2020’s
The Covid crisis in the early years of the decade was hugely challenging for the organisation. With gatherings severly curtailed due to government restrictions, classes were shut down and forced to go online. Fleadhanna were cancelled due to travel restrictions, and all over the country, Comhaltas centres and branches fell silent.
Following the cancellation of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2020, due to be held in Mullingar, there were hopes that the event would go ahead in 2021. However, when this looked unlikely, plans were put in place to go online.
FleadhFest, hosted in Sligo, was a nine-day virtual Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann that replicated many of the regular features of a Fleadh including live concerts, sessions and also competitions, held in over 30 different categories. All events were streamed on Facebook to audiences worldwide and watched by thousands each day. As part pf the Fleadhfest initiative, specially comissioned videos were produced by each county/region in Ireland and overseas and published YouTube.
In the run-up to FleadhFest, TG4 broadcast a series of programmes celebrating the 70th anniversary of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann which featured the best of traditional music song and dance from across the country and overseas.
In 2022, with restrictions lifted and Covid fading from memory, the Fleadh returned to Mullingar for the first time since 1963. Hailed as ‘The Homecoming’, the festival was coming back to the town of its birth in 1951. The Fleadh in 2022 was hailed as the biggest yet with an estimated 500,000 visitors packing out the streets for the live music, concerts competitions and sessions.
The following year Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann returned to the midlands town with an even bigger attendance, adding another chapter to the more than 70 year old success story that is Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.