‘The fleadh is still coming to Mullingar for two years’ - Joe Connaire, FEC chairman

The 2020 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Mullingar may have fallen victim to the coronavirus crisis, but the town will still host the event for two years, the cathaoirleach of the Fleadh Executive Committee has said this week.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner yesterday, cathaoirleach Joe Connaire said that while he and the rest of the committee were “saddened” to make the decision to cancel the fleadh, which was scheduled to take place in August, it was the only course of action to take.

“It was no small decision to make but we made it on the basis of making the right decision early. Our main objective is to protect people’s livelihoods and health. Because Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann is such a mass gathering of people, we could not take the chance to bring it to Mullingar in August.

“Just to be clear, Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann is a three-step process. It starts off with the county fleadhs, which themselves are mass gatherings. Every county has to run them and they have been postponed at this current point in time.

“All the winners of the county fleadhs go on to step two, the provincial fleadhs. Again these are mass gatherings of the people. How could you run an event when step one and step two could not take place?”

Mr Connaire also revealed that the local organising committee had been given the opportunity to host the event in late October but decided against it.

“The cons outweighed the pros by a country mile. You could have a hurricane blowing, you could have a wet, miserable week. You have short evenings. You also have to take into consideration whether the schools would be available, would the Cathedral of Christ the King and the Church of Ireland church be available?

“The unanimous decision was to put the fleadh on hold until 2021 and we will do a bigger and better event for the 70th anniversary of the founding of Comhaltas. That’s what we are focusing on at this point.”

Mullingar may be losing out on income of an estimated €50m in 2020 due to the cancellation of fleadh, but Mr Connaire says that town will also host the event in 2022, as well as 2021.

“We had this fleadh in concrete for 2020 and 2021, so nothing changes. This is going to be a two-year event. End of discussion. I am not as chairperson of the Fleadh Executive Committee doing this on a one-year stint. We want this to come to Mullingar for two years. That’s what we are signing up to and that’s what we are basing everything on going forward.

“I want to thank everyone who has spent hundreds of hours working on this year’s fleadh. I want to thank our sponsors, the publicans who have got behind us, the credit union, the bishop, and everyone who has been on board with us from day one.

“I feel sorry for the hospitality sector, which is on its knees at the minute, but hopefully this virus will disappear in as short a timescale as possible and we can all move on and become stronger and better because of it.”