Address by President Connolly at launch of Bealtaine Festival 2026
Áras an Uachtaráin, 30 April 2026
A chairde uaisle,
Tá mé thar a bheith sásta fáilte a chur romhaibh anseo go hÁras an Uachtaráin agus tús á chur le Féile Bealtaine na bliana seo.
Is Féile fíor-thábhachtach í seo atá anois á ceiliúradh ar fud na tíre, féile atá oscailte, fáilteach agus ar fáil do chuile dhuine. Féile spreagúil í atá ag comóradh 31 bliain ar an bhfód i mbliana.
Is éacht é sin atá bainte amach agaibhse, a chairde agus acu siúd ar fad a bhí agus atá bainteach leis an bhféile seo le blianta anuas.
I want to acknowledge Age and Opportunity, who founded the festival in 1995 and have stewarded it through three decades of growth into the national institution it has become.
I want to acknowledge Dr. Tara Byrne, the festival’s artistic director, and the team whose work makes the programme possible each year. I want too, to recognise the hundreds of organisations across the country whose programming gives the festival its national reach – the arts centre, libraries, museums and theatres, the local authorities and community groups, the day centres and care settings. Bealtaine is a genuinely national festival in a way few others are, present not only in the cities, but in towns and parishes across the country. That is part of its strength.
The scale of the achievement of this festival is itself worth pausing on. In any given year, Bealtaine comprises some three thousand events, involving up to sixty thousand people, in towns and villages across the country. It is among the largest cooperative festivals in Ireland, and the model it pioneered has travelled – Luminate in Scotland, Gwanwyn in Wales, the Age of Creativity in England, and other festivals further afield, all draw on the example set by you here.
This year’s theme ‘Lust for Life’ is one I particularly enjoy. It is a phrase that speaks to the energy, the appetite and the creative drive that the years can sharpen rather than soften. It is also, in the spirit of Bealtaine, a phrase with a wink in it: knowing, joyful, and slightly defiant. The festival has always carried that double quality, deeply serious about the cultural rights of older people, and entirely unwilling to be solemn about it.
I want to thank all those who give their time, their imagination and care to making Bealtaine what it is today.
I would like to acknowledge the funders, the Arts Council and the HSE in particular, who have supported the festival across three decades, and the volunteers without whom no festival on this scale could exist.
I want to thank Ciaran Tourish and Ian Kinsella for the music this evening.
The festival’s name itself is significant. Bealtaine is one of the four great seasonal festivals of the year. It heralds the arrival of summer and the lengthening of days. It has ancient roots in our shared heritage. Long before our modern calendar, our ancestors marked this turning point with large bonfires and festive gatherings. It is a time to look forward with hope, to celebrate the cycles of nature, and to recognise that growth follows even the longest and darkest of winters. It is therefore entirely fitting that an arts festival celebrating creative life across the second half of a life would take its name from the festival of the summer’s beginning, from a tradition that understood seasons not as endings but turnings, and that honoured fire as a source of renewal rather than only of consumption.
Léirigh ár sinsear ómós ar leith do lá Bealtaine le tinte cnámh ag ceiliúradh thús an tsamhraidh, ag fágáil slán le dorchadas an gheimhridh agus ag fáiltiú roimh ghile agus dóchas an tsamhraidh.
At the heart of the modern Bealtaine, lies the celebration of creativity, and this festival provides essential spaces and conditions for creativity to flourish.
As you all well know, art, in all its forms, transcends boundaries, transcends time, and transcends contrived generational gaps.
Art is the process of paring back to the core meaning, expressing truth and cutting through any artifice that might obscure our vision. Art requires us to pause, reflect and question our perspectives. It is the medium through which our imagination is given free rein, with infinite possibilities. Imagination is a powerful shaping force for positive change, which must be nurtured and allow to thrive. Your festival does exactly that.
Ba mhaith liom buíochas ó chroí a ghabháil libhse ar fad atá bainteach ar aon bhealach le clár na bliana seo, idir lucht eagraithe agus rannpháirtithe. Tá saothar ollmhór curtha i gcrích agaibh, saothar a rachaidh chun leas phobail éagsúla ar fud na tíre, saothar a bhainfear sult agus scléip as ar feadh na míosa amach romhainn. Tréaslaím libh ar fad, a chairde, agus guím gach rath ar an bhféile Bealtaine, bainigí taitneamh agus tairbhe aisti.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.