One of Dublin’s most distinctive community festivals runs from Monday July 20th to Sunday July 26th across Dublin 8, with over 70 events and more than 90% of them free.
President Catherine Connolly opens the festival at St Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street on Monday July 20th.
The programme is full of good things, as we’d expect with our good pal Michael McDermott as festival director.
The Tailor’s Hall Sessions
Running Wednesday July 22nd to Friday July 24th, this three-day programme of traditional music, song, dance and conversation is built around the Liberties’ deep history as a mecca for traditional music – a history traced back not to some fixed Dublin origin but to musicians who migrated into the area from rural Wexford, Meath, Wicklow, Galway, Clare and beyond, as piper and collector Breandán Breathnach noted in a 1970s RTÉ radio interview that serves as the curatorial starting point for the whole programme.
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Wednesday July 22nd: Paddy Glackin and Peter Browne in conversation exploring the life, work and legacy of Breandán Breathnach (1912-1985), uilleann piper, collector, writer, publisher and Liberties native. With audio-visual clips.
Thursday July 23rd: Lifting The Veil On Tommie Potts, Tailor’s Hall (free, suggested donation €5) – fiddle players Liam O’Connor and Aoife Ní Bhriain alongside piper Seán Potts discussing the legendary Liberties fiddler Tommie Potts, his ITMA publications and a performance of his most famous pieces as transcribed by Aoife Ní Bhriain.
Friday July 24th: The Parting Glass (free, suggested donation €5) – Eoghan O’Ceannabháin hosts an open singing session. Singers, listeners, dreamers and schemers all welcome.
Unruly Spirits: Rebellious Women in Song, Marrowbone Books (€5, booking required)
Niamh Bury plays an intimate acoustic set of traditional and original songs. Bury is one of the chief organisers of The Night Before Larry Got Stretched at The Cobblestone and one of the first artists signed to Claddagh Records in almost two decades whose debut Yellow Roses, produced by Ye Vagabonds’ Brían Mac Gloinn, was one of the standout Irish folk albums of 2024.
Organicus at St Audoen’s
The week’s most ambitious commission runs alongside the trad sessions. Organicus is a newly written three-hour work by New York-based composer Steve Long, performed by organist Olesia Borsuk. Structured around the eighteen letters of the Irish alphabet across eighteen ten-minute sections, unfolding across the full architecture of St Audoen’s Church. Tuesday 21st and Thursday evenings 23rd from 7pm, with daily afternoon performances by rotating festival artists throughout the week. Supported by the OPW.
The Bartenders’ Race is back
The legendary Guinness Bartenders’ Race – last run in the 1960s – returns on Sunday July 26th at 5:15pm, running from The Lark Inn to the Liberty Belle. Nearly 60 years in the making.
The Bilberry Ball
A Bilberry Ball drawing on the ancient festival of Lughnasa takes place in Michael Mallin Park on Sunday July 26th from 3pm to 5pm, with Edwina Guckian and the Stray Sod Céilí Band featuring Ultan O’Brien and Seamas Hyland. Preceded at noon by a Ramble – a rural tradition in which strawboys call on neighbours sharing tea, chat, music and stories. Make your own costume at the Strawboys Costume Making Factory on Sunday July 19th at the F2 Centre, Rialto.
RTÉ Liveline live broadcast
Kieran Cuddihy and Liveline broadcast live from the festival on Friday July 24th.
The Liberties Festival Brew
Batch Bread Red is back – a limited-edition red ale brewed at the Guinness Open Gate Brewery using local Bee8 honey, drawing on the area’s batch bread tradition. Pouring in 13 Dublin 8 pubs until August 31st, with a donation from every keg going back to the festival.
Other highlights:
- Talking Shop at Hopeless Botanics (6:30pm) and Thomas House (7:30pm) – pop-up conversations with local business owners, in association with Dublin Inquirer (free, booking required) – Tuesday July 21st and Talking Shop: Some Neck Guitars (6:30pm) and Picado Mexican (7:30pm) – Wednesday July 22nd
- Gardaí vs Traders football match, Oliver Bond House Football Pitch (free, 7pm) – Tony O’Rourke Memorial Cup, guest of honour Chris Forrester (St Patrick’s Athletic) – Tuesday July 21st
- Where Do We All Belong? – visual art project exploring loneliness and belonging, The Bank, July 23rd-25th
- Jonathan Swift’s Last Joke – Trinity Law Professor David Kenny and historian Donal Fallon on Swift’s epitaph, 300 years on from Gulliver’s Travels. Arthur’s Pub, Wednesday July 22nd, 7pm
- A Dish to Remember – clay-making and food memory exhibition, Fusco’s, Meath Street, Tuesday July 21st, 7pm
- The Liberties at Smock Alley – community groups on stage, Saturday July 25th from noon
- Blue Rinse Ball (Thursday July 23rd), Church Bingo, Sunrise Yoga at the Gravity Bar and Liberties X Community Got Talent (Saturday July 25th)
- Saturday July 25th – Art Mart at Hen’s Teeth, Blackpitts (free) – featuring Jacky Sheridan, Laura Callaghan, Shane O’Driscoll, BP Fallon, Chris Judge, Karl Magee and more
- Saturday July 25th – Tunes in the Bee-Loud Glade, Leo Freeman Meadow, Watling Street (free) – fiddle player Sinéad Kennedy leading tunes and chat among the hives of the BEE8 urban apiary
Most events free or suggested donation. The festival asks: please book and please show up – every no-show makes it harder to keep events free.
Full programme at thelibertiesfestival.com. Free brochure available in local businesses across Dublin 8.
The Liberties Festival – Monday July 20th to Sunday July 26th 2026. thelibertiesfestival.com.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
