Féile na gCloigíni Gorma
Clár / Programme – Féile na gCloigíní Gorma
Féile na gCloigíni Gorma is a week-long community festival based in the Upper Springfield area of West Belfast. The festival is a people’s celebration of community, health and the local environment. Each year from the month of May the field above the famous Black Mountain ‘Hatchet Field’ blooms and chimes with the glorious site of a sea of indigenous wild ‘Blue Bells’.
For generations of local people from the Upper Springfield this has effectively signalled the beginning of summer, and the hope and joy this means for local children and families.
A group of local community activists are using the symbol of the blooming ‘Blue Bells’ to remind local people of the joys of life, their natural environment and the importance of health and community solidarity!
The week-long series of events will last from the Sunday the 21 May until Sunday the 28 May and will include: walks, talks, sports, cycling, fishing and more. The programme will kick off by local Gaels competing in a 7 a side Gaelic football tournament and will close a week later with the return of the famous Caulfield’s to Black Mountain run and walk!
In between this there will be free events on every day, some of the highlights include the premier screening of the award winning Hillsborough documentary which will be followed by a question and answers session with the independent panel report’s primary author Professor Phil Scraton!
Féile na gCloigíni Gorma intends to challenge, inspire and involve as many local people as possible in order to foster a culture of self-help, solidarity and human collaboration. We want to create spaces for local people to engage with and reflect on their health, environment and the world around us while enjoying the company of others.
The modern world has become characterised by competition, individualism, inequality, crass materialism and mental ill-health and we wish to challenge this by providing people with a safe platform to explore our historical and spiritual connections with our environment and community as well as our inherent humanity. So come along to our Black Panther inspired breakfast clubs, complete a lap of Belfast on your bike, run the Black Mountain, and walk in the Falls Park. Healthy hearts create healthy minds and hope springs eternal when we recognise our human potential as agents for social change. The organisers of this festival believe that within the Upper Springfield local people hold the key to building another world and we are building it now!
