Mayo Fleadh Cheoil: Everything you need to know
The Mayo Fleadh Cheoil Mhaigh Eo launch in The Jackie Clarke Collection with Síofra Kilcullen Director of Services MCC, Anna Connor Head of Ballina Municipal District MCC, Senator Mark Duffy, Sean Carey (Cathaoirleach Mayo County Council), Minister Dara Calleary TD, Cllr Annie May Reape. Picture: John O'Grady.
Michael O’Donnell, the Chairperson of the Mayo Fleadh Cheoil Festival committee, appealed to the Mayo County Council to embrace the Mayo Fleadh Cheoil as a real opportunity to grow sustainable tourism in the county, beginning on Mayo Day every year.
He thanked Declan Turnbull, the outgoing Head of Ballina MD, for his support with the Mayo Fleadh Cheoil and wished him every success in his new role as Head of Integration.
He welcomed Anna Connor, the new Head of the Ballina MD and Siofra Kilcullen, Director of Services, Corporate Services, Human Resources and Organisational Efficiency (including the Arts and the JCM) to Ballina and wished them well in their new roles.
He went on to say that there has been much talk about bringing the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil to Ballina again (Ballina hosted the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in 1997 and 1998).
"Are Ballina and Mayo deserving of the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil? Absolutely. But in truth Ballina does not have the infrastructure (the road infrastructure, the hotel or venue capacity, etc) required to host the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil at this time. It is estimated that there were 800,000 visitors to Wexford for the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in 2025, which is 10 times the attendance at Electric Picnic."
O'Donnell highlighted the huge opportunity that is the Mayo Fleadh Cheoil Festival.
"Building an annual festival around the Mayo Fleadh Cheoil every year, promoting the host town, engaging the local community arts, drama and heritage groups to come to getter to showcase their very best, reaching out to the diaspora abroad and inviting them to come visit the area during the first week of May, beginning with Mayo Day, is a sustainable business model that can and should serve the county better. The county council and Comhaltas need to put our heads together to make this happen. He appealed to all in the community to get involved, to come out and support the festival and to make it a very special week for Ballina."
The Mayo Fleadh Cheoil Festival, while predominantly a traditional Irish music festival featuring the finest of local musicians and singers, will also showcase the works of a number of community arts groups portraying the hardship of emigration that befell the many generations of Mayo people since the Great Famine.
The Jackie Clarke Museum will host historical exhibitions during the week by the Addergoole Titanic Society: the 14 passengers that were lost from the parish of Addergoole, The Doolough Famine Tragedy Remembrance Group and a heritage group from Attymass on the history of the famine in Attymass and the history of the Slack Family Cottage that was transferred from Carradoogan to the Hunger Museum in New York in 2002. The latter was a significant event in the history of our branch, as a group of musicians from Bofield CCÉ were invited to perform at the official opening of the museum in Battery Park, Manhattan, by President Mary McAleese, as the first deaths in the Famine were recorded in Bofield.
The festival opens on Saturday, 2nd May, Mayo Day, with an array of local traditional musicians and singers performing on the Gig-Rig over the bank holiday weekend, which will coincide with the annual Mayo Day celebrations on the Saturday and the Women’s Mini Marathon on the Sunday.
Other events include concerts by Colm O’Donnell and the O’Donnell family, supported by the Bofield Senior Ceilí Band, on Saturday 2nd and a concert on Friday 8th May by Glór na dTonn, the All-Ireland Ceilí Band Champions in the Ballina Arts Centre, supported by a number of All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil winners from the Bofield CCÉ branch.
The festival will also feature a Rambling House evening, a Cuimsiú (Inclusion) concert by our young musicians with additional needs, a Pop Up Gaeltacht, a céilí, a busking competition and a traditional music Session Trail again in the pubs and hotels across the second weekend.
Bofield CCÉ hosted a very successful Mayo Fleadh Cheoil festival in Ballina in 2025, which earned widespread plaudits locally and nationally, for showcasing the very best of local musical talent, for promoting its Cuimsiú (Inclusion) initiative for musicians with additional needs, for its community involvement and exceptional voluntary effort, and for its initiative to engage the Irish diaspora in Leeds.
