This week, Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, the biggest event in the traditional music calendar will host hundreds of thousands of people at sessions, competitions, music schools, concerts and more in Mullingar.
Back with a bang after Covid–19, the Fleadh continues another tradition which doesn’t always make the headlines – a focus on genuine inclusivity with classes and events for musicians with special needs.
Most parents of children with disabilities will tell you that they’ve been forced to fight hard to obtain the services their children need to develop their full potential.
Despite repeated claims by the state that their objective is to ensure that no child gets left behind, advocates for people with disabilities point to staff shortages, under-resourced services, and a failure to implement programmes which assist in flourishing and independent living.
In recent years, however, people with disabilities have been forging their own paths, achieving new heights in sports, in education, in public speaking and employment, and in the arts. Research into the benefits of music therapy have shown that playing an instrument or participating in musical education can have hugely positive effects on development, inclusion and well-being.
Therapists believe that because music can be a non-verbal means of communication, it can help those with special needs to develop new means of connecting and understanding. They say that listening to and performing music stimulates almost every area of your brain, and almost all of your sensory systems, and that its positive influence on cognitive functions is therefore enormous.
One orchestra for people with special needs, Hearts for Music, describes the support they provide as ‘transforming disabilities to abilities’. That’s a US programme, but the sentiment is echoed in an initiative by Comhaltas Ceolteoirí Éireann which is focused on including people with intellectual disabilities.
Fleadhs, at provincial and All-Ireland levels, have placed a special emphasis on including people with additional needs by supporting and encouraging active participation at several levels.
One group, the Cumas Céilí Band, which has members with soecial or additional needs, wowed crowds at the packed All-Ireland Ceilí band competition where they played to huge applause.
Thousands more watched them play on the Gig Rig.
At the Leinster Fleadh this year, their success was recognised by a special award.
Since 2016, Comhaltas has made additional provision for musicians with special needs at its flagship summer school Scoil Éigse, attended by hundreds of music students of all ages from all over the world. Amongst the 900 or so who packed the classes in Ennis that year were 16 students with special needs who were part of a pilot project to make the school more inclusive.
Scoil Éigse director Kieran Hanrahan said that he was inspired by his then 17-year-old niece Orla who enjoyed taking part in the Foundation Level classes and found the experience a hugely positive one.
The classes are free of charge for children with special needs, as Comhaltas says they want to ensure those students are “part of the Scoil Éigse experience.”
Each evening, tutors at the summer school, which runs for the week before the Fleadh, host a session for the students and those with additional needs are welcome and play an important part in the atmosphere and energy generated at the All-Ireland event which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year to play music, listen to sessions, and watch performances in every corner of the town, from concert halls to pub corners.
The Leinster Fleadh, held this year in Portlaoise, also offered a very unique series of workshops for people with additional needs. Tommy Hayes, a music therapist and well known trad musician, directed therapist-led workshops for up to 250 people over the course of the week, covering Music, Voice, Movement and Percussion. An Inclusive Céilí where participants, carers, family members and members of the public registered to attend was also held free of charge.
These workshops and classes are part of what’s being called ‘A Fleadh for All’ and it feels like genuine inclusivity for musicians with special needs and those who want to develop those skills.
In Mullingar, a special dance event held today was billed as “a fun and inclusive dance experience for adults with disabilities and their friends and families” with fiddleplayer and seannós instructor Louise O’Connor, who has ten years experience working in services for adults with a wide range of disabilities and runs Dance for Wellbeing classes for adults with disabilities.
Music transcends barriers, and participation is usually a highly rewarding, positive experience for people of all ages who might have not always felt included in musical or other activities. Most of all, of course, being part of a music session can just be great fun, something every traditional Irish musician will know, and it’s wonderful to see that being shared as widely as possible.
It’s great to see the continuation of what has always been a part of the culture around traditional music, which has most often been conserved and progressed by families and communities and was inherently inclusive as a consequence.
I’ve been going to Fleadhs since I was a child and I remember musicians with physical or intellectual needs being accommodated pretty seamlessly into the craic, with assistance from their families and friends. One such young musician was Donncha Ó Briain, a member of the famous musical O’Brien family from Dublin.He had muscular dystrophy, but was an extraordinary musician and has been described as one of the best tin whistle players of his generation.
His music was full of spirit and conviction and marvellous ornamentation. In 1980, Donncha received a People of the Year Award which recognised ‘his triumph over disability, his musical prowess and the inspiration he gave to so many’. The Leitrim fiddler and composer, Charlie Lennon, wrote a tune in his honor called The Flying Wheelchair. Donncha’s own album, Irish Traditional Music on Tin Whistle, remains a “master class of fine whistle playing.”
Composer Turlough O’Carolan was blind of course, as was Thomas ‘Blind’ Kiernan, the fiddle-master from near Drumlish in Longford, the famed blind harpist Ruaidhrí Dall Ó Catháin, and one of Ireland’s greatest ever pipers, Garrett Barry, who lost his sight as a child in the Great Hunger.
Inclusivity has its own rewards then: not just for the students or the musicians who benefit, but for all of us who are left enriched by the musicianship of people with different abilities who improve all our lives by their own flourishing.
See fleadhcheoil.ie for further details.