The Derry Feis is here again – but faces some tough times to keep going in future

The famous Derry Feis this week got underway for another year, but one of the main organisers of the event has revealed the difficulties in keeping it going.

Pat McCafferty is the third generation of his family to become an organiser of the Feis, but he said the event is no longer the ‘be all and end all’ like it used to be for the people of Derry.

“You would never have the huge crowds you used to have. The only people who come to the Feis now would be parents and grandparents, and the days where people would come just to sit and enjoy the Feis are gone,” he said.

“The Feis was always held in Easter Week but so many of the competitors and the teachers wouldn’t compete because they were on holidays, so we came to an agreement to put it on during Holy Week.”

For the McCafferty family, the Feis is a family tradition stemming back as far as 1923.

Pat’s grandfather was involved almost since the inception of the Feis, and Pat’s father was involved up until the year he died.

“I inherited that kind of zeal, but it’s a labour of love and it does get difficult,” said Pat.

For the first time in 70 years, the Feis has now dropped to four days and Pat said the committee can’t balance the books or pay big money for prizes or adjudicators anymore due to a fall in attendees.

The Derry Feis was set up to sustain music, dance and language at a time when the people in Derry felt their culture was under threat, said Pat.

At the time, the Derry Feis took place in conjunction with the Londonderry Feis.

“We were given a special dispensation and we got the Guildhall at a low rate, but those days are gone. We’re in a modern world and the expenses of all these different things get higher and higher.”

With no X-Factor, the Derry Feis was the launching pad for anyone with talent back in the day.

“People like Phil Coulter, Nadine Coyle, you could go on and on. I wouldn’t make that claim now because people don’t think the Feis is the be all and end all,” said Pat.

“There are aspects of the Feis that are suffering. We used to start the dancing on Monday morning, now it doesn’t start until Thursday.

“We still have big entries of children singing up until the age of 14, but after that it just completely drops off.”

The average age of competitors is falling, but Pat said that committee members are getting older, and there is no-one to pick up the mantle in their place.

“You can’t get young people involved because nobody will give up the whole of their Easter holidays and a few weeks before it,” he said.

“My father said to me 'you’re giving up Easter' and there was no discussion. It’s all voluntary and it’s very demanding and it falls on the shoulders of three or four people.”

This year’s Feis got started on Tuesday with the School Choir competition at St Mary’s College, where St Cecilia’s picked up three awards.

“We’ve been working really hard all year and we’re hoping to take on the comments from the adjudicator and build next year,” said Head of Music at St Cecilia’s Clare McGirr.

The music teacher competed in the Derry Feis herself.

“I competed as a child and all through my teenage years and I grew up through the Feis,” she said.

Competitor Katie Beeton said she prefers more modern music to traditional songs, and Pat said they have included new events to incorporate popular musical theatre.

However, he said if the Derry Feis starts to focus solely on popular culture, the meaning of the Feis will be lost.

“It’s hard to know how the Feis ethos will exist. I’d like to say we would still be here for our 100th year, but I just don’t know,” he said.