Earnest Hemingway described bankruptcy as happening two ways: ‘gradually then suddenly.’

So, too, with societal change.

Consider Belfast. Over the last few months, Belfast has experienced a type of time travel.  First the city went on a frightening trip back to the bad old days of violence and hatred.  Then, just weeks later, a historic music festival provided a vision of a long- imagined future of peace, harmony, and prosperity.

 

Bad old days revisited

 

In early June, images of organized pogroms of a neighborhood populated by Sudanese and other Belfast residents of color flashed across our screens. The spark for the systematic assault on the neighborhoods was a knife attack by a Sudanese man that left a victim with life-altering wounds. The event was exploited by race baiters inside and outside of Northern Ireland, notably Tommy Robinson in the UK and Elon Musk of the USA. The burning of homes of ethnic minorities looked uncannily like Belfast in 1969 ,when loyalists burned Catholic families from their homes.  The only difference seemed to be that sectarian hatred had been repurposed and packaged as racial hatred.  

The June outrages were followed by the annual loyalist marching season that celebrates King William of Orange, culminating on the 12th of July with massive bonfires in unionist/ loyalist enclaves. Over the years the bonfires have added certain hateful embellishments to their towers of wooden pallets collected for this purpose throughout the year. Images and effigies of the enemy du jour are affixed to the pyres. In the recent past, Irish Republicans, the pope, the Irish Tricolor,  Irish and EU politicians (especially during Brexit) were set ablaze.

Last year, bonfires in Tyrone included models of small zodiac boats with black and brown mannequins seated aboard. Scrawled on the zodiac was the slogan of far right Nigel Farage and other British hate merchants: ‘Stop the Boats.’ To parody the suffering of migrants and refugees is ghoulish but is somehow both shocking and unsurprising.

This year’s Tyrone bonfires included the torching of models of mosques perched atop the stacks of wooden pallets that stretch into the sky.

Crosswinds:  When we first moved to Dublin, I was amazed that oftentimes when I looked skyward, I could see clouds moving quickly in one direction and then, higher up, another layer of clouds rushing in the opposite direction.  It can feel like being on the deck of a ship in a swirling squall.  Hatreds can work that way, too: for at least a decade there have been confusing crosswinds of animosities and allegiances among northern unionists and loyalists.

Irish Republicans support the cause of the Palestinian people and identify with their painful history of murder, dispossession, and colonization. Irish republicans display Palestinian flags prominently in their neighborhood and at their rallies.  In response to this, loyalists began to reflexively display Israeli flags in counter-protest, not because they care necessarily about Israel but because they want to do the opposite of Irish Republicans.

Today, you can see Israeli flags flying from Belfast to Derry.  Concurrently, loyalist groups in Northern Ireland have been increasing their cooperation with nativist, anti immigrant, pro-brexit groups on “the mainland” (Britain).  This unholy alliance has resulted in some confusion when the groups come together.

When English nativists join Northern Irish Loyalists for rallies in Belfast, the English are horrified to find themselves marching under Israeli Flags. 

Apparently no one explained to the loyalists in Northern Ireland that English bigots, whether they are anti-catholic, anti-muslim or just run- of- the- mill racists, are usually also deeply antisemitic. Being photographed under the star of David flags is not something they relish. 

In a way it is humorous to see their hatreds run past each other like clouds in the sky.  Even the hatred can’t agree with itself anymore.

Seeing homes  and vehicles burned out and ever-larger bonfires on the 12th of July, one could be forgiven for thinking that ‘plus ca change, plus c'est la même chose.’  But that would be incorrect.  There are positive societal changes happening in the six counties, evidence that things are changing for the better. One shining example is the Fleadh (pronounced flah).

 

The Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann music festival

 

After the spasm of racially motivated violence and annual displays of sectarian hatred, Belfast hosted the Fleadh Cheoil.  It was a spectacular success and restores hope that a future of love and music is possible and might be arriving to Belfast faster than most dared to hope. 

The Fleadh was started in 1951 in Mullingar to celebrate and promote Irish culture and music, specifically Irish traditional music.  Every year, a new location is chosen for this multi day event of fiddles, banjos, harps, concertinas, guitars, and sing-a-longs.  In 2026, for the very first time, Belfast was chosen to host the festival.  After the early summer turmoil it was exactly what the community needed.

The annual event is explicitly non-political but as we all know, in Northern Ireland everything has the potential to be political, even breakfast. It took me a couple of years to learn that Protestants keep their toasters in their cupboards while Catholics keep them on their kitchen counters. I am not sure why that is or what the advantage to either approach is.  I also wonder what that means for new appliances like air fryers?

Which brings to mind the old saw about a Belfast man meeting a stranger in the city. “What are ye, a Protestant or a Catholic?  Neither, I’m an atheist.’  Fair enough but are you a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?’

 

The organizers of the Fleadh did a brilliant job of enlisting the support of community leaders and politicians across the political spectrum.  DUP politician Emma Little Pengelly spoke at the Fleadh of the need to embrace all traditions in Northern Ireland, adding that the festival is for everyone who calls this place their home.  This was amazing considering DUP resistance to a different Trad event, The Feile an Phobail,’ a West Belfast Trad festival. 

In 2021 a DUP politician accused  the festival of ‘pro-IRA singing.’  While the Fleadh is a showcase for Irish Traditional music (Trad)  the organizers also made room for loyalist pipe and drum bands for the first time.  This sensitive approach to the unionist community, encouraging them to share their musical traditions rather than excluding them is a credit to the organizers. 

The relative beauty of each tradition is in the eyes (and ears) of the beholders, but before I dismiss the loyalist marching bands that sometimes use music to justify and glorify foreign planters asserting dominance over the native Irish, consider Ivan (Van) Morrison.  I only learned that “Van the Man’”came from a Protestant background when we moved to Ireland. 

On March 7 of this year, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (the group that has organized and managed the Fleadh for the last 75 years) confirmed that Belfast will host the Fleadh again in 2027.  Another first.  In all the years of the Fleadh, it has never been in the same location two years in a row. Book your tickets!

It turns out that  the decision to hold the festival in Belfast again next year was taken before the first note was played or the first crowds counted. The growth of interest in Irish Traditional music- as measured by increased enrolment in music classes, dance classes and the like–moved the governing body behind the Fleadh to make the two-year bet on Belfast based on anticipatory success not post 2026 success.

Can the arts really lead the way to a brighter future?

 

“When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truths, which must serve as the touch stone for our judgment.”  -JFK at Amherst on Oct. 26, 1963

 

Believing that the power of music can bring people together, transcend division, and heal the wounds of the past might seem like naive, ‘hippie-dippie’ idealism but the Fleadh Cheoil in Belfast was a runaway success.  Optimistic projections by the organizers predicted between 750,000-800,000 thousand of footfall, but the actual number recorded was nearly 1.7 million as people flocked to Belfast for the 8-day festival.  Even after one accounts for repeat visitors, it is an astounding total especially when you consider that there are only 1.9 million people who live in the 6 counties.

John Hume frequently quoted his father saying that ‘You can’t eat a flag’ when explaining the limitations of patriotic fervor and the importance of ‘spilling sweat not blood together.’  The economic benefit to Northern Ireland of 1.7 million visitors in Belfast City for 8 days was significant.  In addition to its social and cultural benefits, a huge infusion of tourism dollars to Belfast was very much welcome. It is estimated that 60 million pounds were injected into the local economy in one week, roughly 10 percent of the yearly tourism industry to Northern Ireland.

More exciting still is that with the tourism trade, most of the money stays in the local economy.  Multinationals like Pfizer, Google, and Meta headquarter their European operations in Ireland but most of the money they earn does not stay in Ireland.  They benefit the Irish economy by paying corporate taxes, employing Irish people, and investing in real estate, but these corporations might be bullied by an American president to repatriate to the US. 

By contrast, Irish music belongs to the people of Ireland. In addition, music festivals do not require energy and water-hogging data centers to be built. The arts are a renewable resource.  Building on the success of the Fleadh, the possibilities are endless: hosting more music festivals, theater, food, cinema, and other visual arts festivals.

Music and the arts will not solve every problem in Northern Ireland but the success of the Fleadh is evidence that people are ready for change, and perhaps have already changed. Change is often sparked by the arts, led by the people and the politicians follow.

 

Darkness and Light

 

The darkness of violence that broke out in early summer was different from the grinding violence of the Troubles in one important respect: Violence today is not supported by the majority of the people of Northern Ireland or by the main political parties.  The mainstream unionist parties, the UUP and DUP, as well as Sinn Fein, SDLP and the Alliance party were united in their condemnation of the attacks. Violence - sectarian, racial or political-  has been pushed by the people to the edges of society and that is a monumental shift.  The light of the cross community music festival is an expression of broad-based desire to get along.  The arts have inspired the people of Northern, and the politicians will follow to craft a society beyond mere tolerance and towards love.

Gradually then suddenly.