Experience the best events in Galway - completely free! Explore This is Galway's Ultimate Budget-Friendly Events Guide and never miss out on top happenings without spending a cent.
Please note: This article will be updated as events take place meaning that this article can be your go-to no matter the day of week or time of year. For Galway’s full events calendar, visit thisisgalway.ie.
Talk & Performace: Sean-Nós with Dominic Mac Giolla Bhríde
When: April 16th, at 2.30pm
Where: Galway City Museum
More information here
Sean-nós is a traditional style of Irish singing, characterised by its unaccompanied, highly ornamented delivery. Join singer Dominic Mac Giolla Bhríde for a special talk and sean-nós performance at Galway City Museum. A singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and teacher from the Donegal Gaeltacht, Dominic Mac Giolla Bhríde was awarded the prestigious Corn Uí Riada for sean-nós singing in 2009. His recent book, Gealach na gCuanta (2025), explores the origins of sean-nós and its connections with the Gaelic harping tradition. He has toured widely throughout Ireland, Britain, and beyond, appearing at a range of venues and cultural festivals.
Literature: Martin Doyle in conversation with Sarah Kenny
When: April 16th, at 6pm
Where: Kennys Bookshop
More information here
Journalist, writer and Books Editor of The Irish Times, Martin Doyle, will be at Kennys Bookshop on April 16th, joining Sarah Kenny in conversation about his new book, A Hosting: Interviews with Irish Writers 1991-2025. About A Hosting: Interviews with Irish Writers 1991-2025 - Martin Doyle, Books Editor of The Irish Times, has been an arts journalist for almost 35 years and in that time has interviewed many of the most talented and successful Irish writers at different stages of their careers. This selection of his journalism offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of the Irish literary world as it has evolved in the past four decades. It provides booklovers with a privileged insight into the creative processes of many of their favourite writers, while serving as an appetiser for some of the greatest works of modern Irish fiction and nonfiction, both prizewinning titles and some overlooked gems which deserve to be rediscovered. Writers interviewed include: Sally Rooney, Claire Keegan, Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, Claire Kilroy, Donal Ryan, Alice Taylor, Paul Murray.
Workshop: Tattoo your Tee - Earth Day with UpSew
When: April 18th, at 10.30am
Where: Galway City Museum
More information here
Join a Tattoo Your Tee workshop where parents or guardians can personalise clothing with a child, using simple embroidery. Whether it’s a picture, word, or symbol, this hands‑on session offers a creative way to upcycle a t‑shirt or sweater. This free event forms part of Earth Day celebrations and is delivered by UpSew. It is designed for one parent or guardian with one child aged 8 and upwards, at an age where the guardian feels the child/teen can safely use a needle and thread. Participants are welcome to bring a t‑shirt or sweater to embroider using a chain stitch. Felt pieces will also be provided for practice, so there is no need to stitch directly onto clothing straight away. All needles and threads will be supplied.
Shop: Galway Indoor Market
When: April 25th, May 23rd, June 20th, from 11am
Where: Cornstore
More information here
Outset Design welcomes you back to the Cornstore this Spring / Summer for a diverse range of stalls that showcase the best of Vintage, Retro, Secondhand & Hand Made from Independent Businesses and Creative Individuals from Galway & beyond with live music from local musicians. Expect to discover new and retro vinyl, clothing, jewellery, furniture, crafts, originals art & botany. This is the perfect opportunity to select handcrafted & unique pieces from independent creatives, ideal for gifting loved ones too.
Talk: The Living Seafloor – Marine Life and Underwater Landscapes of the West Coast
When: April 25th, at 2pm
Where: Galway City Museum
More information here
Nick Pfeiffer, marine ecologist, explorer, and award-winning underwater photographer, will be giving a talk at the Museum as part of An Tír Faoi Thoinn – The Land Beneath the Waves outreach programme! Join Galway City Museum to learn all about the unique and beautiful marine life living on the seafloor of the West Coast of Ireland. The event is free of charge, but seats are limited.
Pop-Up Exhibition: A Glimpse of Galway through the Eye of the Needle
When: April 30th to May 5th, from 10am to 4.20pm
Where: Galway City Museum
More information here
Corrib Lacemakers/ Lásadóirí na Coiribe are a group of lacemakers based in County Galway who practice lacemaking techniques from across Ireland, employing traditional patterns as well as new designs inspired by the landscapes and histories of Ireland’s West. This exhibition includes work that celebrates the Claddagh, visible just across the river from the Galway City Museum. Demonstrations by members of the Corrib Lacemakers throughout the day. More about its festival: Lacemaking in Galway: skills and stories is a celebration of lacemaking in County Galway. With an exhibition, workshops, demonstrations, and talks with lacemakers and historians taking place over five days, this pop-up festival showcases the skill and creativity of lacemakers in Galway and the stories – historical and present-day – entangled with the craft of lacemaking in Ireland and beyond. All events are FREE and open to the public at the Galway City Museum, Galway City Centre Library, and the University of Galway. See the full programme of events for this year’s Lacemaking in Galway Pop-Up Festival.
Pop-Up Festival: Drop-in Lacemaker's Circle
When: April 30th, from 11am to 12pm
Where: Galway City Museum
More information here
Show off what you’re working on! Bring your lace, needlework, or another portable handcraft project in progress, and join them for an hour of chat and handwork. More about its festival: Lacemaking in Galway: skills and stories is a celebration of lacemaking in County Galway. With an exhibition, workshops, demonstrations, and talks with lacemakers and historians taking place over five days, this pop-up festival showcases the skill and creativity of lacemakers in Galway and the stories – historical and present-day – entangled with the craft of lacemaking in Ireland and beyond. All events are FREE and open to the public at the Galway City Museum, Galway City Centre Library, and the University of Galway. See the full programme of events for this year’s Lacemaking in Galway Pop-Up Festival.
Pop-Up Festival: Lacemaking in Galway - Skills and Stories
When: May 1st, from 11am to 12pm
Where: Galway City Museum
More information here
Show off what you’re working on! Bring your lace, needlework, or another portable handcraft project in progress, and join them for an hour of chat and handwork. More about its festival: Lacemaking in Galway: skills and stories is a celebration of lacemaking in County Galway. With an exhibition, workshops, demonstrations, and talks with lacemakers and historians taking place over five days, this pop-up festival showcases the skill and creativity of lacemakers in Galway and the stories – historical and present-day – entangled with the craft of lacemaking in Ireland and beyond. All events are FREE and open to the public at the Galway City Museum, Galway City Centre Library, and the University of Galway. See the full programme of events for this year’s Lacemaking in Galway Pop-Up Festival.
Pop-Up Festival: Stories and Patterns
When: May 2nd, from 2pm to 3pm
Where: Galway City Museum
More information here
Join Clones crochet lacemaker, designer and historian Máire Treanor and lace historian Dr. Molly-Claire Gillett for a conversation about the relationship between craft skills and histories in lace research to launch Treanor’s new edition of Clones Lace: the story and patterns of an Irish crochet (The Lace Museum, 2026) and Gillett’s Irish Lacemaking: art, industry and cultural practice (Bloomsbury, 2025), which includes a discussion of Treanor’s crochet lace teaching and designing. Copies of Clones Lace will be for sale. More about its festival: Lacemaking in Galway: skills and stories is a celebration of lacemaking in County Galway. With an exhibition, workshops, demonstrations, and talks with lacemakers and historians taking place over five days, this pop-up festival showcases the skill and creativity of lacemakers in Galway and the stories – historical and present-day – entangled with the craft of lacemaking in Ireland and beyond. All events are FREE and open to the public at the Galway City Museum, Galway City Centre Library, and the University of Galway. See the full programme of events for this year’s Lacemaking in Galway Pop-Up Festival.
Exhibition: Ocean Voices - A Community-Based Marine Literacy Installation
When: May 2nd, from 10am
Where: Black Box Theatre
More information here
Students from Atlantic Technological University’s BA Early Childhood Education and Care programme and The Arts Council Artist in Residence JD Whitman, invite children, families and community to experience the culmination of their year-long project, Ocean Voices. Visitors will step inside a large-scale immersive installation created entirely from recycled plastics. Through sculptural forms, sound, and light, the installation explores marine biodiversity, plastic pollution, and ocean stewardship. Ocean Voices can be experienced from both the exterior and interior of the installation. Entry to the interior space involves crawling through a short plastic tunnel and may not be accessible for all visitors. The installation has been designed so visitors can still experience the sculptural elements, lighting, and soundscape from the exterior. If you have specific access requirements, event staff will be available to assist where possible.
Literature: Patrick Radden Keefe in Conversation with Tomás Kenny - NOW SOLD OUT
When: May 4th, at 6pm
Where: Kennys Bookshop
More information here
Acclaimed writer Patrick Radden Keefe will be at Kennys Bookshop on May 4th, joining Tomás Kenny in conversation about his new book London Falling. About London Falling: In 2019, teenager Zac Brettler mysteriously fell to his death from a luxury apartment balcony into the Thames. As his grieving parents began to investigate his final days, they were shocked to learn that he’d been leading a double life, in which he was posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. This unsolved case is at the heart of London Falling – at once a family tragedy, a psychological portrait of a young fabulist, and an indictment of the greed for extreme wealth that has transformed one of the world’s great cities: London. Hiding in the shadows of its great architecture and imperial history are the malignant, mercenary forces that have come to influence us all – whether we realise it or not.
Film: The Day Iceland Stood Still
When: May 9th, at 7.30pm
Where: Town Hall Theatre
More information here
The Day Iceland Stood Still: This joyous film tells the remarkable story of Iceland’s 1975 women’s strike, when 90% of the country’s women stopped work and household duties for a single day, effectively bringing the nation to a halt and sparking transformative change in gender equality. This warm, engaging and inspiring film uses animation, archival footage and first-hand accounts to powerfully document how, 50 years ago, Icelandic women united to demand equality and changed their country forever. Their courageous campaigning has led to Iceland ranking best in the Global Gender Gap Index for the last 16 years.
Literature: Doireann Ní Ghríofa in conversation with Tómas Kenny
When: May 14th, at 6pm
Where: Kennys Bookshop
More information here
Award-winning Irish author Doireann ní Ghríofa will be at Kennys Bookshop on May 14th, joining Tomás Kenny in conversation about her new book Said the Dead. About Said the Dead - In the city of Cork, a derelict Victorian mental hospital is being converted into modern apartments. One passerby has always flinched as she passes the place. Had her birth occurred in another decade, she too might have lived within those walls. Now, she notices a sign: FOR SALE. It is the first of many signs. Following them, she finds herself drawn into an irresistible river of forgotten voices, those of the women who knew this place best: insistent, vivid and true. They murmur from archives and old records; they whisper from stairwells and walls. Among them – and in one figure in particular — she may find meaning, solace, rage; her own salvation, perhaps, or her own vanishing? A work of sublime intensity and tenderness, Said the Dead breaks the boundaries between worlds — past and present, imagined and real — to make something lasting and new: an experience full of danger, full of love and full of truth.
Film: Mrs Robinson
When: May 18th, at 7.30pm
Where: Town Hall Theatre
More information here
Mary Robinson shattered ceilings by becoming the first women elected to the Irish Presidency in 1990. This followed an extraordinary career as a constitutional lawyer and Senator and was followed by an equally extraordinary and courageous term as a crusading UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. As leader of The Elders, as a champion of women, equality and justice, and as one of the most influential global voices on climate change, Mary Robinson is one the most remarkable Irish women of the last 50 years. This inspiring film tells Mary’s story, in her own words, illuminating her battles for justice and equality over half a century; on the streets, in the courts, at the ballot box, and in backroom corridors of power.
Literature: Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen in Conversation with Gráinne O'Brien
When: May 19th, at 6pm
Where: Kennys Bookshop
More information here
Award-winning Irish authors of the beloved Aisling series, Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen will be at Kennys Bookshop on May 19th, joining Gráinne O’Brien in conversation about their new book Our Deadly Summer. Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen are co-authors of the Aisling series. Their first book Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling was an instant bestseller, and the second, third and fourth books from the series all won Best Popular Fiction Book at the Irish Book Awards. The final book in the series Aisling Ever After, was an instant number one bestseller.
Music: Croíthe
When: May 19th, at 11.59pm
Where: Róisín Dubh
More information here
Strange Brew presents Croíthe and special guests for a fun and fabulous midnight show at Róisín Dubh. Croíthe (KREE‑HA) are a Dublin-based post-punk/shoegaze band making waves with their dark, emotive sound. Their debut EP, A Brief Respite, hit #1 on Ireland’s Best-Selling Charts and #11 on the Independent Charts, earning praise from BBC Radio 6’s Steve Lamacq. After a busy 2025 touring the UK and Europe, 2026 promises to be a big year, with headline shows and further touring cementing their status as one of Dublin’s most exciting new acts.
Literature: Colm Tóibín in conversation with Tómas Kenny - SOLD OUT
When: May 25th, at 6pm
Where: Kennys Bookshop
More information here
Award-winning Irish writer Colm Tóibín will be at Kennys Bookshop on May 25th, joining Tomás Kenny in conversation about The News From Dublin. In The News from Dublin, a beautiful collection of short stories delves into the days and nights of those living far from home: lives of great longing, at a great distance from past lives and past selves. A woman in Galway hears of the death of her son in the First World War. An Irishman seeks anonymity in Barcelona, haunted by crimes he has committed. A man goes to Dublin from Enniscorthy to implore the Minister for Health for a special favour. A young woman is pregnant during the Spanish Civil War. An undocumented worker finds himself living an illegal life and must leave San Francisco, and his child, after thirty years in America. Three sisters who have been living in Argentina decide to return to Catalonia.
Shop: Galway Potters Market
When: May 31st, 10am - 6pm
Where: Eyre Square
More information here
Galway Potters Market is back in Eyre Square on May 30th and 31st 2026 to celebrate 16 years of Irish ceramics. Potters and Ceramic Artists from all over Ireland will display and sell their work. Members of the public are also invited to try their hand at clay and create a masterpiece of their own!
Dance: Céilí Afro Dabke Ukraine - World Music Dance Céilí
When: June 6th, at 7.30pm
Where: Black Box Theatre
More information here
Get ready to move! This vibrant world céilí celebrates the music and dance traditions from around the world including West African dance, Palestinian Dabke, Ukrainian dance, as well as the traditional Irish céilí dances – all to live music. Featuring a line-up of world-class musicians and dancers, this uplifting event invites everyone — seasoned dancers and complete beginners alike — onto the dancefloor. No experience needed and all ages are welcome — each dance style is taught as you go. Energised by live music, pulsating rhythms and the thrill of learning new cultural dance forms, this unique and joyous event will have you moving, smiling, sweating and wanting more. Come with friends, family or on your own — Céilí Afro Dabke Ukraine is an invitation to gather, meet new people, celebrate the richness of world cultures and dance.
Feature photo by Chaosheng Zhang
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