{"id":149502,"date":"2025-06-01T13:05:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149502\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T13:05:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:05:17","slug":"slap-in-the-face-say-organisers-of-northern-irelands-only-county-fleadh-to-be-turned-down-for-local-council-funding-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149502\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Slap in the face\u2019 say organisers of Northern Ireland\u2019s only County Fleadh to be turned down for local council funding \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The organisers of the north\u2019s only County Fleadh<\/a> to be turned down for funding from its local council<\/a> have described the lack of support as a \u201cslap in the face\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Derry County Fleadh was hosted in Derry city<\/a> earlier this month and was the only such event to not receive financial support<\/a> from its branch of local government. <\/p>\n

County fleadhs are annual festivals and competitions which showcase traditional Irish music and dance, with entrants going on to compete at provincial and All-Ireland fleadhanna. <\/p>\n

More: <\/b>Comhaltas revival going strong in Tyrone as Fintona prepares to host the county\u2019s annual fleadh cheoil<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Concern<\/a>\"‘Slap<\/a><\/p>\n

The city became the first northern host of the Fleadh Cheoil na h\u00c9ireann in 2013, which will return to the north when it is held in Belfast next year.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Host branch CC\u00c9 Baile na gCailleach applied for Community Festival Funding from Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC)<\/a> to host this year\u2019s event but was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Similar community festival funds were awarded by Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council<\/a> to the hosts of the Antrim Fleadh in Ballycastle <\/a>(\u00a3750) and Fermanagh & Omagh District Council<\/a> to the county fleadhs in Fermanagh (\u00a33,500) and Tyrone (\u00a35,900).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the amount awarded to the Down and Armagh organisers by Newry, Mourne & Down District Council (NMDDC)<\/a> has not yet been publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n

Ring of Gullion CC\u00c9 has already publicly thanked NMDDC for supporting its Armagh Fleadh in Mullaghbawn and Forkhill. <\/p>\n

The council has also moved to support the Ulster Fleadh, which is being held in its district this summer<\/a>, and in 2024\/25 provided Down Fleadh hosts Newcastle CC\u00c9 and Ulster Fleadh hosts Warrenpoint CC\u00c9 with \u00a39,879 and \u00a310,000 in arts and culture funding respectively.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

County Derry Fleadh co-chair Ollie Green told The Irish News that the lack of support for a second year in a row was \u201cdisappointing\u201d and a \u201cslap in the face\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur branch, CC\u00c9 Baile na gCailleach, have hosted the county fleadh for the last two years and very successfully,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great fleadh this year despite lack of support from council, and it was the same last year, but at this stage you\u2019re relying on local businesses and sponsorship and a huge amount of work by volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very disappointed in terms of our council that they didn\u2019t seem fit to support.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that in previous years, when the council had awarded them funding, there had been a noticeable difference in the size and scale of the event. <\/p>\n

\"TheMusicians at the launch of the All-Ireland Fleadh 2026 at Belfast City Hall earlier this year.
\nPICTURE COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to do things; we were able to bring the fleadh into the city centre,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had 500 kids dancing on the Peace Bridge, we had the president of Comhaltas coming over from England.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Green added that there seemed to be a \u201clack of ambition\u201d with regards to \u201cpotentially supporting the growth and development of traditional Irish arts in the city\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s live and it\u2019s vibrant and we have some outstanding young musicians coming through our ranks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would have liked to have thought your local council would have identified and seen that, in supporting traditional Irish arts, as they do in other counties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following on from the success of the city hosting the All-Ireland festival, he added that it was \u201cworth investing in its grassroots\u201d. <\/p>\n

A DCSDC spokesperson said that the council is \u201ccommitted to supporting all areas of arts and culture\u201d throughout the district and that it \u201cworks closely with members of the Arts and Culture Co-delivery Group to assist in identifying and securing funding opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately this year there has been a significant increase in demand for council\u2019s Cultural Grant Aid programme which exceeded the available budget,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n

They added that it was a \u201ccompetitive process\u201d with funding allocated \u201cthrough a robust assessment, criteria and scoring process\u201d and unsuccessful applicants receiving feedback and assistance on how to avail of other funding sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The organisers of the north\u2019s only County Fleadh to be turned down for funding from its local council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[5034,16767,10841,5036,15458,269,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-149502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-council","9":"tag-derry","10":"tag-festivals","11":"tag-funding","12":"tag-irish","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114608257364095718","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}