2010’s
The new decade began with Comhaltas launching a new website as well as providing on-line access to its extensive archive for the first time.
Another first for the organisation came in 2013 when Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann was held across the border for the first time when Derry hosted the festival as one of the highlights of its year-long term as the United Kingdom’s first City of Culture. Opened by President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins on August 11th, by the end of the Fleadh over 430,000 had flocked to Derry to join in an inclusive cross-community festival that embraced all the traditions of that historic city.
Also, in 2013, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann played an important role in ‘The Gathering 2013’, a unique one year global celebration of Ireland. A new destination was added to the Comhaltas tour list that year when an invitation was issued from the Irish ambassador in Hanoi to send a group of artists to the capital of Vietnam for that year’s St. Patricks Day Celebrations. The group’s presence in Vietnam attracted much media attention and they were guests on a popular weekly talk show broadcast to the nation. After several performances in Hanoi, the group travelled to Ho Chi Minh City where they performed at an outdoor event to bring the tour to a close.
Three years later, Asia was again the destination of another Comhaltas group when ‘Cnoc na Gaoithe’ from Tulla in Co.Clare travelled to Shanghai in China. Their 2016 visit was so successful that they were invited back the following year.
The centenary year of the Easter 1916 Rising was marked by the organisation with almost 500 events at home and abroad as part of the Comhaltas 1916 Centenary Programme.
Macalla 1916, was a specially commissioned suite of music for the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra which had its premiere at The Barbican Centre in London at a special event hosted by Comhaltas in Britain.
On Easter Saturday 2016, Macalla was performed at a special State event for 4,000 relatives of those who participated in the Rising. The Orchestra embarked on a tour of Ireland during Easter Week, performing at eight more venues before closing at the Millennium Forum in Derry before a sold-out audience. Comhaltas’ annual tour, ‘Macalla na hÉireann – Echoes of Éirin 1916’, also covered the theme of the Centenary while Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Ennis featured several events commemorating 1916, including a re-staging of Bryan McMahon’s 1966 pageant ‘Seachtar Fear – Seacht Lá’ at Cusack Park in the centre of the town.
As well as being held for the first time in Derry, the decade saw Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann hosted three times by Cavan, and twice each by Sligo, Ennis and Drogheda.