More than a decade ago, I was taken by my desire to brush up my school Irish in to a language laboratory with a bundle of Linguaphone tapes. The content of the course contained many surprises for which I was not culturally ready. A soldier comes back from arduous peace-keeping missions in far-flung lands, for instance. He is asked what, of home, he has missed most. Was it his girlfriend, I wondered? His family? His friends? Of course not. What he missed most of all were the fleadhanna cheoil.
The mother and father of all of them, Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, takes place in Ballina from Friday, August 28th to Monday, August 31st. Unless it is very different from those of other years, it will bring the town to a standstill. Up to 100,000 people regularly attend the fleadh, although it has to be said that the event always has other attractions apart from the music; it is estimated to have generated as much as £7 million in the recent past, and much of that will be spent on "beverages".
The event, run by Comhaltas Ceoiltoiri Eireann, is the culmination of nearly 50 smaller fleadhanna around the country, and at its heart is very serious competition in a dizzying range of traditional instruments: such new-comers as the mandolin and the banjo are not left out, and lilting takes its place along with singing. Duets, trios, groups and ceili bands also compete (in the past, this has had the Kilfenora and the Tulla ceili band supporters on a war footing).
It's a wonderful place to hear unadulterated, unproduced, unelectrified traditional music. If it's more the "craic" you're after, there is a fabulous range of dances on offer. The distinction between the quadrille-based set dances and ceili dances, which are either the real traditional dances of the country, relatively recently cooked up Irish dances, or a mixture of both, depending on your point of view, is rigorously made: you'll only find ceili dances at the "fior ceili" or "real ceili", but will find both at the "mixed" events.
You'd have to try quite hard not to have a good time in Ballina next weekend, and you're sure to be in the company of some very happy soldiers.
Fleadh information is available on 096- 70905 or 01-2800295