{"id":582641,"date":"2026-08-04T06:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/582641\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T06:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:18:16","slug":"singers-from-cork-and-belfast-in-ed-sheeran-backed-project-star-at-fleadh-festival-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/582641\/","title":{"rendered":"Singers from Cork and Belfast in Ed Sheeran-backed project star at Fleadh festival \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cross-Border music project supported by the Ed Sheeran<\/a> Foundation took centre stage on the second day of the first Fleadh Cheoil na h\u00c9ireann<\/a> to take place in Belfast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Young people from Belfast and Cork<\/a> involved in North South Sounds 2026 gave a rendition of The Cranberries\u2019 hit Zombie during a performance on the Gig Rig at City Hall on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Some of the other highlights on Monday included the Comhaltas Gradam Inclusion Awards at the MAC celebrating traditional Irish musicians with additional needs.<\/p>\n

Later there was celebration of 50 years of Ards Comhaltas Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed \u00c9ireann featuring The Priests alongside leading traditional performers at the Waterfront Hall.<\/p>\n

Across the day crowds thronged the city\u2019s streets for the world\u2019s largest celebration of Irish music and culture, which has been projected to bring a \u00a353 million (\u20ac62 million) economic boost to the city<\/p>\n

The Fleadh will see more than 200 events and 180 traditional music competitions take place in venues, pubs and streets, with 800,000 people expected to visit the city over the week-long celebration to August 9.<\/p>\n

It is the first time the annual music festival has been held in Belfast and only the second time it has been held in Northern Ireland, after being hosted in Derry in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"EdEd Sheeran, seen here at Croke Park in 2022, performed alongside local artists at the Sky and The Ground pub, Co Wexford, during the festival. Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

The 2026 event has been billed as one of the most culturally diverse in its history, with cross-community participation and a celebration of traditions from across Northern Ireland and beyond.<\/p>\n

Stormont economy minister Caoimhe Archibald told the BBC that her department allocated \u00a31 million in funding to help stage the event, and said the economic impact that has been modelled is about \u00a353 million.<\/p>\n

North South Sounds 2026 also performed at the Oh Yeah Centre, a venue set up with backing from Snow Patrol<\/a> frontman Gary Lightbody, which is involved in the cross-Border project along with the Ed Sheeran Foundation (ESF) and Music Generation Cork City.<\/p>\n

It aims to connect children and young people in Cork city and Belfast through songwriting, performance, and community engagement.<\/p>\n

Sheeran performed alongside local artists at the traditional music festival last year at The Sky and The Ground pub in Co Wexford, sparking speculation he may visit the Belfast Fleadh at some stage in the week. \u2013 Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cross-Border music project supported by the Ed Sheeran Foundation took centre stage on the second day of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4501,46,8720,93,26896,61,60,15453,9270],"class_list":["post-582641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-belfast","tag-cork","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-entertainment","tag-fleadh-cheoil-na-heireann","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-snow-patrol","tag-wexford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582641","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=582641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}