Analysis: The organisers of the first festival could scarcely have imagined the behemoth that will attract over 600,000 people to Wexford this year
By Méabh Ní Fhuartháin, University of Galway
When Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann returns to Wexford town this weekend, the scale of this competition-festival will be on full display. Organised by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the largest traditional music organisation worldwide, the festival expects over 600,000 to attend and will attract Irish traditional performers and punters, from near and far. The cream of the competition qualifying crop, 5,000 competitors, will take part in over 180 competitions at this cumulative event.
Hosted in Wexford for the second year in a row, hundreds of thousands will travel as festival patrons to attend concerts and céilís, and enjoy music-making on the streets, in pubs and anywhere else that performers eek out a space. One of the largest annual music festivals in Europe (Glastonbury with 210,000 in attendance pales in comparison), the Fleadh is a flagship event on the traditional music calendar and has grown exponentially from its beginnings in Mullingar in 1951.
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From RTÉ Archives, Seán Ó Murchú from Radió Éireann's Céilí House introduces the Bunclody Céilí Band playing some marching tunes during the 1963 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in the town
But while the Fleadh in Wexford will demonstrate the rude health of traditional music in 2025, traditional music in 1951 was in a vulnerable position. There was consensus among a shrinking community of practice that, without radical action, traditional music was in terminal decline.
The trope of Ireland as a cultural wasteland in the 1950s may be frequently overstated, but it was a decade of harsh lived experience for many people. The worsening economic realities of the post-Second World War period, together with a failure by successive Irish governments to respond in any appreciable way, led to high unemployment and a steep increase in emigration, particularly to Britain, a trend set to continue through the 1950s.
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From RTÉ Archives, Tony McMahon presents Fleadh '73 Listowel and talks to trad music fans from Germany, San Francisco, Switzerland, Israel, Massachusetts, France and England about why they headed to the Fleadh
Within this context, members of the Pipers' Club in Dublin, including uilleann piper Tom Rowsome of the famed Dublin musical family, expressed concern for traditional music. A committee, established in January 1951 at a meeting in Eamonn O’Gorman’s home on East Arran Street in Dublin, proposed to have a festival in Mullingar.
Pipers' Club members were dispatched to Mullingar to scope out enthusiasm for the suggested festival and a new pipers’ club. A new traditional music revival organisation was tentatively proposed as well, leading to the establishment of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann later that year. It was initially named Cumann Ceoltóirí na hÉireann, but the Musicians Union of Ireland objected to the name as it was the Irish version of its name on union letterhead.
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From RTÉ Archives, Pádraic Ó Catháin presents Fleá '80 from Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Buncrana in 1980
The choice of Mullingar for the festival was due to several factors. The Dublin piping fraternity had pre-existing connections to Willie Reynolds, a piper from Westmeath who had already set up a number of (short-lived) piping clubs (Walderstown Piping Club, 1943–51; Moyvore Piping Club, 1943–51; and Lisdoughan Piping Club). The new festival could run side-by-side with Feis Lár na hÉireann, a long-established Gaelic League competition-festival in Mullingar. This strategy would allow the new festival to piggy-back on Feis Lár na hÉireann’s ready-made group of enthusiasts and also its established seasonal regularity over the Whit weekend.
Whether it’s the Fleadh or Electric Picnic, calendar consistency is a key to longevity for any festival. For two decades, the Fleadh stayed with the Whit weekend. Notwithstanding the importance of the Dublin Pipers’ Club and its performing members, a rural small-town location was selected, reenforcing the idea of 'rural’ as where ‘traditional’ culture was best experienced. At a meeting in Mullingar on February 4th 1951, the basic principles were agreed: concerts, céilís and competitions would be the bedrock of the festival. There is a remarkable continuity from that first Fleadh in Mullingar to Wexford this week as those basic elements have not changed in the intervening decades.
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From RTÉ Archives, Eileen Magnier reports for RTÉ News from Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Sligo in 1990
Cáit Uí Mhuineacháin, her husband Eamon Ó Muineacháin and Philip Mullaly, all involved in Feis Lár na hÉireann, were key local organisers of the debut Fleadh. Notably, though the term ‘Fleadh’ is used descriptively in various press accounts leading up to and following the festival in 1951, the advertised title was ‘Comhdháíl is Siamsa na gCeoltóirí’ (Convention and Amusement of the Musicians). By 1954, Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann/All Ireland Fleadh, harnessing GAA terminology and all-island inclusivity, was officially and consistently embedded.
Scheduled for Sunday and Monday May 13th and 14th, press releases for the Mullingar festival focused on opportunities to hear traditional music at concerts and céilís, where members of the Pipers’ Club and others performed. These events were cross-listed as Feis Lár na hÉireann events, as was the opening parade, all with a hope to generate interest.
READ: What's behind the enduring popularity of the Fleadh Cheoil?
At the Sunday night concert, traditional and less traditional performers took to the stage among them uilleann piper Leo Rowsome, harpist Máire Ní Sheaghe, and Leo Maguire, all familiar to the radio-listening public. Maguire, a baritone and song composer, hosted Walton's Programme on Radio Éireann from 1952 to 1981, ending each show with his signature ‘If you feel like singing, do sing an Irish song’. A convention also took place on the first day of the Fleadh, where C.J. Harwood delivered a lecture on ‘Irish Music in Irish Life’, followed by a discussion.
Curiously though unsurprisingly, scant attention is given to competitions in press releases. Given the decline in traditional music practice in the first half of the century, competitions were limited to 13 in number and all ran on the second day in one location. With 130 competitors in total, the competition roster had competitions for fiddle (u13), accordion, flute, tin whistle, piano (u10 and u13), war pipes and multiple uilleann piping categories, in addition to céilí bands and a duet competition for fiddle and pipes.
The festival in Mullingar was deemed a huge success and a nascent Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann set about establishing a branch network to provide year-long opportunities for traditional musicians to meet and play together. The organisers of the festival in 1951 could scarcely have imagined the Fleadh behemoth that will spring to life in Wexford and that the question on everyone’s lips in the coming days is ‘are you heading to the Fleadh?’.
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Dr Méabh Ní Fhuartháin is a lecturer in Irish Studies at the University of Galway. She is the author of Heading to the Fleadh: Festival, Cultural Revival and Irish Traditional Music, 1951-1969 (Cork University Press, 2024) which will be launched at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Wexford on August 7th
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
