Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann

Major Irish organization for the promotion of traditional Irish music, song, and dance, founded in 1951. It organizes a series of fleadhanna, or competitions, throughout the world every year, culminating in the All Ireland Fleadh Cheoil, possibly the largest music festival in Ireland. It also organizes concert tours around the world and is involved in traditional music education. It has its head office in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and there are some 400 branches of the organization throughout Ireland, Britain, Europe, North America, Australia, and the Far East.

The All Ireland Fleadh Cheoil is held in a different venue each year. Alongside the competitions, the informal music performances (sessions) that take place on the streets or in public houses are a major feature of the festival. Comhaltas undertakes important work in the field of education, with local branches organizing instrumental classes for children outside of existing educational structures where, in the past, traditional music culture has been largely ignored or marginalized. Young musicians feature predominantly in the concert tours.

Comhaltas is politically associated with the Fianna Fáil party and promotes a brand of Devalerian cultural nationalism associated with it, in which an idealized, virtuous past features strongly.