{"id":578273,"date":"2026-08-01T03:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T03:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578273\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T03:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T03:56:24","slug":"ed-sheeran-so-happy-to-expand-foundation-into-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578273\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran ‘so happy’ to expand foundation into Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Sheeran\u2019s charity The Ed Sheeran Foundation has announced that it\u2019s expanding to Ireland.<\/p>\n

The Galway Girl singer has not been shy about his Irish roots (and passport<\/a>), as his grandparents and father are all Irish, with roots that trace back to Wexford and Galway.<\/p>\n

Ed<\/a> announced the launch of the Ed Sheeran Foundation in 2019, which helps support music education in state schools and organisations in areas that are less accessible, working up and down England.<\/p>\n

\"EdEd Sheeran. Pic: Theo Wargo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Now, the foundation has announced that it\u2019s expanding its work into Ireland, which will include a cross-border initiative between Cork and Belfast.<\/p>\n

Running from August until the end of the year, the collaboration will run between the foundation, Music Generation in Cork City, and the Oh Yeah Centre in Belfast.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0programme will connect children and young people from opposite corners of the island of Ireland through a shared music initiative centred on songwriting, performance, and community engagement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Ed\u2019s foundation\u2019s North South 2026 initiative starts this weekend in Cork City and Belfast. Pic: Mark Surridge<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m so happy to be bringing the Ed Sheeran Foundation to Ireland,\u2019 Ed said of the new collaboration. \u2018I\u2019ve spent loads of time in the country over the years.<\/p>\n

\u2018Having family roots there, it\u2019s a place that\u2019s always been special to me. Every child should have the opportunity to learn and take part in music, and we\u2019re continuing our work to help make that a reality.<\/p>\n

\u2018The first project kicks off at The Fleadh on Monday. I played the festival last year and have such fond memories of it. If you\u2019re there, go and check out some of the incredible young talent.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"Pic: Penny Cronin<\/p>\n

Connecting young peers from different areas, the initiative will champion creative curiosity by blending influences and genres, local heritage, social inclusion and self-expression.<\/p>\n

The project will launch with performances by 50 young people at\u00a0Fleadh Cheoil<\/a> na h\u00c9ireann\u00a0in Belfast City Hall on Monday (August 3), where they will premiere a series of collaborative musical fusions, developed through workshops in the lead-up to the festival.<\/p>\n

From there, there will be four core activities over the following six months, including youth-led gigs in Cork and Belfast. <\/p>\n

Other strands of the project include non-residential summer camps in Cork City and Belfast, expanding reach to an additional 100 young people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran\u2019s charity The Ed Sheeran Foundation has announced that it\u2019s expanding to Ireland. The Galway Girl singer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-578273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}