Bank holidays and public holidays in Ireland 2026

Thursday, January 1

New Year’s Day is the first public holiday of the Irish calendar and a quiet, family-focused day after the late-night festivities of New Year’s Eve. Banks, post offices, schools and most shops close, and the day is a paid public holiday under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Many Irish people watch the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna on RTÉ, take a brisk Wicklow or Burren walk to clear the head, and ease into the year with a roast or fry. The New Year’s Day swim at Sandycove’s Forty Foot, Salthill in Galway and the Guillamene in Tramore is a proudly Irish tradition that draws crowds even in cold rain.

Monday, February 2

St Brigid’s Day, marking the start of Celtic spring (Imbolc) and the feast of St Brigid of Kildare — one of Ireland’s three patron saints alongside Patrick and Colmcille — was made a public holiday from 2023 by the St Brigid’s Day Act 2022. It was the first new permanent Irish public holiday in over fifty years and the first ever named after a woman. The holiday falls on the first Monday of February (or 1 February if it is a Friday). St Brigid was a fifth-century abbess from Kildare whose folklore weaves together Christian sainthood and pre-Christian goddess traditions. Schoolchildren weave the iconic St Brigid’s Cross from rushes — traditionally hung over the door for protection through the year ahead.

Tuesday, March 17

St Patrick’s Day is the global symbol of Irish identity and one of the world’s most recognised national days. The tricolour is flown nationwide, the Dublin parade draws hundreds of thousands of spectators along O’Connell Street and Dame Street, and parades fill streets in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and just about every town and village. Iconic landmarks worldwide — the Sydney Opera House, Niagara Falls, the Pyramids, the Burj Khalifa — turn green for the night. Family customs include wearing the shamrock, attending Mass for the patron saint, and a hearty meal of bacon and cabbage or lamb stew. Pubs are full all afternoon and the Late Late Show holds a special St Patrick’s Day edition.

Monday, April 6

Easter Monday is the Monday after Easter Sunday and a statutory public holiday in Ireland. Easter weekend in Ireland is effectively a four-day stretch — although Good Friday is not a statutory holiday, the vast majority of workplaces, banks and offices close by custom, and Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are days of family and reflection. The day after Easter Sunday many Irish people take a country walk, host a family dinner, or recover from the Easter feast and chocolate egg overload. Sporting fixtures including the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse and the Easter Festival at Cork Racecourse are bank holiday classics.

Monday, May 4

May Day — the first Monday of May — is the spring bank holiday and traditionally marks the start of the summer season. It coincides with Bealtaine, the Celtic festival of the start of summer, when bonfires were once lit on the Hill of Uisneach (the symbolic centre of Ireland) and cattle driven between two fires for purification. Today it is a relaxed family holiday: many head to the coast, dust off the barbecue, attend the Bealtaine Festival of arts and creativity for older people, or simply enjoy the long evenings as Ireland edges into proper summer.

Monday, June 1

The June bank holiday — the first Monday of June — is the start of meteorological summer and one of the most popular weekends of the year for trips, festivals and weddings. Long weekends are spent in West Cork, Connemara, Donegal or the Wild Atlantic Way; staycation favourites include Killarney, Kinsale and Westport. Music and arts fill the air at Body & Soul (Westmeath), Cairde Sligo Arts Festival, and countless local festivals. With long bright evenings until almost 10 pm, the Irish summer feels properly underway.

Monday, August 3

The August bank holiday — the first Monday of August — falls in the heart of the Irish summer and traditionally coincides with Lughnasa, the Celtic harvest festival. It is the busiest weekend of the year on Irish roads as families head west, north and south for one last summer trip before the back-to-school rush. The Galway Races are at their peak (the famous Galway Plate runs the Wednesday before), the Puck Fair in Killorglin crowns its King Puck goat, and beaches at Strandhill, Banna and Inchydoney are full from dawn to dusk.

Monday, October 26

The October bank holiday — the last Monday of October — closes out the Irish autumn and aligns with the school Halloween mid-term break, making it a peak family staycation weekend. It is the Irish autumn long weekend par excellence: log fires, leaf-strewn walks at Mount Stewart or Lough Key, the Wexford Festival Opera, and Halloween celebrations building toward the 31st. The roots of Halloween itself are Celtic Irish — the festival of Samhain, marking the end of harvest and the boundary between the living and the dead, was carried to America by Irish emigrants and returned to Ireland in its modern costumed form.

Friday, December 25

Christmas Day is the most important family day in the Irish calendar. Mass on Christmas morning is a tradition for many, followed by a turkey-and-ham dinner with all the trimmings, the Queen’s/King’s broadcast on the BBC for some, and the RTÉ Christmas Day schedule for others. The afternoon is for the family table, presents, board games and a long walk to settle the meal — the Christmas Day swim at the Forty Foot is famous, drawing hundreds despite the cold. The country effectively shuts down: no public transport (except a skeleton service in Dublin), no shops, no post.

Saturday, December 26

St Stephen’s Day — known to many as Boxing Day in the UK — is the second day of the Irish Christmas and a public holiday in its own right. The Irish tradition is the Wren Boys procession (especially in Dingle, Kerry), where mummers in straw hats and disguises parade through villages playing trad music in remembrance of the wren bird that betrayed St Stephen. The Leopardstown and Limerick Christmas race meetings are on, and the Irish horse-racing calendar peaks. Most families spend the day visiting relatives, eating leftovers, and starting the slow wind-down to the New Year.

Friday, January 30

Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972) saw 13 unarmed civil rights protesters shot dead by British paratroopers in Derry; a 14th died later. The Saville Inquiry (2010) found the killings “unjustified and unjustifiable”, and Prime Minister David Cameron issued a formal apology. Each year the Bloody Sunday March for Justice walks the original route through the Bogside, ending at the memorial. The day is a solemn one for the Northern Irish nationalist community and is widely commemorated across the island. It is not a flag day in the Republic, but flags are sometimes flown at half-mast at private and community buildings.

Sunday, February 15

Mother’s Day in Ireland — known traditionally as Mothering Sunday — falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, following the British and Roman Catholic pattern rather than the second Sunday of May (the American date). Children give flowers, cards and chocolates, and many families take Mum out for Sunday lunch — it is the busiest restaurant day of the year alongside Mother’s Day. The tradition originally meant returning to one’s “mother church” on this Sunday, and over time evolved into honouring mothers themselves.

Tuesday, March 17

On St Patrick’s Day the Irish tricolour flies over every Government building, Garda station, military barracks and post office, and over Leinster House (the seat of the Oireachtas), Government Buildings, Áras an Uachtaráin and Irish embassies worldwide. Many private homes also fly the flag for the day. The President receives the diplomatic corps for a St Patrick’s Day reception, and the Taoiseach traditionally presents a bowl of shamrock to the President of the United States in the Oval Office — one of the most consistent Irish foreign-policy traditions of the past century.

Sunday, April 5

On Easter Sunday each year the Irish State commemorates the Easter Rising of April 1916, when Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from the steps of the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, Dublin. The official ceremony at the GPO is attended by the President, Taoiseach and Defence Forces, with the Proclamation read aloud, the tricolour raised, the National Anthem played, and a wreath laid at the memorial. The 100th anniversary in 2016 was the largest single commemorative event in modern Irish history. The actual date of the Rising (24 April 1916) was a Monday, but the commemoration moves with Easter.

Sunday, June 21

Father’s Day in Ireland follows the international (American) date — the third Sunday of June — unlike Mother’s Day which follows the British Mothering Sunday tradition. Children give cards, golf balls, socks and tools, and many families take Dad to lunch. It is a less commercially intense day than Mother’s Day but is firmly established in the Irish family calendar. Often coincides with the early-summer GAA Championship rounds.

Sunday, July 12

The National Day of Commemoration honours all Irish people who died in past wars and on United Nations peacekeeping service. It falls on the Sunday closest to 11 July (the date of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Truce that led to Irish independence). The State ceremony takes place at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin, attended by the President, the Taoiseach, the Defence Forces, religious leaders of all faiths and traditions, and representatives of veterans’ groups. The tricolour is flown nationwide and at half-mast on Defence Forces installations.

Saturday, October 31

Halloween has its origin in Ireland: the Celtic festival of Samhain (“saw-win”) marked the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, the time when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead was thought to be thin. Bonfires were lit on hilltops, costumes worn to disguise the wearer from wandering spirits, and divination games played around an apple bobbing in water. Brought to America by Irish emigrants in the nineteenth century, the festival returned in modern form. Today Irish children dress up and trick-or-treat, barmbrack (with a hidden ring) is sliced, and large bonfires — increasingly bonfire-festivals — light up Dublin, Derry and many towns. The Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin runs the same weekend, honouring the Dublin-born author of Dracula.

Wednesday, November 11

Armistice Day marks the end of World War I at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 1918. Ireland’s relationship with the day is complex — some 35,000 Irishmen died serving in the British armed forces in WWI, but the Irish War of Independence followed in 1919–21 and the day was deliberately under-marked for decades. Since the 1990s the Republic has formally observed Armistice Day, with the President or Taoiseach attending the National Day of Commemoration at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, two minutes’ silence at 11:00, and the tricolour flown at half-mast over Government Buildings. Poppies are worn quietly by some.

Tuesday, December 8

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a Catholic holy day of obligation and was historically the traditional day for country families to come up to Dublin to do their Christmas shopping. The day is no longer a public holiday and is much less observed in modern Ireland, but the Christmas-shopping-trip-to-Dublin tradition persists in many country households. Christmas trees and lights have usually gone up in Irish homes by this date.

Thursday, January 1

Monday, February 2

Tuesday, March 17

Monday, April 6

Monday, May 4

Monday, June 1

Monday, August 3

Monday, October 26

Friday, December 25

Saturday, December 26