John Walsh got a simple question at the Fleadh Cheoil in Belfast. It came from a woman who’d been pushing a pram that had two small children.
“Do you work for the council?” she asked him outside the front of City Hall where various acts, traditional and otherwise, were performing on the main stage that Monday afternoon.
“I do work for the council,” said its chief executive.
“This is wonderful,” the woman told him. “This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen in this city.”
“I thanked her for that,” Walsh recalled. “And as I started to walk away, she put her hand on my arm and she said, ‘I want you to know that I come from East Belfast and I would not normally have thought that the Fleadh was something I would be going to.’ She said, ‘I’m coming back.’
“It was amazing,” Walsh said. “It was a real moment for me.”
Belfast City Council is focused now on the 2027 Fleadh Cheoil, when everyone can come back, but for now it’s taking stock and basking in the positives of 2026.
Near the top of Walsh’s list is the council staff, particularly those on the frontline, whom he singled out for praise. “The word that stands out to me is pride — they had real pride in their city,” he said, “and they were out there making sure this was the best possible event and experience for people coming to this place. It was really incredible.”
Walsh— who worked for 31 years with the council, including as Director of Legal and Civic Services and City Solicitor, before taking over as chief executive four and half years ago —next reported the reaction from others in the aftermath of an event that recorded 1.6 million visits, twice the expected number.
He spoke of the “letters and cards I received from people who’ve just felt the need to acknowledge what the council and its partners have done here and the magnificent teams who have worked on this.
“I got letters coming to me from people who said they had fallen in love with their city all over again and that the Fleadh had given the city an opportunity to show its real face to the world.
“And that they never thought that would experience an event with such joy in it within their city,” added Walsh, who did both his undergraduate degree and his postgraduate professional studies at Queen’s University Belfast.
For the CEO of the 2,500-employee council, this is what success was. “For me it was never just about the numbers and the economic outturn,” he said.
“In the week before, I’d never seen so many people out with paint brushes,” he said. “Spaces had been transformed. Places that had been derelict or vacant became outdoor venues of all sorts, with little pop-up bars and food outlets. And it was just wonderful.”
Nonetheless, the CEO couldn’t help wondering if anyone would show up, and he got little sleep the night before the event was due to begin.
“When I walked out in the opening event on the Sunday, and we were going to the main stage,” he said, “I looked at the grounds of City Hall and I looked to the gardens in front of the main stage, and to the rear of City Hall. I thought, ‘That’s really busy, so that’s really good.’” He was pleased.
From the top step, though, looking down the main street, which is Castle Place and Royal Avenue, the view was more dramatic: “I could see this sea of people — at midday, on a Sunday in Belfast city center, a big sea of people. I thought, ‘It’s happening, this is really happening.’
“And that was a real moment for me.”
The third "real moment" he remembered came on the final Sunday, when the Shankill Road Defenders, a “traditional unionist band from a unionist perspective left the main stage to a standing ovation from everybody in the grounds and a guard of honor back into the City Hall."
Walsh said, “Even they were saying in their own social media afterwards that they had never received a welcome or reception like that. And it was amazing, it was just truly amazing to see that in the city, that ability of that audience to be able to accept them for their musicianship in that way.”
Belfast City Council's CEO had “soaked the knowledge in” when he attended the Fleadhs hosted by Mullingar, in 2022 and 2023, and Wexford, in 2024 and 2025.
It was important to be “faithful to the best traditions of the Fleadh, of course, but also to present something that was authentic of this place.”
And being authentic to the city meant to its cultural traditions, whether nationalist or unionist or those of the newcomer communities.
“Part of the ambition was all those things could be presented in a very mutual kind of way and be respected and enjoyed by all communities,” Walsh said.
“I think, for me, the Fleadh this year really did encompass that broad span and people engaged, the city embraced it. The numbers reflected that it really was an unbelievable success,” he said.
“This was the case not just in the city center, but in the communities and in the council areas. It was great to see.
“The broad political support, which we’ve had from day 1, has been really pivotal,” Walsh added.
Now the council and the parties are focused on 2027 and even thinking ahead to what might take the place of the Fleadh in 2028.
“You’re always looking to see what you can do and what you can improve,” the CEO said.
The feedback he’s getting from across the globe is that people are putting that week aside to visit Belfast next summer; and more generally the Fleadh tends to be bigger the second year in any given location.
“So, book now!” Walsh said.
The New York Times reported from August’s Fleadh, “For local people, the sense of pride — that they had pulled this off in a place where expressions of identity have long been contentious — was palpable.”
“The city was smiling,” Walsh said.
As to the question of whether the Fleadh revealed Belfast’s real face or if a new city was being created, he said, “I think it’s bit of both. This helps in getting to a better place – a cultural maturity where culture isn’t seen as divisive, but something that is capable of being enjoyed by all.”
Walsh, however, was mostly on duty for the duration.
“It was 5 days before I got my first pint of Guinness, which is not normal,” he said, with a laugh.
The CEO was soon ready to experience in a more relaxed way the “proper outpouring of joy” and “proper cultural carnival” that was Belfast’s Fleadh in 2026.
“On the Saturday,” he said. “I kept my diary largely free so I could walk through the city and enjoy it like a punter – and I have to say it was a great day.
“My family came down,” Walsh remembered. “And we had the best time ever.”
