The 2026 Bealtaine Festival, Ireland’s national celebration of creativity in older age (run by Age & Opportunity), takes place throughout May with events nationwide. It features a diverse mix of arts, film, performance, and community engagement, promoting the artistic contributions of older people. Proudly funded by the Arts Council and the HSE, with the support of communities nationwide and a vast network of accomplished local and national bodies.

The Wilde Stages Festival (formerly the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival) is an annual event, celebrating the contribution of LGBTQIA+ people to the theatre, past and present. The Festival was founded in 2004 to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Oscar Wilde, in his native city. With an emphasis on new or recent international and Irish works with a broadly LGBTQ+ theme or relevance, the Festival has grown to become the largest event of its type in the world. The Festival creates new opportunities for visibility and affirmation for existing and emerging gay artists and th

On an island of storytellers and in a city where books are treasured, International Literature Festival Dublin (ILFD) is Ireland’s leading literary event. Since 1998, we have brought the world’s finest writers together to enthral, engage and excite audiences. In readings, conversations, debates, screenings, guided walks, events, podcasts and broadcasts, we’re proud to celebrate the very best Irish and international fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, lyricists, playwrights and screenwriters. Irish language writing and emerging talent are always supported, and new voices championed

This heartwarming and authentic story explores family, religion and fighting for what's right. “The books that I am writing would have been immensely helpful to my younger self, who was trying to navigate being this very specific identity that nobody else seemed to have.Being Bangladeshi and Irish, queer and Muslim, and many other things outside of that too.” Adiba Jaigirdar Award-winning Adiba Jaigirdar tackles racism, homophobia and cultural appropriation using her own unique blend of emotional depth, humour and compelling storytelling. In Nadia Islam, on the Record aspiring jou

What does it mean to move into Irish as a writer whose work has been shaped in English? Join Naoise Dolan in conversation with Emma Ferrari who explore the creative and cultural possibilities of writing across languages. Drawing on their shared experiences of living and working multilingually, the conversation will range from Ireland to Italy and beyond. At its heart is the idea of exophonic writing — writing in a language that is not one’s first. Inspired by writers such as Yoko Tawada and Xiaolu Guo, Dolan considers how working in a second language can become an artistic choice, shapi

“You will die but the words you speak or spoke will live forever.” Auliq Ice John Connell’s The Wisdom of Farmers: What We Can Learn from the Land is a thoughtful, illuminating rumination on the life lessons from those who work the land and the millennia of wisdom they draw upon when they go about their day, ‘making a living by turning light and time into money’. He skilfully synthesises philosophy, art, literature and spirituality to bolster his thoughts on such topics as stoicism, the food chain and the role of community. The oldest written art form on the planet, in today’

Alliance Française Dublin and Illustrators Ireland have joined forces to present the 11th edition of the Comic Book Festival Dublin, celebrating the vibrant worlds of comics and illustration. This year’s programme features a series of creative events designed to inspire, entertain, and amaze. Building on the success of last year’s festival, this edition expands in scope and introduces some exciting new elements. The opening evening will feature acclaimed French comic creators Fabien Tillon and Gaël Remise, alongside outstanding Irish artists Sarah Bowie and Sheena Dempsey. In ad

In recent decades, particularly when viewed through a media lens, Irish Travellers have been frequently depicted as a single homogenous group of people, all of whom share the same cultural traditions and history. This narrative is partly a remnant of colonial discourse whereby all Irish Travelling people and nomadic groups were “classified” as one and the same -e.g. “masterless men and women”, “wandering Irish”, “wild Irish” etc. Under colonialism, administrators made little or no distinction between different cultural and minority groups who travelled for a living and the rest

Poetry Day Ireland is an annual celebration of poetry and creativity across the island of Ireland, coordinated by Poetry Ireland, and will take place this year on Thursday, 28 May 2026. The theme for Poetry Day Ireland 2026 is "Home", a theme that is significant as poetry has a new ‘home’ on the island as Poetry Ireland returns to No. 11 Parnell Square. This year’s Poetry Day Ireland should also reflect on the concept of home as one of the greatest issues and predominant themes of our times. Get Involved On Poetry Day Ireland we invite individuals, groups, and organisations across th