Feis Ceoil ( ; "

Festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

of Music") is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

music organisation which holds an annual competitive festival of classical music. It was first organised in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

in 1897 by Dr. Annie Patterson and

Edward Martyn Edward Martyn (30 January 1859 – 5 December 1923) was an Irish playwright and early republican political and cultural activist, as the first president of Sinn Féin from 1905–08. Early life Martyn was the elder son of John Martyn of Tullira ...

for the purpose of stimulating musical studies in Ireland and encouraging native performers and composers. It was a result of the general

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, an ...

ising programme of the

Gaelic League (; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it emer ...

. It consisted of competitions for performance and composition and was supported by all musicians of the day, both traditional and classical. Prizes aggregating £800 were distributed among the successful competitors. Since those early years, the Feis Ceoil has undergone many changes to accommodate the development of music in Ireland. It has expanded to more than 185 competitions in all instruments, including voice, and covering all ages from 7 years upwards. Famous competitors over the festival's history include tenor John McCormack, author

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

(as a singer), tenor

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, broadcaster

Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin (12 May 1923 – 17 February 2013) was a journalist, broadcaster and sportsman. He played Gaelic football and hurling for the Eoghan Ruadh club and also played for the Dublin county hurling team. Biography Ó Ceall ...

, the Irish composer Vincent Kennedy (as a trumpet player) and violinist

Cora Venus Lunny Cora Venus Lunny (born 1982) is an Irish violinist, composer, singer, and actress. She is the daughter of Irish musician Dónal Lunny and German photographer Julia Buthe. Established as a classical musician since her teens, Lunny is active as a ...

. Performers have included

Margaret Burke Sheridan Margaret Burke Sheridan (15 October 1889 – 16 April 1958) was an Irish opera singer. Born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland, she was known as ''Maggie from Mayo'' and is regarded as Ireland's second prima donna, after Catherine Hayes (1818� ...

, Suzanne Murphy,

Bernadette Greevy Bernadette Greevy (3 July 1940 – 26 September 2008) was an Irish mezzo-soprano. She was founder and artistic director of the Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival.''The Irish Times'', "Festival seeks to promote opera among young peopl ...

, Eithne Robinson, Hugh Tinney, Philip Martin,

John O'Conor John O'Conor (born 18 January 1947) is an Irish pianist and pedagogue, and former director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Early career Born in Dublin, O'Conor attended Belvedere College in that city. During his early Dublin studies, his ...

, John Ronayne, Emma Murphy, Geraldine O'Grady, Ann Murray,

Mary Hegarty Mary Hegarty is an Irish opera soprano singer. Born in Fermoy, County Cork, she studied singing at the Cork School of Music with Maeve Coughlan, representing Ireland at an early stage at the Cardiff Singer of the World festival in 1985.Gus Sm ...

Cara O'Sullivan Cara O'Sullivan (1962 – 26 January 2021) was an Irish coloratura soprano singer. Background O'Sullivan grew up in The Lough, Cork. Both of her parents and her grandparents on both sides were singers, though not professionally. She is survived ...

, Celine Byne, Orla Boylan,

Finghin Collins Finghin Collins (born 31 March 1977) is an Irish pianist. He won first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey, Switzerland, in 1999. Studies and competitions Collins studied with John O'Conor at the Royal Irish ...

, Cora Venus Lunny,

Tara Erraught Tara Erraught (born 1986, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish mezzo-soprano, a graduate of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM). Erraught is known for her work with Bavarian State Opera, for which she has been given a ' award. She stepped in on five ...

, Joseph Dalton, and Claudia Boyle. In 2021 the competition had to be run online due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

with all entrants submitting their pieces via the website.

References

External links

* *
Official Site
1897 establishments in Ireland Music organisations based in Ireland Music competitions Musical groups established in 1897 {{music-festival-stub