: PERCHED 10FT up a ladder, Danny Devenny added the last-minute touches to his latest gable-end creation: a mural celebrating the 20th anniversary of Féile an Phobail, the west Belfast festival.
Inspired by the work of Irish artist Robert Ballagh, the Rockville Street wall painting shows an Easter lily, shaped like a dove, breaking through the surface of a concrete block. The veteran republican muralist - a former inmate of Long Kesh jail in the 1970s, who first started painting while in prison - considers it a fitting symbol for a festival which started as a tiny morale-boosting event in the darkest days of the Troubles, and now takes pride in its status as one of Europe's largest community festivals.
Given that the North's murals are sometimes seen as a crude means of political sloganeering, does Devenny - best known for his iconic mural of Bobby Sands on Belfast's Falls Road - consider the Féile mural a departure from tradition? "No, we've been doing this kind of thing for years. It's not all about the liberating of Ireland. For the past 15 or 20 years, we've been covering social and economic issues too, the issues that affect our generation, and part of the point is to feel positive and good about ourselves - and that's what Féile is about too."
Dubbing Devenny "a legend in his own paintbrush", Belfast's lord mayor, Sinn Féin's Tom Hartley - who launched the mural on Saturday - said the festival has long been a tool of empowerment for the nationalist community in west Belfast.
Highlights of this year's festival include New York band the Fun Lovin' Criminals, Brian Kennedy - who will be performing at Clonard monastery - and comedian Ardal O'Hanlon. The ever-popular drive-in movies at Andersonstown Leisure Centre will also be back, and a special double-decker bus will be laid on for patrons without cars.
Féile an Phobail in west Belfast runs until August 10th. For more information, see www.feilebelfast.com