By Lesley Walsh
THE BANGOR man behind last week’s successful all-Ireland Fleadh is still smiling as he gets some well-earned rest after months of complex planning.
Speaking to the Spectator before it all began, Niall McClean predicted the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann would attract more than one million people and when the final notes rang out across Belfast, he had been proven correct.
Official records have put audiences at around 1.65m, who combined to contribute tens of millions of pounds to the local economy.
The self-proclaimed ‘happiest man’ said the staging of the event – only the second in Northern Ireland – ‘set records beyond all imagination’ as it came to a close on Sunday night after eight packed days of music.
Now, as he takes a breather from it all, the chair of the Fleadh organisers, the Ards CCÉ, is also celebrating a remarkable, personal achievement.
The musician, a well-known member of Bangor’s popular McClean family of musicians, spent the last night of the massive gig receiving Irish traditional music’s top accolade, a Ceannródaithe Bardic Award.
The Comhaltas award honours individuals’ lifelong dedication in making exceptional contributions to the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music, song, dance, and culture and
recognises outstanding talent. Niall received his award from Irish President Catherine Connolly, alongside the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Róis-Máire Donnelly, with Niall treating audiences to his award-winning sound on the fiddle.
During the mass event which ‘brought the community together’ and celebrated multicultural richness, he said not only did the crowds fully support the world’s largest gathering of Irish traditional music, they even demanded an encore from the Shankill Defenders Flute Band.
As part of a 14 minute ‘Multi- Cultural Suite’, composed by Ards CCÉ vice-chair Colleen McCleery, a flute band played alongside the traditional Irish music, Scottish highland players and even Indian musicians to offer the global love of music to everyone in the community.
“The Shankill Defenders got an encore when they played on the stage, and I tell you not everyone got an encore,” he revealed.
As co-chair of the organising committee made up of Belfast City Council, he said the Fleadh was an historic event.
“We’ve done something that has never, ever happened in this city before. We’ve brought every single community together – and everybody has absolutely loved it.”
“Belfast has shone, the world has come to our doorstep, bringing the biggest numbers ever seen for a Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann,” he said.
The All Ireland Fleadh returns to the city from August 1st to 8 next year, while rumours that the Fleadh could return for a third time remain confined to speculation for the moment.
Though Niall said there hadn’t been any discussions about that just yet, he quipped he’d love to keep it in for ‘Belfast for the next 30 years’.
He won’t be resting on his laurels for long however, and will be ‘back to the drawing board’ to organise next year’s event in September to try ‘our very best’ to make it ‘even bigger and better’.
Reflecting on the cross cultural emphasis the organisers wanted to push throughout the Fleadh, he said ‘the multi-cultural suite set the tone and had everybody in it from different communities’.
