{"id":730509,"date":"2026-08-07T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/730509\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:54:11","slug":"fleadh-not-to-be-missed-colour-from-the-worlds-largest-irish-music-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/730509\/","title":{"rendered":"Fleadh &#8216;not to be missed&#8217; &#8211; Colour from the world&#8217;s largest Irish music festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A look back at Sunday&#8217;s Fleadh opening ceremonypublished at 13:24 BST<\/p>\n<p>13:24 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Four women are standing together. The two on the outside have their hands clasped. The two in the middle are clapping. All are smiling. Other people and a large screen and chairs are in the background.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bf76e67b-614b-400d-baef-96fdc9faaaee.png.webp\"  width=\"1500\" height=\"843\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, PA MediaImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The deputy first minister, the first minister, the lord mayor of Belfast and the president of Ireland shared a stage at the Fleadh&#8217;s opening ceremony<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Fleadh, the top all-Ireland celebration and competition of Irish music and dance, had never been held in Belfast before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">So it&#8217;s maybe no surprise that thousands of people flocked to the City Hall last Sunday to get it officially started. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The opening ceremony featured performances from local musicians and dancers, including Ards CC\u00c9, the local branch of Comhaltas, which organises the Fleadh, before speeches from Irish President Catherine Connolly, First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and Belfast Lord Mayor R\u00f3is-M\u00e1ire Donnelly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">President Connolly described it as \u201cvery, very special\u201d that the Fleadh is being held in Belfast, saying the festival celebrates \u201cwhat we have in common and the universality of music, song and dance\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">First Minister Michelle O&#8217;Neill said she couldn&#8217;t be prouder that Belfast is hosting the event. &#8220;It is our Fleadh and we&#8217;ll celebrate it together,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said culture does not divide people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It strengthens the place we all call home,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A man is standing onstage with his arms up. He has long hair and a beard and wears glasses. He's wearing a grey suit.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/16920abb-f417-47b1-85ed-1615b2d73af2.jpg.webp\"  width=\"4810\" height=\"2706\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Pacemaker PressImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Trad royalty The Hothouse Flowers performed on Sunday afternoon<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The celebrations continued throughout the day with performances on the Gig Rig stage outside City Hall, while traditional music, dance and street performances spilled out across Belfast city centre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The eight-day festival runs until 9 August, with more than 200 events taking place across the city, including competitions, concerts, workshops and family activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A look back at Sunday&#8217;s Fleadh opening ceremonypublished at 13:24 BST 13:24 BST Image source, PA MediaImage caption,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-730509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}