When Ireland Celebrates

When Ireland Celebrates

For both visitors and locals, festivals provide both free entertainment and a chance to meet people from all backgrounds who share a common interest.

Some festivals are traditional events, now tarted up with entertaining side shows: Kinvara's Criuinniú na mBád on the third Thursday in August centers around turf-laden "hookers" (heavy wooden sailing boats) racing across Galway Bay, while on the third weekend in August the Connemara Pony Show in Clifden attracts a nationwide equine entry, and creates a terrific buzz.

The Fleadh Nua in Ennis in late May is one of the country's biggest traditional music festivals, and a great place to make friends. There is plenty of free entertainment there, and also at the Lisdoonvanra Matchmaking Festival held in late September, an outing which may well change your life -- stranger things have happened!

In contrast, the Galway Arts Festival, in the middle two weeks of July, hosts an international array of the best of contemporary theater, film, rock, jazz, traditional music, poetry readings, comedy acts, visual arts exhibitions, and an open-air parade by the street theater company Macnas, one of several local troupes to gain international recognition.

This is followed immediately by the Galway Races, the "only place" for Irish socialites to be seen in late July. These Thoroughbred horse races now feature a new sport: the game of Spot the Celebrity (usually arriving by helicopter).

Both Galway and neighboring Clarinbridge have Oyster Festivals in September, celebrating the local product with oyster-opening competitions and lots of free entertainment.