The Calm after the Fleadh

This week my wee home city feels like a ghost town after the busy week we all had last week during the Fleadh. What is a Fleadh I hear you all shout, well,  The Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann  is the world’s largest celebration of traditional Irish culture and 2013 saw the celebration of the 62^nd annual festival and the first one to be held in N.Ireland. It was held here as part of our UK City of Culture 2013 programme.

To put it into perspective, we have 100,000 people living in Derry and the Fleadh brought 430,000 visitors on top of our normal population, 130,000 more people than the highest estimates. It was a fantastic success. So much so it looks sure to return in 2016, which is fantastic news.

It totally revitalised the city. Empty shops were turned in ‘pop up bars’ and granted temporary alcohol licenses for the week-long event, a continental food market was established around the waterfront where you were as likely to be seen tucking into a kangaroo burger than a standard one, and a European big city feel was complete with street side cafes through the city centre complete with bars, and you know how us Irish love our Guinness – so you can be sure they all had a roaring trade.

The only major problems were the queues!! The large amount of visitors surpassed anyone’s expectations and brought the added problem of taking ages to walk anywhere, and in trying to get something to eat you nearly had to order dinner instead of lunch as you were queuing that long!!!

I had friends down staying from Bangor and Belfast for the weekend and was keen to show them sights and sounds of the Fleadh. The sights they saw where the back of people’s heads either queuing to get in somewhere or when trying to watch one of the traditional bands. The sounds where mostly of me moaning that my feet were sore and that I was thirsty or hungry!!

Apart from that we all had a ball. The bars and restaurants were packed to the rafters, shops tills were busy ringing away and a lot of people had very heavy heads to show for the great time they all had.

Bring on 2016!!!!!

Shipquay Street on a normal evening

Shipquay Street on a ‘normal’ night during the Fleadh – think the whole population of Derry were out in force!!!