'Clare the home of trad, Mullingar the home of Comhaltas'
Shane King
“If you’re feeling low, and you’ve come to see the Kilfenora Céilí Band tonight, you wouldn’t be long feeling much better.”
Those were the words of Ard Stiúrthóir of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Labhrás Ó Murchú, as he summed up the mood inside St Paul’s Church on Saturday night.
The world-renowned Kilfenora Céilí Band lifted the roof of the Mullingar venue with a rousing concert that brought together some of the finest traditions of Irish music with the band’s own modern and energetic style.
Hailing from the heart of the traditional music stronghold of north Clare, the Kilfenora Céilí Band have been entertaining audiences for more than a century and were the headline act of a weekend of celebrations marking 75 years of Comhaltas.
Every pew in St Paul’s was filled for the eagerly anticipated concert. The idea was first mooted at a meeting in January, and organisers described the Kilfenora Céilí Band as “the best traditional band in the country”.
The band returned to Mullingar after two hugely successful performances at the All-Ireland Fleadhanna in the town in 2022 and 2023.
The concert was also an opportunity to celebrate the people who helped lay the foundations for Comhaltas 75 years ago.
Family members of the founders of the organisation, who first came together at a meeting in the Midlands Hotel in Mullingar in 1951, were presented with commemorative medallions by Labhrás Ó Murchú in recognition of the contribution their relatives made to the organisation.
One special moment of the evening came when Joe Connaire, a member of the organising committee, was invited on stage to play a set of reels with two of his first cousins who are members of the Kilfenora Céilí Band.
Playing alongside Claire and Sean Griffin in front of a packed St Paul’s was, he said, one of the “greatest honours” of his musical life.
As the Kilfenora Céilí Band departed Westmeath for the main stage at Electric Picnic the following day, they left behind a very happy audience and a reminder of why, as Joe Connaire put it: “Clare may be the home of traditional music, but Mullingar is the home of Comhaltas”.
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