City Walls to become a Stage for Creative Freedom at Galway Cartoon Festival 2025

Galway’s city walls are set to become a stage where the imagination can roam free, as children and cartoonists are being invited to leave their mark on Galway Cartoon Festival’s Freedom Wall. Discover all about it here...

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The Freedom Wall is a major part of this year’s Festival, which runs from Friday 3rd to Wednesday 8th October. Professional cartoonists and Galway children are invited to give their creativity free rein, and then draw those ideas directly on paper or by submitting images to be printed and pasted onto designated walls.

Works by professional cartoonists will be displayed on the Cartoonists' Freedom Wall, Lower Merchants Road, near the Pálás Cinema, from 1pm on Sunday 5th October. The work by budding young artists will be seen on the Children’s Freedom Wall, Eyre Square Centre, opposite the Mediaeval Wall, from 3.30pm, on Wednesday 8th October.

The initiative follows in the footsteps of a powerful project launched in Paris, where young volunteers and artists came together on World Press Freedom Day to highlight the challenges faced by modern journalism. That first project was initiated by NGOs including Europeans Without Borders, Cartooning for Peace, and Reporters Without Borders. Now, the spirit of that campaign arrives in Galway to engage communities through art and dialogue.

“We are very proud and excited to bring this event to Galway and to unite local communities. We hope it will become a recurring event and collaboration in the years ahead,” said Catherine Gagneux, one of the organisers.

The Galway Freedom Wall has been organised in cooperation with Baboró and Architecture at the Edge. The project will unfold across the three festivals, becoming an evolving installation and a living artwork - a vivid metaphor for journalism’s enduring power to break through barriers. Volunteers from diverse backgrounds are expected to play a central role, using street art to spark conversations around censorship, press freedom, and the importance of accurate reporting. Organisers stress that cartoons and murals are more than illustrations: they are catalysts for dialogue and community expression.

“The cartoon is a powerful symbol - it helps people express themselves, communicate with each other, and keep the debate alive in a visual way,” said Catherine Gagneux. “As part of a wider effort to showcase political cartoons that use walls as metaphors for censorship, the Galway Cartoon Festival blends creativity, community, and advocacy. By bringing together artists and volunteers, the project offers a timely reminder that defending press freedom requires not only resilience, but also imagination and dialogue.”

For more on how to get your drawing on the Freedom Wall, see galwaycartoonfestival.ie.

All photos courtesy Galway Cartoon Festival.