People Sing, and was billed as “the world’s biggest-ever rebel concert”. Tickets were available via Ticketmaster.
An image and a clip of the McFarlane tribute was tweeted out by the official Feile Twitter account, @FeileBelfast (36,000 followers).
McFarlane was part of the IRA team that carried out the Bayardo Bar attack in 1975.
The IRA bombed and shot up the pub on the loyalist Shankill Road in Belfast, killing five random Protestants.
He also went on to be one of the central figures involved in the 1983 Maze breakout, during which IRA prisoners rose up and shot and stabbed their guards, with 38 of them escaping.
He was later caught in Holland and extradited.
After his escape in 1983, he was allegedly involved in the kidnap of supermarket executive Don Tidey, which led to the fatal shooting of Irish soldier Patrick Kelly; he was tried unsuccessfully for the kidnapping in 2008.
McFarlane died on February 21, and was eulogised by senior Sinn Fein figures (and Celtic fans, who unveiled a tifo describing him as a soldier and a hero).
Following the Feile tribute, north Belfast DUP MLA Phillip Brett said: “McFarlane was not a hero. He was a convicted terrorist who bore responsibility for murder and destruction, including his role in the Bayardo Bar bombing, which claimed the lives of five people and injured many more.
"Such attempts to romanticise the actions of the IRA are an insult to the families left bereaved and communities still dealing with the scars of violence.
"When Sinn Féin previously attempted to eulogise Brendan McFarlane, I set the record straight – and I will continue to stand up for victims every single time.
"Once again, much of the media has turned a blind eye to this glorification of terrorism, just as they too often do when the narrative suits republicanism.
"Victims deserve better than selective outrage and silence from those who claim to hold truth to account.
"We owe it to victims to tell the truth: Brendan McFarlane was part of a campaign of violence which devastated lives. No amount of music, speeches, or banners will erase that reality.”
Meanwhile TUV deputy leader, Belfast councillor Ron McDowell, said the Bayardo attack had been “sectarian slaughter, pure and simple".
“So let’s be clear – McFarlane was a sectarian killer linked to kidnapping, the death of a prison officer [of a heart attack during the Maze break-out], and the murder of a soldier of the Irish state.
“Yet last night, he was honoured as a hero in west Belfast. Where is the outrage from those who pore over loyalist parades seeking real or imagined offences?”
He had in mind the SDLP, Alliance, and much of the media.
“Is it the case that the eulogising of a republican murderer is acceptable – but for loyalism, every perceived misstep becomes a public inquisition?” asked councillor McDowell.
“It would appear so.”
Councillor McDowell noted that in previous years the festival have said they had received no complaints about similar incidents, adding that they can be contacted via [email protected] .
For more on the Bayardo attack and its aftermath, see here: