Entertainment & The Arts

Mention the West and many people think of entertainment and the arts.

By virtue of its natural beauty and quality of life, the Western Region has inspired a culture of creativity that continues to attract creative people from all over the world.

Internationally famous festivals include the Galway Arts Festival which celebrated its 30th festival in 2008, the Earagail Arts Festival which celebrated its 21st festival in 2009 and the Boyle Arts Festival which had been successfully staged for the past 20 years.

Famous artistic people and organisations from the Western Region include:

• The Druid Theatre Company from Galway—one of the best known theatre companies in the English speaking world which has toured extensively in the US including Berkeley, Champaign-Urbana, Chapel Hill, Chicago, Columbus, Los Angeles, Malvern, Miami, Minneapolis, New York and Washington DC.
• Enya, Ireland’s best-selling solo artist and four-time Grammy award winner, originally comes from the Donegal Gaeltacht of Gaoth Dobhair. She is a former member of the family group Clannad and now ranks alongside the most successful female artists in the world.
• WB Yeats spent his childhood years in Sligo and is buried in Drumcliffe in county Sligo. He and his brother Jack were inspired by Sligo for their work.
• Emmy award winning production company, Telegael based in Spiddal in county Galway.
• John McGahern, one of Ireland’s finest and most-revered writers, was a native of Co Leitrim. His work chronicled traditional Irish rural life in books, plays and a hugely successful memoir. His best-known work, Amongst Women, was shortlisted for the Booker prize and won The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Fiction prize.
• Matt Molloy, Irish traditional flute player with the Chieftains and owner of Matt Molloy’s, Westport – county Mayo’s best known pub.
• Emmy award winning Director Dearbhla Walsh from Tubbercurry in county Sligo who won the best Director award for Charles Dickens ‘Little Dorrit.’
• The new Royal Theatre & Event Centre in Castlebar county Mayo which brings the biggest international acts to the Western Region.

2009 was a highlight for Galway and the Western Region when Galway played host to the Volvo Ocean Race, and staged a two-week festival which attracted over 650,000 people to Galway to enjoy air shows, concerts, art trails, photo competitions, in-port racing and the fun and hospitality of the West of Ireland.