COMMEMORATION of anniversaries is a major theme of this year's West Belfast Feile an Phobail which started yesterday and runs until August 11.
The festival's glossy brochure contains a variety of artistic events inspired by the 15th anniversary of the Hunger Strikes, the 25th of internment and the 80th of both the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme.
Two separate exhibitions dealing with the Rising and the Somme will open simultaneously at the Springvale Training Centre on the Springfield Road.
This juxtaposition of exhibits in a venue on the peaceline, is, according to Feile organiser, Geordie Murtagh, an attempt to encourage both communities to visit.
A panel discussion on The Enduring Legacy of 1916 will explore the different legacies of those who fought in the Irish Rising and the Battle of the Somme in the same year.
There will also be an exhibition and video on internment, followed by a discussion with ex-internees as well as numerous discussions, debates and commemorative Masses. A plastic bullet vigil in Andersonstown takes on extra significance given the RUC's use of them over the past month.
While most of the Feile programme is strongly infused with a nationalist ethos, it is also chock a lock with fun events for all ages. There are more than 400 major events as well as a few hundred subsidiary events organised by 44 local festival committees under the Feile umbrella, Murtagh says.
They include a fancy dress parade, storytelling sessions, comedy by the Hole in the Wall Gang, mural paintings by the staff of the Falls Women's Centre, Irish language classes, numerous sporting events and an international food fair.
In theatre, Feile regulars Dubbeljoint Productions will present the premiere of Stones In His Pockets written by Marie Jones and directed by Pam Brighton. It is a play about two thirtysomethings who meet on the set of an American movie in Ireland.
The French circus troupe Caravane Des Quartiers will host daytime workshops in trampolining, acrobatics and African percussion in a marquee, with evening music performances by bands from France, Scotland, Belfast, Dungannon and Limerick.
Other musical guests include The Dubliners and Paddy Reilly, Goats Don't Shave, The Paperback Beatles and classical singer Angela Feeney. There will also be sessions galore, discos and karaoke nights.
Annual festival hardies include the ever popular West Belfast bus tour, the Black Mountain walk, the Glen Colin rock Mass and a tour of graves in Milltown Cemetery. And despite the fact the ninth annual Feile is being held in a post ceasefire climate, no performers have pulled out due to safety fears, Murtagh says.
The highlight of the accompanying second West Belfast Film Festival, which runs from August 3rd to August 10th, is the evening with Maureen O'Hara and the screening of one of her favourite films, the John Ford classic, How Green Was My Valley.
THE impressively varied programme also includes screenings of the rarely seen To Die In Madrid directed by Frederic Rossif, and Bertolucci's 320 minute masterpiece 1900, which will be shown over two days.
There will also be film making and animation workshops as well as seminars on the drama documentary genre and working in the film industry.
. Information from Belfast 313440.