This article is from page 11 of the 2013-02-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
ENNIS’S bid to some day bring the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann back to the town has received the Presidential seal of approval.
Ennis lost out to Sligo as the host town for the 2014 event, missing out on an estimated € 20 million boost to the local economy.
It marked the third time in three years that Ennis has missed out on staging the country’s largest festival of traditional music, song and dance.
However, at an event in Ennis on Friday, President Michael D Higgins said he believes the town will host the event again.
He said, “I hope that you have every success. In Ennis you have a wonderful history in which you can showcase your distinctive heritage that is there.”
Asked later if he thought Ennis would make a good host town, President Higgins said, “Yes I do. One of the things you have to be ready for for the Fleadh Cheoil is the volume of people that come. Cavan used to be swamped. What’s good about it now is that it isn’t defined to just the competitive side of it. You have all sorts of competitions, art and other competitions. It’s a major influx of population and of course Ennis will be very good. The spirit of Mrs Crotty will be celebrating I’m sure.”
President Higgins also expressed his admiration for Ennis, the town where he attended secondary education.
He said, “I think the narrow lanes and streets of Ennis have a particular character of their own all in different ways, from the legal atmosphere that comes out of Bindon Street. I think Ennis has had an extraordinary history. It has a great history of resilience be it from the cholera epidemic of 1832 or the extraordinary losses of life from the famine of 1845 to 1848.”
He said Ennis also had a deserved reputation as a welcoming town.
He said, “Ennis could give lessons in inclusion to many, many places. The people that came of the planes in Shannon, often without the pro- tections of modern guarantees of law that we have now, they would stay overnight in Ennis. And then it would become a few weeks, and then a few months. There are so many of them. I spoke to the President of Chile and we spoke about the Chileans that came here. And that is how it should be. We have sent our people from Ireland all over the world and people have come to us. And what binds us all together is that respect for human dignity and particulary for migrants and people who may be in need of assistance and assurance.”