All-Britain Fleadh points to a bright future for our musicians

THE All-Britain Fleadh took place during the last weekend of June and for those attending from Scotland they weren’t just bathed in sunshine, they were bathed with medals too.

Hosted on the picturesque grounds of Bishop Ullathorne School in Coventry, the fleadh bore witness to three amazing days of Irish culture. The fleadh welcomes participants and visitors from all over Britain and some even making the trip from Ireland too. For this year’s fleadh, the hosts were the Midland Region of Comhaltas and whilst their planning for the event was meticulous, one thing can really make or break an event on this scale and it’s the one thing that is outwith anyone’s control—the weather!

Sandwiched between the two hottest days of the year, the fleadh was a scorcher. Naturally, this led to people setting up camp out in the grounds of the school with people playing music, and having fun all day and night which contributed to a lovely welcoming atmosphere.

Although no-one was counting heads, the Friday night session in the nearby village hotel may well have broken records as the largest ever All-Britain Fleadh session with hundreds of people crammed into one of the function suites for some craic agus ceol.

The competition element of the fleadh kicked off on Saturday with the band and group competitions taking place for juniors. For these competitions, a total of 19 bands and groups had qualified from Scotland to compete which in itself was a huge achievement for the branches north of the border, but an even greater achievement was a Scottish band or group placing first in each of the four age groups!

Indeed, success for the Scottish branches wasn’t only limited to group competition. Across the fleadh, of the 210 performances which have qualified for the All-Ireland Fleadh in August, 129 of those were from musicians, singers dancers and storytellers based in Scotland.

As you may be aware of from previous editions of The Irish Voice, Scotland welcomed two new branches to the family in the past few years with Ayr and then Edinburgh coming on board. Both these new branches alongside the four more established branches were well represented and this bodes well for the future with more individuals taking part.

Amongst a number of highlights was seeing St James the Great CCÉ retain their Senior Ceili Band Title for the second year. Often considered ‘the big one’ by many, this competition tests participants like no other in a performance where endurance and power are met with technical precision and musical sweetness. Few bands can make a rapid ascent in the ceili band world and St James the Great are no different. Having learnt the lessons from previous years, they took less favourable results on the chin and worked hard to climb up the leaderboard and its that journey that makes cementing their place at the top all the sweeter.

Another great result was from Edinburgh CCÉ and their youngest competitor—by some distance—young Niall Godfray (above) who won the Under-12 singing in English competition in his first year competing. This result and several others from the branch has certainly got excitement building in Edinburgh as was evident from Caoimhe McKearney, who said: “The past three days have been very special indeed. Just nine months ago I took myself along to a public meeting to discuss the formation of a new branch of Comhaltas here in Edinburgh. I met some nice, enthusiastic young folk and by the end of the night we’d founded the branch, and I’d somehow got myself elected to the committee as Irish language officer. A month later, I took up the additional mantle of PR Officer.

“Since then we’ve been quietly building something and look where we are now! I am buzzing after the best weekend. Edinburgh Comhaltas, this is only the beginning of our story!”

For me, it really is about the taking part. Most of the people who competed at the fleadh did so to showcase their talents and for the lucky ones who did make it through to the All-Ireland in Wexford, they do so with everyone’s best luck and wishes. For those who didn’t however, a huge well done is in order. The future is most definitely bright!

Paddy Callaghan is the Operations Manager of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in Britain. You can follow him on Twitter: @paddy_box and Instagram: paddy_box and contact him via e-mail at: paddy@comhaltas.co.uk