The Fleadh in Belfast

For three days in August the city belonged to musicians. Legionaries from praesidia right across Belfast gave their days to it, joined by young adults who travelled from other parts of the country to work alongside us.

On the Friday, St Paul’s Pastoral Centre on the Falls Road filled past its capacity — over a hundred people — for The Story of Ireland, an evening with Bishop Alan McGuckian on our history, our culture and the faith woven through both, with music and song from our own. On the Saturday we opened St Mary’s, Chapel Lane, for confession and Eucharistic adoration, with music playing and a candle to be lit for whatever a person had carried in with them. 393 candles were lit that evening. On the Sunday, Mass was celebrated for the festival in St Patrick’s, Donegall Street.

In between, we were out on the street with the stall. Thousands of miraculous medals were given away — to Catholics and to Protestants, to people of other religions and of none, to visitors from every part of the country and from far beyond it. A great many stopped to talk, and some of those conversations went a long way down.

Belfast knows the cost of division better than most cities. To stand here while people gathered from everywhere to celebrate something held in common, and to be able to offer them Our Lady in the middle of it, was no ordinary week’s work. Our thanks to every legionary who gave their time, to those who travelled to join us, and to the priests and parishes who opened their doors. May what began in those encounters keep growing long after the music has stopped.