OK – whoa there. Steady up. Let’s not get carried away, as clearly has happened to Patrick Murphy writing in The Irish News. He says the Fleadh did more to unite people than the IRA did in 50 years.
Cool your jets, Patrick. The Fleadh was a celebration of Irish culture, and it included various loyalist bands, including the Shankill Road Defenders. This was a gesture of generosity by the Fleadh organisers and was received gracefully by the band.
So yes, the Fleadh was a culturally uniting event which achieved something important, even very important – it told the PUL community that Irish culture recognised them as part of our musical tradition.
But the IRA was not bent on musical integration, or welcoming loyalist bands. The IRA had the objective of having a state in the north run on a political system that was fair and equitable , and from that to achieve a united Ireland. This was and is a political goal, not a cultural one. So we need to resist the temptation of saying “Irish unity? Sure what better unity could you want than a loyalist band playing at a celebration of Irish culture?”
We all feel good about the way the Fleadh brought joy to Belfast (as well as money). But it didn’t give Irish people independence from Britain. And (brace yourself, Patrick) that’s what the IRA was fighting for and what all republicans and nationalists and others are now working for. If you’d been at the Ireland’s Future event in Derry on Friday, Patrick, it might have helped you understand the difference. There’s culture and there’s politics. They’re linked, but they are NOT the same thing.
Very good jude
I almost threw up when I got to paragraph four and read the sickening defence of the IRA.
I recommend the author read this article in yesterday’s Irish Times written by Ann Travers.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/08/15/ann-travers-to-see-the-woman-convicted-of-my-sisters-murder-with-president-connolly-broke-me/
I recommend you read it again
Ann Travers has made a career out of her father’s death!
SherdyMe – Read the article. Her father survived the gun attack.
Who is Eugene57? a Brit agent?
Joe – that’s a reprehensible comment. So I call out the political violence of the organisation mentioned in the above article and you call me a derogatory term.
In your balanced article entitled “Ireland’s Future”, written earlier today, you wrote “reconciliation is a process that never ends”. I think we can all agree with that.