Strokestown alive with the sound of music this Easter weekend!

< DAN DOONER

Chairperson Tomás Mac Seighin has said that scores of talented musicians, singers, and dancers will descend on Strokestown for the County Fleadh over the Easter weekend.

“The County Fleadh will start on Good Friday and finish up on Easter Monday and it promises to be a busy four days,” he said.

“On Friday we have the Fleadh Ceili and on Saturday there will be a special awards ceremony to honour people who have distinguished themselves in Comhaltas.

“The official opening takes place on Sunday in conjunction with the Easter Parade and at that there will be a Gradam Award presented to Tom Hanly for distinguished service and promotion of music”.

Monday is competitions day and Tomás says the Strokestown Fleadh offers competitors a pathway to the National event later this year.

“The competitions take off at 10 am on Monday and continue all day. There will be singing, dancing and storytelling and the rest,” he said.

“The qualifiers from the Roscommon Fleadh will go to the Connacht Fleadh in Ballina in July, and anyone who qualifies from there will go to the All-Ireland Fleadh in Mullingar which takes place in middle of August.

Roscommon is a stepping stone for anyone who wants to get to an AllIreland – it’s the first step on the journey!”

Tom says the County Fleadh is still recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Covid has had a negative impact on it over the last couple of years but we’re getting slowly getting back to where we were before Covid. There will be a lot of local people at it this year and quite a number of people come from the north of Ireland too,” he said.

Long-time Comhaltas official Liam Ó Cuinneagáin says Strokestown has always been a popular venue.

“Strokestown has held

Pic: Mick McCormack more County Fleadhs than any other town or village in the county. It has always traditionally been held on the Easter weekend and while there was some talk of changing it a few years ago, it was decided to keep it on those dates,” he said.

“As Tom says, it attracts a lot of visitors from both Dublin and the north of Ireland. This is their weekend out; it’s the long weekend!”

Best wishes and every success to Strokestown Easter Parade and Roscommon County Fleadh from

There will be sessions taking place in venues throughout Strokestown on Easter weekend and the organisers say that visitors from both near and far are ensured of a warm Roscommon welcome.