The Fleadh Cheoil kicked off in Wexford over the Bank Holiday weekend with a bang, but no event on the busy schedule of the biggest traditional music festival in the country was more important to the organisers than the Gradam Inclusion Awards for musicians with additional needs which took place yesterday.
The Fleadh committee said that 40,000 musicians were expected to descend on Wexford over the week-long Fleadh, with a packed crowd attending the official launch at the enormous Gig Rig constructed at the Quayfront in Wexford town, where performers included harpists from Ceoltóiri na Sláinne, The Corach Céilí Band, new grouping NascNua, and members of Comhaltas Loch Garman, amongst others.
Photo Credit: Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
Hundreds of thousands of people attend the Fleadh Cheoil each year. But for a special cohort of musicians, along with their friends and families, the highlight of the Fleadh is the Gradam Inclusion Awards which organisers says “showcases talented individuals who have faced adversity in their lives but have reached fantastic levels of musicianship, despite their challenges and who have rose above their difficulties in spectacular fashion”.
“This wonderful event started at last year’s Fleadh and showcased the amazing talents of 15 amazing musicians, singers and dancers who performed solo or with their teacher in front of a packed County Council Buildings on Fleadh Bank Holiday Monday,” Chairperson of Craobh Loch Garman CCÉ, Barbara Walsh, told the Wexford People.
“This award celebrates people who are exceptional musicians, singers and dancers, and that was such an emotional day. A lot of tears,” she said.
This year’s event was given equal priority with the Ardstiúrthóir of Comhaltas, Labhrás Ó Murchú presenting the awards, which was described by those attending as a “truly uplifting experience” and an “absolute fantastic event”, where “all the participants were excellent and a joy to listen to and be part of.”
Comhaltas posted a “Congratulations to the winners of the Gradam Inclusion Awards”, adding that the ceremony “is fast becoming a highlight of Fleadh week. The atmosphere was very special, filled with pride, happiness and friendship.”
Mayo Comhaltas have also launched an inclusive competition by which helps musicians with additional needs take part in the Fleadh Cheoil, as this proud granddad so eloquently explains.
In addition, the Cumas Trad Band has become a regular feature on the Fleadh circuit, and serves members who have one or a combination of disabilities, including the physical and intellectual disability community as well as the autism community, and those with acquired brain injuries.
The motto of Cumas is “showcasing ability through traditional music” and they regularly perform sets for SignaCare Nursing Home and the Community Hospital in New Ross, with Opportunities Coordinator, Meg McGinty, saying “the members are very proud of the band, it’s part of who they are as people”.
“For everyone in the band, its something that they greatly value,” she continued. “Most of the band members would be in a mild ID category. We also have some members who are very much so on the autism spectrum as well, who are very intelligent and use their neuro-divergence as a tool, because they find it really easy to pick up the music and to get engage.
Cumas Trad Band will be performing on the Gig Rig on Wednesday, August 6 at 1.20 p.m. and they will also perform during the intermission of the Senior Céilí Band competition on Sunday evening, August 10 in the Credit Union Dome.
With a packed festival schedule and music on the streets, for this week in August, all roads lead to the Fleadh. For these young hitch-hikers “thumbing a lift from Curracloe to Wexford town for the fleadh”, the trip was made easier by none other than Dublin GAA star, Eoghan O’Gara.
“Chanced our arm with this man not knowing who he was, 10 minutes into the car journey he says his name. Didn’t know were after jumping into the car with 7 time all Ireland winner. Gent!”