Ireland Events & Festivals
Clonmel Junction Festival
Clonmel may not be on most peoples’ list of places to visit when they’re planning a trip to Ireland, but sometimes a good festival is enough to make you change your plans. Celebrating with a local community - or even just watching them celebrate - makes a vacation unique and interesting, and helps you get to know a place a little better. So, why not join in the fun of the Clonmel Junction Festival?
First held in 2001, the Clonmel Junction Festival incorporates art, music, theatre and dance in both traditional and more avant-garde settings. The festival takes over the town of Clonmel for its run every July (usually eight-nine days), with performances in the streets as well as performance venues, so it’s impossible to be in Clonmel during the festival and not get into the spirit of things.
Each year the Clonmel festival has a theme - in 2007 it was “Travel and Transport,” and that was worked into every facet of the festival. There’s an effort each year to engage younger audiences, and in 2007 kids were encouraged to think about transportation in different ways. Art installations around town featured the “Travel and Transport” theme as well, although most of the theatre, dance and music performances were not tied to the theme.
Date: April 21st, 2008 |
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Galway International Oyster Festival
When you think of Galway, Ireland, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Why, it’s oysters, of course! It’s not? Well, after you hear about the Galway International Oyster Festival you might change your mind.
First held in 1954, the Galway International Oyster Festival has been called “one of the 12 greatest shows on earth” by the Sunday Times and has also been named one of Europe’s best festivals in the past. It doesn’t take a genius to know what the focus of the festival is, but even if you’re not a fan of oysters, this is a festival that’s worth attending. In addition to local restaurants filling their menus with oyster-laden dishes there’s the requisite oyster-opening contests (both sponsored by Guinness) and a beauty pageant.
Back in 1953, a hotel manager called Brian Collins noticed that his hotel emptied out in September and set about devising a plan to make the tourist season stretch past the summer. He organized the first festival in 1954 - and 34 people came. He might never have guessed that his little festival would last so long, or grow so large, but in 2004 the Galway International Oyster Festival celebrated its 50th year, making it one of the world’s longest-running festivals. These days, thousands of people descend on Galway every September to take part in the festivities.
Date: March 4th, 2008 |
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Tour of Ireland
I spotted this sign in Burgess Park here in Athlone yesterday.
The fifth and final leg of this bicycle race starts at the strand here in Athlone at 11a.m. on Sunday (tomorrow) heading to Merrion Square in Dublin. The time allotted for this 147.7 kilometre leg of the race is 3hr12min. Wow - that’s pretty fast.
The Tour of Ireland means to be the Irish equivilent of the Tour de France, but this is its inaugural year.
Date: August 25th, 2007 |
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Ireland vs Chile
Last night I went to my first match in Athlone Town Soccer Stadium to see the Irish under-19 team play the Chilean under-19 team in an international friendly match.
Date: August 10th, 2007 |
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French Market Returns
It was Friday morning on my way to work that I saw them: the tell-tale trucks and stalls and the lyrical chatter of French wafting toward me on the breeze from the Shannon. The French Market has returned to Athlone.
The last time they were here I recalled my first experience with them - it was magical. Fog parting to reveal a magic, boisterous market with more stalls than you could fit in the small pocket around Athlone Castle. I noted there seemed to be less stalls setting up Friday morning and looked forward to returning at lunch to witness the market in full swing.
Date: April 22nd, 2007 |
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Kilkenny Cat Laughs Comedy Festival
If you need an excuse to head to Kilkenny in June, the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is a great one - in addition to the usual sights of Kilkenny, this festival gives you an excuse to laugh yourself silly.
Kilkenny’s Cat Laughs festival has been going since 1995, and has featured lots of famous international comedians over the years - even the likes of Bill Murray and The Daily Show’s Lewis Black have appeared on the Cat Laughs stage in the past. Generally, it’s a great festival for British and Irish comedians to do their stand-up routines.
In addition to the stand-up comedy component, the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival also includes a comedy film element called “Kitty Flicks,” as well as a soccer game that’s held each year where the Irish comedians take on comedians from the rest of the world. This sporting event is just as much comedy as it is soccer. Even before the match in 2007, there was a preview of the match by the entertaining announcer, Barry Murphy, which you can see on video.
Date: April 9th, 2008 |
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Tour of Ireland in Athlone
So Sunday was the final leg of the Tour of Ireland bicycle race.
Just lookit ‘em all there, bicycling over the River Shannon, past Athlone’s Saints Peter and Paul’s church.
The munchkin and I got up early on the beautiful, sunny day (finally!) and strolled over to where booming voices were announcing things in Burgess Park. There was quite a set-up in the park, with tented structures and loads of journalists, motorcyclists and event-sponsored cars with bikes on their roofs.
“The Tour de France has nothing on this Tour of Ireland . . .”
Date: August 28th, 2007 |
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Last weekend of the world Fleadh
Only in its second year, The World Fleadh finishes its week-long stint in Portlaoise (its inaugural year was in Kerry).
The purpose and design of this Irish festival is to showcase the best of Irish traditional and contemporary music in a custom-designed village setting. The organisers mean for it to be the Irish answer to festivals such as those held every year in Lorient (France), Cambridge (England) and Milwaukee (USA) wherein Irish performers are always featured. The World Fleadh is when it all comes home.
Date: August 12th, 2007 |
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Athlone Agri Show
This Sunday I got up early and after we’d attended mass and fed the munchkin, jumped in the aul wagon and headed out to the annual Athlone Agri Show held on the grounds near Moydrum Castle of U2’s Unforgettable Fire fame.
It was my first time at the festival, which is not well-advertised to the tourist market. Certainly I believe I may have been the only yankee voyeur in attendance.
The festival is targeted primarily at the farmer and equestrian enthusiast and the Moydrum grounds were teeming with prize sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, dogs, cattle and horses all hoping for a blue ribbon. Families were about in profusion and sturdy boots and wellies (galoshes) were the footwear of choice.
Date: June 26th, 2007 |
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Ballinasloe Horse Fair
The 2006 Ballinasloe horse fair ended Sunday with the dramatic annual tug-of-war competitions filling the weekend. The streets are blocked off for the evening and local businesses and groups compete against each other under the streetlamps to the cheering of the crowds.
Personally, my weekend was chock-a-block; hardly was I back from Kinsale but I was in doing sound for the Bill Coleman concert, leaving Sunday to be a well-deserved day of rest (with a few tunes down in Sean’s Bar, or course).
Date: October 10th, 2006 |
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