Cultural Democracy in Derry, Distorted and Subverted

By AM Monday, August 26, 2013

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Guest writer Anne Mc Closkey, MB, with her take on recent cultural events in Derry.

And so the DerrystrokelondonderryUKfcityofculture Fleadh has been and gone. The pop up bars and pop in traders have gone back to wherever they popped from, and, with the tunes still ringing in their heads, the people of Derry have descended back down to reality. Of course The Fleadh was brilliant. There hasn’t been a bad one ever!

Comhaltas Ceoltaíri Éireann, (the Musicians Collective of Ireland) was founded in 1951, to promote and develop Irish traditional music and to bring it from the doldrums into which it had fallen, following centuries of cultural imperialism, to the modern age. Job done, without a doubt. Over the years since the first Fleadh in 1951, the festival has grown from a gathering of a few hundred enthusiasts to an international music festival ranking with the best globally.

Although Comhaltas was undoubtedly the catalyst and facilitator of that process, the people who made it happen were the thousands of musicians, the parents and the teachers who have passed the tunes from generation to generation, through the centuries. Most taught without praise or payment, and they played only for the love of the music, and for the love of the country whose story it told. Our culture is central to who we are, and to where we came from. It tells our story as a nation and as a people.

We’ve been told that Comhaltas is a non-political organisation. It’s in the constitution. Those of us who objected to the Fleadh being brought to Derry as the jewel in the crown of this year-long celebration of Derry’s place within the United Kingdom (ref Act of Union 1800, amended 1922) were castigated as trying to “bring politics into it.” This is truly turning reality on its head.

To have the Fleadh coming to Derry any year but this one would have been politically neutral, and would have been welcomed by all right minded people. A long overdue visit to the northern state of our national music festival. But to bring it this year, as the jewel in the crown of the UK-fest is a different matter entirely. So contentious was it that it required the distortion and subversion of the democratic processes of the organisation of Comhaltas itself in order to bring it about. The decision was imposed, over the heads of lifelong members and activists, by a virtual coup d’etat. It was just about as politically influenced a decision as it is possible to have made. Many members resigned as a direct consequence, after years of service, not only locally but regionally and nationally. One Legacy of the City of Culture year that won’t make it to the glossy brochure I’ll bet!

Like the Maoris, whose tribal leaders danced in their grass skirts for the amusement of Queen Victoria, we, or those who act on our behalf have laid our culture and history on the altar of Empire.

A couple of intrepid souls painted “UK” over the “IE” in the e-mail address on Free Derry Wall, and wrote underneath “CULTURE FOR SALE”, every night for a month. Every morning the thought police had it restored it to its former glory. Even Free Derry Wall, it seems, must be a loyal subject of Her Royal Highness. Dissention has never been less tolerated. Anyone who doesn’t fall in line is “locked in the past”, not “moving forward” a “slave of history”. Using the “D” word to name our city is like a breach of some newly introduced code of etiquette, faintly shameful, not in good taste. We have so many cool alternatives now!

To have managed to have brought Derry, the historic cradle of resistance, to this point is a remarkable achievement. That we have come through half a century of hardship and heartbreak, of imprisonment and bloodshed and the seemingly never-ending funerals, so that Derry might become a UK icon, seems surreal. In place of our proud tradition, going back through centuries, of resistance to imperialism and all that it represents, we have a celebration of our conquest and colonisation, arranged and served up on our behalf by our leaders. No wonder that many of those who walked the sad and lonely walk since 1969 are left bewildered and disillusioned.

The Fleadh was brilliant, but I’m only sayin…..