You can't keep a good FΘile down

The Falls Road area took on the appearance of a chaotic theme park for the 14th annual FΘile an Phobail, which came to an end last night. There was ice skating in the car park, carnivals on the streets, and bunting bedecked street parties absolutely everywhere.

The most thrilling attraction of them all could be found parked outside the leisure Centre on the White Rock Road. Seven tonnes of Humber Pig, the type of ex-British army vehicle that patrolled the streets of Ballymurphy in "the bad old days" was parked by a grass verge and surrounded by excited children looking for a ride. Welcome to West Belfast World trade mark - don't forget your video camera.

The owner of the Saracen, local man Art Corbett (34), was running a tour of the area during the festival, calling it Ballymurphy At War. "Most men and women around here have been in the back of one of these at some stage, I remember it well myself being thrown in by the soldiers, they would put their flak jackets and boots over you. You heard the whine of the engines first, then the dogs barking and the doors slamming. There were two minutes of silence and then you knew that all hell was going to break loose," he said.

Corbett and a business partner bought the vehicle for £4,000 sterling on the Internet - the Saracens had been decommissioned by the British Army and sold in public auctions; this one has already starred in a film about Bloody Sunday, recouping one third of Corbett's initial investment.

A "tiny minority" have been disproving of the purchase, wondering why he would want to bring such a symbol of oppression back to West Belfast. "But it's proving very popular with tourists and locals who have bad memories of it but love the thought that it now belongs to someone from the area," he says.

Being driven around West Belfast in this hunk of British military metal is surreal. The jaws of shoppers drop open in surprise as it cranks down the Falls Road, old men shake their heads and young guys with tattoos look annoyed and then amused when they catch sight of Corbett at the wheel.

The highlight of the tour occurs in the Springhill Estate, dubbed the 33rd county by inhabitants.

Before we drive in, Corbett slides shut the heavy iron plates that pass for windows, "you'll see why soon enough," he says.

Minutes later, the Saracen is surrounded by crowds of young boys and girls laughing and lobbing stones in our direction. "Yiz are animals in Springhill," he shouts good naturedly to a group of women chatting at a garden gate.

"Imagine what it was like when instead of kids there were hundreds of grown men and instead of stones they were throwing petrol bombs," he muses, making a hasty exit as the missiles rain down. "Sometimes the soldiers would sit in one of these for a couple of hours while there were riots outside".

The tours will continue as long as there is demand and the Saracen has been booked for a wedding and even a stag party. "It can't take the pain of what it represented away, but the fact that this Saracen is ours now, does bring some kind of joy," he said.

While effortlessly winning the award for the most original and authentic, Corbett's tour wasn't the only tour running as part of FΘile 2001. Special coaches ferried tourists around the murals and the hunger strike memorials dotted around West Belfast, while smaller groups were brought around the area in Black Cabs. There were walking tours of the local cemeteries, trips up Black Mountain and even a tour of local newspaper The Anderstown News.

If it could be visited, it was in the festival programme, which seemed more action-packed than ever before.

The debate over whether FΘile an Phobail constitutes an arts festival or a week long community hooley has raged for years, but neither the organisers or the 40,000 who descended on the area for the opening carnival seem to care. "You can call it what you like," said festival director, Caitriona Ruane, adding that funding from the Northern Ireland Arts Council had increased from £10,000 sterling to £40,000 sterling this year. "It is an arts festival and it is a community festival, both those words are as important to me".

Equally, the question of whether the festival is inclusive enough to attract those from the Shankill as well as the Falls Road - there are events such as the Bobby Sands Memorial Cup and Prisoners Day - has also sparked criticism in the past. "People from all communities and ethnic minorities are coming to our events, taxi drivers are telling us that and the people themselves are coming up to us to say how great it is. Maybe sometimes Protestants are scared, it could be only their first or second time in West Belfast, but they are starting to feel at ease now," she says.

Indeed, while there are many republican inspired events, the festival programme is also geared towards a much wider audience. On Tuesday afternoon, the FΘile marquee on Kennedy Way was stuffed with almost 2,000 children in regulation denim and stars and stripes bandanas, ecstatic to have secured tickets for a sell out gig by chart-topping English act Atomic Kitten. This is the third year in a row that FΘile has hosted a number one pop act, Westlife and Samantha Mumba have been the headliners in previous years.

This year, Gerry Adams bounced a baby in his arms backstage as he waited to meet the kittens and Health Minister Bairbre de Br·n posed with the crowd who had come to worship at the transient altar of UK pop.

There was an international feel to much of the music on offer - bands such as King Masco came from as far away as Sierra Leone - while The Undertones, a U2 tribute band and a 1970s disco night had a broad appeal, attracting huge crowds to the marquee.

Theatrical events included plays based on the Hunger Strikes and prisoners issues (The Laughter of Our Children and The Prisoner's Wife) but dramas such as the Edinburgh Fringe award-winning Bogus Woman focused on the international subject of asylum seekers.

Among the art exhibitions included in the programme was local artist Rita Duffy's work entitled dessert. The Kalashnikov rifle she made entirely from chocolate is displayed in a mausoleum type case in the study hall of St Dominic's school.

One of the most popular FΘile events has traditionally been the West Belfast Talks Back debate. While the UUP's Ken Maginnis had to drop out at short notice, a very vocal crowd of hundreds packed the hall in St Louise's College on the Falls Road on Wednesday night. For two and a half hours they talked about decommissioning, policing and plastic bullets with a panel that included new Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew, the UUP's Duncan Shipley Dalton, Cork historian John A Murphy and former SDLP MLA Brian Feeney. Irish Times columnist and broadcaster Vincent Browne chaired the event, which, for anyone who finds it difficult to grasp the minutiae of Northern politics and the feelings of the community on the ground was illuminating, if at times a little depressing. (Vincent Browne: "Should your community do more to understand the Unionist community?" A large section of the crowd: "No, No, No").

A report commissioned by FΘile organisers last year showed that economically the festival has been of significant benefit to the whole of Belfast. In one week, FΘile brought in a total of £3.3m to the city and it is widely regarded as one of the largest community festival in Europe. In this context, it seems strange that a few days ago the FΘile Committee's application for funding from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure - an office which funds events that include golf tournaments - was rejected.

Judging from the exuberance and confidence visible on the Falls Road last week, such setbacks are unlikely to keep a good (and getting even better) festival down.