![\"Kneecap](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/community-arts-festival-hailed-after-absence-of-republican-bonfires-in-belfast.jpg\")
Kneecap performing at the charity community arts festival Feile an Phobail (Mark Marlow\/PA)<\/p>\nYouth workers and a community arts festival have been praised for the absence of republican bonfires in Belfast over the weekend.<\/p>\n
In previous years, there had been a tradition of lighting bonfires in nationalist areas to mark the anniversary of the introduction of internment without trial on August 9th 1971, during the early years of the Troubles.<\/p>\n
Bonfires are also traditionally lit in some areas, including Creggan in Derry on August 15th to mark the Catholic Feast of the Assumption.<\/p>\n
North Belfast MP John Finucane paid tribute to F\u00e9ile an Phobail and youth workers for diverting young people with \u201cpositive alternatives\u201d.<\/p>\n
The annual festival was originally set up in west Belfast in 1988 with the aim of displacing the street confrontations associated with the week around August 9 with \u201ca positive display of the community and its creativity\u201d.<\/p>\n
This year the festival included political talks, debates and lectures as well as concerts by Irish language rap group Kneecap.<\/p>\n
Kneecap performing at the charity community arts festival Feile an Phobail (Mark Marlow\/PA)<\/p>\n
Finucane said: \u201cAnother bonfire-free 8th August across Belfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is thanks in no small part to F\u00e9ile an Phobail and the youth workers who work tirelessly to give our young people positive alternatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday, 12,000 young people packed into the Falls Park and had a night to remember. A credit to themselves, their families and their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
F\u00e9ile an Phobail posted on X saying there had been no bonfires in Belfast overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe destruction that formerly happened in communities on 8th August didn\u2019t happen, yet again.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead 12,000 young people danced the night away in the Falls Park at F\u00e9ile Dance Night and they were superb! That is the future!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Youth workers and a community arts festival have been praised for the absence of republican bonfires in Belfast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-588316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}