The Féile and the Fleadh | The Little Lost Bird and the Blue Butterfly | Wildfires and Climate Change

The Féile and the Fleadh

Following on from Tradfest - well done Dónal and everyone  involved- Féile and  the Fleadh were mighty. Sixteen days of Féile An Phobail, seperate but running parallel with a week of the first Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann to be held in Belfast. An estimated one million plus Fleadh hoppers  meandered their way through Belfast soaking up the music, the craic and the joyful atmosphere as musicians and dancers playing their hearts out on streets and in pubs and music venues. Well done to all involved in organising this marvellous event. From Comhaltas first of all and all the musicans and dancers to Belfast City Council to the Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald who gave £1 million in funding in support of the Fleadh, to all of the business owners who opened their doors and provided the services that the crowds needed and enjoyed. Well done also to the media. The local broadcast radio and television made a special effort, as did TG4. Together they broadcast hours of happy smiling people appreciating the Fleadh, listening to the music and watching the dancers. And not forgetting Niall and Bronagh McClean,and Ards Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCE), the host branch for the Fleadh. This fleadh was six years in the making but it paid off – big time. Not least in its social and societal benefits. I spent some time each day at the competitions in the Waterfront Hall. The standard of the music was amazing. Over 5,000 musicians from over 20 countries participated. That included a number of bands from the Unionist and Loyalist tradition. Fair play to them. They were warmly welcomed by enthusiastic crowds.

The Little Lost Bird and the Blue Butterfly

Among the art exhibitions was one by John B Vallely. JB is a renowned artist from Armagh City and a traditional musician and s great champion of the Uilleann pipes. He has been painting for over 70 years and his exhibition for Féile focussed on the loss of innocence; on the children killed at Wounded Knee by the US army in 1890 and the current Israeli genocide in Gaza in which tens of thousands of Palestinian children have been murdered. Two images stand out in his remarkable exhibition. One is of a blue bird dedicated to Zintkála Nuni – the Little Lost Bird. It is symbolic of a baby girl who was found strapped to her murdered mother’s back four days after the massacre at Wounded Knee. She had survived four days in the snow. Her name was not known so she was named Zintkála Nuni – the Little Lost Bird.

Wildfires and Climate Change

It has been a summer thus far that tens of thousands of people in Europe and North America will remember for a long time to come. Climate change has exploded in a series of enormous and dangerous wildfires that have left devastation in their wake. Day after day the media is full of images of forests and farm land destroyed, homes in ruins and families living in makeshift shelters. From Spain to Greece and across Canada and the USA the land burns as a result of prolonged heatwaves and droughts.Of course, there are still those who boohoo even the notion of climate change. But the evidence today is overwhelming and it’s not new. As far back as the 1970s I recall warnings about the impact of pollution on the environment. In 1988 the United Nations established two UN agencies focussed on climate change - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) along with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).