Heading to the Fleadh written by Dr Méabh Ní Fhuartháin, this is the first comprehensive examination of the history and evolution of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. As a transformative cultural phenomenon, the Fleadh was central to the revival for Irish traditional music during from 1951 to 1969. Reflecting broader patterns of Irish life and society, this book charts the genesis and development phases of the Fleadh in the 1950s and the challenges of identity which the Fleadh experienced in the 1960s.

Dr Méabh Ní Fhuartháin is Head of Irish Studies at the Centre for Irish Studies, University of Galway, specialising in Irish Music and Dance Studies. Méabh has contributed articles and reviews to a variety of journals and was also popular music subject editor of the landmark Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (UCD Press, 2012). She co-edited a special issue of Éire-Ireland: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies (2019) and also, the special issue on 'Women and traditional/folk music' in Ethnomusicology Ireland (March 2021). Currently editor of Ethnomusicology Ireland, recent publications include research on commemorative representations of Ireland through music; pop music and emigration; masculinities and Irish popular music; dance genealogies in Galway, and institutionalisation of traditional music and dance in Ireland.