Banjo Garda - everyone got involved in the action in some way or another. Photo: Andy Spearman.

So, that was it. The Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann has been to Drogheda and now it’s gone away again – but only for a year, which gives us just about enough time to recover!

The once dirty old town of Drogheda is looking better than it has in living memory and we put on the biggest show ever – half a million people during the week is the official figure but it seemed like a lot more.

No doubt there are some very tired dancers and musicians this morning, and some very tired bar staff too. Take a bow all of you, you played a blinder.

Seven years ago when the crazy notion of bidding for the Fleadh Cheoil was first mooted, did anyone dare to dream this big?

There were a few disappointing rejections along the way but when the announcement finally came through that Drogheda’s bid had finally beaten off all opposition  there was unconfined joy, followed quickly by the realisation of the size of the job of work that lay ahead.

So, credit where credit is due, the Drogheda Fleadh Committee dared to think big and they pulled it off. There were naysayers in every bar in town saying all year that they couldn’t do it or that they were getting it all wrong but hey, they did it and they surpassed themselves.

Looking at the size of the crowd at the opening ceremony with President Michael D. Higgins in Bolton Square last Sunday (It seems ages ago but it’s only eight days!) you knew that this was going to be huge, we had one hell of a week in store.

To get 200,000 people into Drogheda for two days running (Saturday and Sunday) is some achievement. Especially when you consider that, according to Comhaltas chief Labhras O’Murchu, prior to Drogheda the biggest daily attendance at a Fleadh was 120,000 and that was in Ennis, a town that is synonymous with Irish music. Another coup was to get both the President and the Taoiseach in to town.

No doubt there are lessons to be learned from the week, tweaks that need to be made here and there, things that might be done differently, but all of that is for another day.

Today is a time for the committee, the hundreds of volunteers, the Gardaí and everyone that had any act or part in making Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann such an amazing experience for so many thousands of people, to take a rest and enjoy their success.

And then, sometime soon, there will be a collective intake of breath and it’ll all start happening again as the preparations start for Fleadh Cheoil 2019 in Drogheda.

Well done Drogheda!

This article was written by Andy Spearman