ALL-IRELAND SENIOR CEILI BAND DECIDED BY BLOODY MMA FIGHT

This year’s All-Ireland Senior Ceili Band competition at the Fleadh in Ennis was decided by a bloody mixed-martial arts fight combining music with UFC for the first time.

In a clear move away from the traditional, Cult-Ass chiefs decided the boring old formulaic Ceili Band competition was in need of a boost. This prompted them to introduce the famed UFC octagon to pit one band against another in a bloody battle.

Ceili Bands from all over the country competed for the well-known crappy trophies awarded to the winning band every year but it was the Shandrum Ceili Band that were victorious.

Cult-Ass incumbent Chairman Lau told The Drone: “What a wonderful day for Irish music. This has got to be the most competitive Ceili Band competition of all time!”

“It had everything! 5 rounds! Knockdowns! Fast combinations of ornamentation! A flurry of reel shots! God, there was blood everywhere! Although you usually get that at most ceili band competitions.”

It was no coincidence that this change occurred, as the Conor McGregor fight over the weekend seemed to capture the Fleadh going public's imagination. McGregor has already signed up to fight the winners of the Senior Ceili Band single-handedly in his next fight.

There have been some detractors however, with many musicians calling the fighting barbaric and ‘not a real traditional music competition’, saying that the music cannot be put up beside the likes of Michael Coleman, Seamus Ennis and the like.

They have also said that it is a disgrace that the tunes have been battered this way, leaving them bloodied due to ‘all of the cuts, ornamentation and foot battering in the music’.

One musician told us: “This clearly was not a fair fight. Some of the bands were using the drumsticks as weapons which is completely illegal.”