Galway Comedy Festival 2025 is an event of many headliners: Paul Smith, Dylan Moran, Deirdre O’Kane, Omid Djalili, Emma Doran, but one of the biggest headliners is perhaps that of bricks and mortar - the return of Pálás Cinema. Discover more here...
If Galway is Ireland’s Comedy Capital from 21st - 27th October, then Pálás is its parliament, its stately home, its centerpoint, its HQ. No longer lying idle, Galway Comedy Festival is breathing new life back into the building, and its walls are about to be shaken with laughter.
#GCF25 events at Pálás are essentially a Festival within a Festival: mixed bills and solo shows, improv, a big screen movie quiz, podcast recordings, and multi-lingual comedy - everything you could want, really. And not only are comedy fans guaranteed major laughs - it’s GCF, that’s a given - but they will be able to do so in unrivalled comfort and style, across three plush rooms.
above: Eddie Mullarkey
‘A massive step forward’ - For the Mayor of Galway, Cllr Mike Cubbard, seeing GCF bring Pálás back to life is something to celebrate. “When you have somebody with a brand like Galway Comedy Festival, and what that brings to Galway, and using a unique building like Pálás as a hub to create laughter and create positive energy, it’s a massive step forward.”
“This shows what happens when you think outside the box, what you can do with a public building that was obviously designed as a cinema. But here we are now having a comedy festival there, so it'll be a great week.”
#GCF25 will see Pálás host the opening night mixed bill show with Dylan Moran, Aoife Dunne, Aideen McQueen, and Karl Spain, and be the location for the Festival’s Closing Gala. There will also be a four-day run of Full Of Mullarkey, where Galway’s Eddie Mullarkey will present stand-up from an intriguing mix of established and emerging comics.
Pálás will also host live podcast recordings of How To Gael and The Creep Dive; the annual Irish language stand-up night, Gáire as Gaeilge as well as solo shows by David McSavage, Hector Ó hEochagáin, Anna Clifford, and Polish language comic, Alexsandra Radomska, and WOMP Events’ Great Big Big Screen Quiz.
above: Hector Ó hEochagáin
‘Like a re-launch of the Pálás’ - For Mayor Cubbard, the array of shows taking place in the venue across the week of the Festival, has the power to make the public view Pálás in a new and positive light, and create a substantial conversation about how the building can be used in the future, as well as broader issues of urban regeneration through culture. “When you mention Pálás Cinema in Galway, it sometimes brings a negative comment,” he says, “but when I attended the Festival launch earlier this month, I saw people enjoying the building, the bar area, people enjoying outside, seeing the theatre in use again. I saw a public space being used. It was no longer idle but full of life and laughter. It was like a re-launch of the Pálás.”
Excitingly, in a new departure for the Festival, Pálás becomes the new venue for GCF’s wildest and most unmissable institution - the Late Night KARnival. Hosted by Karl Spain, a comedian with an unrivalled ability to pull tremendous comedy from simply chatting with an audience - the plush surrounds of Pálás will ease revellers into a night where comedians can let loose, push their - our our - boundaries, and follow the comedy muse wherever it takes them.
above: Karl Spain
“Pálás is a unique building. You won't find many of that design in the heart of any city, I don't believe. So it has that quirkiness that fits like hand in glove with Galway Comedy Festival, which is appropriate.” #GCF25 events at Pálás bring many of the best of comedians and all forms of what makes up comedy into an iconic building that’s roaring (with laughter) back to life. “With Pálás back in use, there's a comedian there for everybody,” says Mayor Cubbard. “It's fantastic. You'll find a good night out, and I would encourage people to use the space. Go to the events, go to the Festival and support it, and for now, we have Palás back, so let's use it and enjoy it.”
For more information and tickets see www.GalwayComedyFestival.ie.
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