Singer Sinead O'Connor has withdrawn from a West Belfast summer festival, claiming organisers told her not to make a statement on paramilitary-style attacks from the stage, writes Clare Murphy.
O'Connor announced her intention to pull out of the August performance in Hot Press magazine. "Effectively I was warned by Sinn Fein that I shouldn't mention punishment beatings. But they asked the wrong artist if they wanted a puppet," she said in an interview.
However, Ms Catriona Ruane, one of the organisers of the 12th Feile an Phobail '99, launched on Wednesday by Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said there had been no attempt to silence the singer and the management committee of the festival would be asking her to reconsider the decision. According to Ms Ruane the matter came to the attention of organisers when it was reported in May that O'Connor intended to invite human rights group Families Against Intimidation and Terror on to the stage during her performance. Mr Danny Morrison, a former director of communications with Sinn Fein and a member of the management committee of the festival, wrote to an associate of O'Connor's "advising against" this course of action and said the singer may "not fully appreciate the complexities" of the issue.