Path to All-Ireland glory begins with Scottish Fleadh

APRIL is set to see a record breaking Scottish Fleadh with hundreds of competitors taking to the stage performing in music, song and dance. The Scottish Fleadh is the first stage qualifier for Scottish-based individuals on the road to the All-Ireland Fleadh, which this year will be held in Wexford in August.

For the past month, entries have been open across the six branches in Scotland, and indeed also open to anyone who would like to take part. The uptake in 2025 has been huge with a surge of nearly 40 more entries this year. That is before considering some senior participants who are allowed to register on the day of the competition, meaning the numbers are likely to grow even further.

In the fleadh there are 52 competitions and four age categories, so potentially almost 200 different competitions can be hosted. Many people will be familiar with the fiddle, flute, accordion or drums, but there are also standalone competitions for the mouth organ and for accompaniment instruments. For anything that slips through the cracks, the miscellaneous competitions has that covered. In singing there are competitions in each age group in the English language, and Irish language, and a newly composed song competition in each. For dancing there are solo sean nós dancing competitions, as well as set dancing and ceili dancing competitions too. In the future its hoped we can attract some kids to the Comhra Gaeilge competitions in Irish language and this can feed in to the Scealaiocht competition—Storytelling in Irish!

In 2024, the fleadh was a particularly busy one with more than 340 entries, with a particular emphasis on group competitions—namely duets at U12 level. With more than 20 U12 duets registered in a single competition, this posed a logistical problem as getting the 40 participants into the same room at the right time to perform alongside their duet partner whilst also appreciating each of those taking part were in at least one other competition around the same time meant that delays were inevitable.

Following on from this, the organising branch for the 2025 fleadh—St. James the Great CCÉ—proposed operating a two-day event to ease the time pressure with group competitions being on one day, and solos on the other within the age groups. This proposal was eventually largely passed and this year’s fleadh, for the first time, will operate over the last Saturday and Sunday of the month in Woodfarm High School just south of Glasgow.

I think when we look at numbers of people being involved and comment on fluctuations, we often forget to look at the big picture, even the slightest fluctuations when considering the numbers involved is testament to the success of the branches of Comhaltas in Scotland and the great work that has been going on for almost 70 years—each generation building on the previous one.

I’ve got a lot of experience as an adjudicator travelling to different Fleadhanna across Britain and in Ireland. I can assure you that there are only a handful of County Fleadh

competitions in Ireland that can boast the participation that we have here in Scotland and certainly not having the numbers who are performing at such a high level in their particular disciplines.

It may be a cliché to say that ‘the most important thing is the taking part’ and really for me I think it is. However, that’s not to say that the large numbers from Scotland are only there to make up the numbers. As has been seen in my column in recent years, I’m often writing about the success stories on the world stage who become All-Ireland Champions representing Scotland in various disciplines. For all those people, the fleadh journey starts here!

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