Debate contribution: Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 14 September 2026.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

14 September 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5685992

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Members who tabled the motion. There is no doubt that this year's Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann was an impressive and wholesome event for everybody. As somebody who usually traverses Belfast city centre with a double pram and a dog lead tied round my waist, it was great to be able to move around the city relatively easily and freely. I do not know whether anybody counted, but a world record was probably set for the greatest concentration of double prams. I saw hundreds of them every day, and it was fantastic to see. Obviously, the pedestrianisation allowed people to get about. It has been mentioned that we live in a car-dependent society, and Belfast is obviously a very car-dependent city. Rather than seeing sections of the city centre being closed off, we should see them as having been opened up, which is what happened for the fleadh. It was good to see people walking and wheeling in the city centre, as well as people with bikes and wheelchairs and those with other mobility issues. There needs to be proper consideration and implementation of the pedestrianisation of Belfast city centre, with some provision for people with disabilities. As I understand it, Translink had record numbers of passengers; certainly, the numbers exceeded what Translink had planned for, which is a positive. However, as the former Minister to my right said, a lot of people could not get access to trains and buses. In some ways, that is a good problem to have if you have invested properly in trains and buses, but it is not a good problem if we do not have that investment. That should be a wake-up call for DFI, its Minister and Translink, and it hammers home the point about the need to protect and invest in public transport, rather than going down the path of Translink, which is proposing to cut midweek services past 10.00 pm. If the services do not exist all year round, people will not use them even when it comes to big events such as the fleadh. I call on the Minister for Infrastructure to intervene in that regard. Members may recall that, earlier this year, I proposed an amendment to another party's motion concerning the fleadh to say that action should be taken to stop price surging in accommodation for the fleadh. Unfortunately, no action was taken by the Executive or any Minister, and we saw prices for hotels and other accommodation surge. People were also charged extortionate amounts for camping. People cannot continue, nor is it acceptable, to be ripped off or to have a financial barrier put in place, preventing you from attending a fantastic event if, in theory, you do not have the money in your pocket. We also have to mention the fleadh workers who delivered the event. I do not think they have been mentioned. Members mentioned Belfast City Council and its chief executive: they are all important to the project, but there is no fleadh without the council workers, the street cleansers or the hospitality workers. There is no fleadh if you cannot walk in the city centre or it is full of plastic cups and pint glasses. The people who cleaned the city centre should be commended for that. There is no fleadh if you do not have hospitality workers or people working in bars, pulling pints and serving wine and gin or whatever else people are drinking. They do not deserve only thanks; they deserve a cut of the £100 million extra revenue that came into Belfast and beyond, because they brought that money in. It would be a big mistake not to mention them and not to fight for proper payment for them. The thousands of volunteers in Belfast and beyond who helped with the fleadh essentials should also be given a payment in recognition of their work. I also pose this question: if a fleadh can be this good without a single penny invested by the Communities Minister, just think how good could it be if he — he is also Minister for arts, culture and leisure — alongside his Executive colleagues, could invest a bit of money in it. It could be properly transformative, but the will, seemingly, is not there from this Minister. I must mention the appetite that exists in the likes of Deirdre's niece and others to learn the Irish language and learn to play musical instruments — Irish and others. The access is there in some quarters, but places are oversubscribed. Time is against me, but I warn against the juxtaposition of the fleadh and the féile. That is not right or proper. I attended both: some were party events, and others were family events. It may shock the Member to my right, but I also attended the Kneecap and Bob Vylan gig, which was a tremendous musical event and the best one that I have been to in a while. Musically, it may not be the Member's cup of tea, but he cannot dismiss tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people going to an event just because he does not like their politics.

I warn against that kind of sanitisation.

869 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:16 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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