Bealtaine is Ireland’s national festival which celebrates the arts and creativity as we age. The festival is run by Age & Opportunity, the leading national development organisation working to enable the best possible quality of life for us all as we age. This year Age & Opportunity unveils an all-new festival theme, ‘Lust for Life’, which reflects a familiar experience for many older people. To celebrate the theme Bealtaine Festival has commissioned a new essay, ‘Lust of Life’, by writer, former Labour TD and Bealtaine Festival ambassador, Liz McManus, which explores the n

Karl is part of a self-help group. He's still getting over a break-up. Thirty years later. He has to care for his elderly mother. Can things get any worse? You bet. He wants to try stand-up comedy again. A show about an ailing Irish mother. American movie stars. Group therapy over failed show business dreams and the prospect of a second chance... • Wednesday May 8th at 1pm • Thursday May 9th at 7.30pm Presented as part of Bealtaine, Celebrating Arts & Creativity As We Age *Lunchtime tickets include tea/coffee Galway-born Karl MacDermott is a comedy performer and h

Essex born folk songwriter ‘Beans on Toast’ is an extremely unique performer. Twisting an age-old genre with a D.I.Y. approach and contemporary concerns has earned him the title of a cult figure who tells it like it is. A festival favourite (he’s played Glastonbury every year since 2005) and a prolific writer and performer. He’s written and recorded 16 albums and he’s played every bar, club, venue, pub, festival, party and honky-tonk you can think of. He’s a hippy, a punk, a poet, a drunk, a die-hard romantic and an eternal optimist. Singing simple songs that tackle big issues.