Kilkenny Town Ireland
Ireland's best-preserved medieval town is the minute inland city of Kilkenny, 75 miles southwest of Dublin. Beginning as a tiny Gaelic settlement around the monastery of St. Canice (whence its Irish name, Cill Chainnigh, the cell of Canice), it came to prominence under the Normans when Strong bow, their leader, seized it in 1170 and built a fortification on the hill over the river Nore.
The walled town was peopled with a purposeful community of Norman families, of whom ten Archdeakin, Archer, Cowley, Langton, Ley, Knaresborough, Lawless, Raggett, Rothe and Shee, as an old list rhymes them off distinguished themselves particularly and rose to power. Between the Gothic cathedral at one end and the strong castle at the other, the houses, inns, shops, new friaries, and the merchants' parish church crowded inside the city walls on the high bank of the river.
The history of Kilkenny Town and airport car hire
With a rich history and culture, modern day visitors to Kilkenny Town can hire a car from the airport. Airport car hire in Dublin, Belfast or Knock can be arranged before you fly and pre-booked to save time and money.
Kilknenny has always had a reputation as a stable and industrious market town, and it went on to achieve some notoriety. In the early 14th century, a formidable Norman woman named Dame Alice Kyteler, daughter of a banker, prosperous survivor of four husbands, and wealthy herself through money lending (a practice, not incidentally, frowned upon by the church), was accused of witchcraft by Richard Ie Drede, Bishop of Ossory.
Dame Alice was supported by Arnold Ie Poer, the seneschal, and many powerful friends; the bishop was supported by the law and by the commission he had from the pope to extirpate heresy. A Kilkenny friar records the confrontation: On Monday the lady Alice Kyteler was tried, found guilty, condemned as a heretic for divers sorceries, manifold heresies, offering sacrifices to demons. Though her powerful friends resisted and even imprisoned the bishop, he and the authority of the church won that round.
Dame Alice fled to Scotland, her maid Petronilla was burned at the stake in her stead, and Ie Poer died in prison. The bishop did not get off scot-free, however. He was accused of heresy and had to flee to the papal court in Avignon.
Several decades later, the name Kilkenny became associated with infamy. As elsewhere in Ireland, the Normans had been intermarrying with the Irish and adopting some Irish customs as well. Such fraternization was perceived as a threat by the English king, who by now feared being left with too few trustworthy settlers to rule the island on his behalf.
Consequently, a parliament held in Kilkenny in 1366 (the city was important enough to be a regular meeting place, along with Dublin, of the Irish Parliament the Normans had instituted) passed the Statutes of Kilkenny. These forbade the Normans to marry the Irish; prohibited them from adopting the Irish language, customs, or dress; and segregated native Irish everywhere beyond the walls of towns.
At the end of the 14th century and for centuries thereafter, the castle of Kilkenny was occupied by the Butlers, Earls of Ormonde, the most powerful family in medieval Ireland and long in the forefront of Irish history. They lived peaceably with the Gaelic chieftains but at the same time were rich from royal favor. They married into the royal family, hosted royal visits, and acted frequently as the king's deputy in Ireland.
The Reformation and Kilkenny
Under their protection Kilkenny was spared the worst horrors of Henry VIII's Reformation and the devastating cycle of rebellion and repression that ensued during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Butlers conformed to Protestantism and silently suppressed the city monasteries, which became civic property.
John Bale, an English friar appointed the first conforming Bishop of Ossory, smashed statues in the cathedral and wrote fiery sectarian pamphlets, but he is better remembered in Kilkenny for the morality plays he wrote and had performed at the Market Cross, which once stood near the center of High Street.
The city could not totally escape the racial and religious conflict of the times, however. When another revolt the Ulster Rebellion, which would be brutally crushed by Oliver Cromwell broke out in 1641, Kilkenny became the seat of the independent Irish Parliament set up by Anglo-Irish and Old Irish Catholics united in their common defense. It met from 1642 to 1648, presided over by Lord Mount Garrett, a member of a minor Catholic branch of the Butlers, while the earl, the king's man, sat on the fence.
Though the Confederation went so far as to establish a mint, manufacture weapons, raise an army, and receive ambassadors, it fell apart from within when its Norman and Irish factions began to disagree, and it disbanded in confusion. In 1660, Cromwell arrived to take Kilkenny for the English Parliament.
After the ritual window breaking and statue smashing in St. Canice's Cathedral, Cromwell's rule in Kilkenny was less bloody than elsewhere. Families involved in the Parliament were banished west of the Shannon, to Hell or Connaught, along with the rest of the propertied Catholics who had opposed the Protector.
Those from Kilkenny never went, however; they secretly stayed around the city until the Restoration brought back the king, with a Butler again, now Duke of Ormonde, as his viceroy. The duke managed to orchestrate a return of some of the lands confiscated from Kilkenny's leading citizens, but they and the city never quite recovered from the events of the century and never regained their former influence.
Perhaps because of the long, dark years of decline that followed, much of Kilkenny's early architecture remains intact the city was simply not prosperous enough to tear things down and rebuild them on a grand scale, nor was there any need to do so. The gloom began to lift with a cultural revival in the 19th century and dispersed completely in recent years, leaving only a lingering air of quaintness to temper the changes of a city now in expansion.
The Butlers have been gone from the castle since the 1930s but they characteristically and munificently presented it to the people. Its beautiful gardens and park are intact, the art gallery has a notable collection of portraits, and in 1965, the dukes' fine stables became the government-sponsored Kilkenny Design Workshops, a wellspring of modern design talent. Since early 1989, the enterprise has been under the stewardship of townspeople. The Rothes' house has been restored as a museum and library; the Shee almshouse has now been refurbished.
Things to do in Kilkenny Ireland
Once a year, Kilkenny Arts Week causes music to resound in Kilkenny Town through castle and cathedral. The little medieval city that witnessed so much Irish history is still the integral core of a busy, modern, yet still traditional community. The street that straggles from the castle to the cathedral is Kilkenny's Royal Mile. It starts at the castle gates as the Parade, an oblong plaza with the castle's classical stables and a decorous row of Georgian houses on one side and a tree lined promenade, the Mayor's Walk, along the garden wall on the other side. It then turns into High Street, Kilkenny's main commercial street, with the medieval just under the surface of its respectable Georgian face.
The Tholsel, the house of taxes, is the midpoint of High Street. Beyond it on the right, a unique Kilkenny feature occurs at intervals the slips, or arched, stepped alleyways giving access to the street at river level. Dashing down slips and side alleys is very much part of sightseeing and shopping in Kilkenny. After High Street, the thoroughfare widens again as Parliament Street, and the restored Rothe House and the classical courthouse come into view.
Then it narrows to medieval size for Irishtown and leads to St. Canice's Steps at the foot of the cathedral. Kilkenny Castle Kilkenny's most imposing monument looms grandly through trees over the river at the southeastern end of town. Strong bow, the Norman conqueror, had put up earthen fortifications here, and his successor in the early 13th century, William the Earl Marshall, replaced them with an irregular quadrangle of curtain walls reinforced by a fat round tower at each of the four corners.The Butler family, Norman Earls of Ormonde, bought it in 1391, after which they dominated the city.
Though the family in residence remained the same for over 5 centuries, the castle itself underwent many changes. When the earls became dukes in the 17th century, the castle was rebuilt as a French chateau; it was made Gothic in another major reconstruction in the 19th century. The gardens and park are open to the public in daylight hours and the interior may be visited (guided tours are available).
Car rentals Kilkenny
Car rentals in Kilkenny are easy to pre-book before you travel to Ireland, and the best way to arrange your car rentals is to pre-book a hire car from the airport.Particularly notable is the 19th-century Gothic Revival picture gallery. Designed by Benjamin Woodward, it has a painted hammer beam roof by J. Hungerford Pollen and a fine collection of Butler family portraits. The old castle kitchen serves home cooked snacks, tea, and coffee.
Design Centre Kilkenny - Formerly the government sponsored Kilkenny Design Workshops, this cupola crowned classical group of buildings, with a semicircular courtyard, once formed the castle's stables.
The horses' stalls originally had decorated plaster ceilings, and the grooms occupied plainer and more cramped quarters upstairs. In 1965 the buildings became the home of the Kilkenny Design Workshops, where everything from traditional craft products to electronic hardware was designed for Irish manufacturers, and young Irish designers gained initial work experience.
Since 1989, however, the complex has shifted from a single government funded project to a mix of independent enterprises. A group of Kilkenny citizens now operates the Design Centre Shop, while the Crafts Council of Ireland has set up a dozen crafts workshops in the courtyard. Visitors can tour the courtyard and watch the craftspeople• ply their trade and then enter the shop to purchase items.
Shee Almshouse Kilkenny - One of the few surviving Tudor almshouses in Ireland, this was founded in 1582 by Sir Richard Shee for the accommodation of 12 poor persons. The charity thus begun by one of Kilkenny's leading families endured for 3 centuries.After the adjoining St. Mary's Church became Protestant during the Reformation, a chapel in the almshouse was used for Catholic services. In the present century, the house has served as a storehouse, but it has been refurbished and now holds the city's tourist board. Upstairs is a model of Kilkenny as it was in 1642, when the Confederation Parliament made it the capital of Ireland a status that lasted just a few years.
St. Mary's Church - Parts of this church are believed to date from the 13th century. A fine display of Tudor and Stuart grave monuments is housed in the north transept.High Street Kilkenny – The main street has undergone considerable change through the centuries, but a pause here and there still helps to recall its earlier days. Numbers 17, 18, and 19 hide a Tudor house (built in 1582) that belonged to the Archers, one of the town's ten leading families, and their crest is visible above the door.
Behind it are the remains of the Hole in the Wall, a supper house famous enough in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to have merited a verse: If you ever go to Kilkenny / Ask for the Hole in the Wall / You may there get blind drunk for a penny / And tipsy for nothing at all. Above the shopfronts on the north side of High Street, about 100 yards from the main cross street, is a Tudor gable with the impaled arms of Henry Shee and his wife, Frances. He was a Mayor of Kilkenny in the early 17th century and this was their townhouse.
Tholsel The Saxon word for the house of taxes is another name for Kilkenny's Town Hall. Built in the mid18th century, it has open arcades that provide a market below and support a fine Georgian council chamber above.
High St. Rothe House Kilkenny - John Rothe built this solid Tudor merchant's house actually three houses around two courtyards, with room for shop, storage, and living quarters in 1594. Rothe was a member of one of Kilkenny's important families, and his wife, Rose, was an Archer. After the Rothes lost the house in the 17th century because of their association with the Confederation of Kilkenny, it eventually became a school.Finally, the Kilkenny Archaeological Society bought it, restored it, and opened it in 1966 as a library and historical museum.
St. Francis Abbey Kilkenny - This one-time Franciscan friary is on the premises of the 18th-century Smithwicks Brewery, desolate among beer casks and empty crates but still worth seeing. It was founded in the 13th century by Richard the Marshall and suppressed, along with the rest of the Irish monasteries, in the 16th century. The seven light east window and the bell tower with its unusual supporting figures are from the 14th century. Off Parliament St.
Black Abbey The church of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, is on high walled Abbey Street just beyond Black Freren Gate, the last remaining gate in the city walls.
Places to visit in Kilkenny Town
Its history is similar to that of the Franciscan abbey; both were founded and suppressed at approximately the same time, though the Black Abbey survives today as an active Dominican priory. Immediately after suppression, however, townspeople built thatch roofed huts within its walls and it was for a time used as a courthouse before being reclaimed, restored, and opened again for worship.
St. Canice's Cathedral Kilkenny - This building, raised in the 13th century by the first Norman bishop, Hugh de Rous, occupies the site of the early Irish monastery of St. Canice and a later Romanesque church. A plain cruciform structure, it is nevertheless impressive for its size the second largest medieval cathedral in Ireland and its simplicity.
The Master of Gowran (a mason who also worked on a neighboring church at Gowran) contributed some vigorous stone carving, in the west doorway particularly, but the renowned stained glass of the east window survived the Reformation only to be smashed to bits by Cromwell's troops, who also left the cathedral roofless and did considerable damage to its many monuments.
The church's collection of l6th and 17th'century tomb sculptures, many by the O'Tunneys, a local family of sculptors, is still remarkably rich, and its hammer beam roof (a product of a later restoration) is notable. Outside, the round tower predates the cathedral, though its roof is not the original one. St. Canice's Library, established 300 years ago, has 3,000 old volumes.
Great places to go in Kilkenny Ireland
Kilkenny Arts Week takes place at the end of August or the beginning of September. It is basically a music festival, •with lunchtime recitals and grand evening concerts in the castle and cathedral, the classical music interspersed with programs of traditional music and folk song. Poetry readings some well-known writers have read their work here are another fundamental ingredient, as are art exhibitions and street theater.
It is a friendly, participatory event that actually lasts for 9 days, each one ending at the Arts Week Club, where the social side of the festival goes on until the wee hours.
The walled town was peopled with a purposeful community of Norman families, of whom ten Archdeakin, Archer, Cowley, Langton, Ley, Knaresborough, Lawless, Raggett, Rothe and Shee, as an old list rhymes them off distinguished themselves particularly and rose to power. Between the Gothic cathedral at one end and the strong castle at the other, the houses, inns, shops, new friaries, and the merchants' parish church crowded inside the city walls on the high bank of the river.
The history of Kilkenny Town and airport car hire
With a rich history and culture, modern day visitors to Kilkenny Town can hire a car from the airport. Airport car hire in Dublin, Belfast or Knock can be arranged before you fly and pre-booked to save time and money.
Kilknenny has always had a reputation as a stable and industrious market town, and it went on to achieve some notoriety. In the early 14th century, a formidable Norman woman named Dame Alice Kyteler, daughter of a banker, prosperous survivor of four husbands, and wealthy herself through money lending (a practice, not incidentally, frowned upon by the church), was accused of witchcraft by Richard Ie Drede, Bishop of Ossory.
Dame Alice was supported by Arnold Ie Poer, the seneschal, and many powerful friends; the bishop was supported by the law and by the commission he had from the pope to extirpate heresy. A Kilkenny friar records the confrontation: On Monday the lady Alice Kyteler was tried, found guilty, condemned as a heretic for divers sorceries, manifold heresies, offering sacrifices to demons. Though her powerful friends resisted and even imprisoned the bishop, he and the authority of the church won that round.
Dame Alice fled to Scotland, her maid Petronilla was burned at the stake in her stead, and Ie Poer died in prison. The bishop did not get off scot-free, however. He was accused of heresy and had to flee to the papal court in Avignon.
Several decades later, the name Kilkenny became associated with infamy. As elsewhere in Ireland, the Normans had been intermarrying with the Irish and adopting some Irish customs as well. Such fraternization was perceived as a threat by the English king, who by now feared being left with too few trustworthy settlers to rule the island on his behalf.
Consequently, a parliament held in Kilkenny in 1366 (the city was important enough to be a regular meeting place, along with Dublin, of the Irish Parliament the Normans had instituted) passed the Statutes of Kilkenny. These forbade the Normans to marry the Irish; prohibited them from adopting the Irish language, customs, or dress; and segregated native Irish everywhere beyond the walls of towns.
At the end of the 14th century and for centuries thereafter, the castle of Kilkenny was occupied by the Butlers, Earls of Ormonde, the most powerful family in medieval Ireland and long in the forefront of Irish history. They lived peaceably with the Gaelic chieftains but at the same time were rich from royal favor. They married into the royal family, hosted royal visits, and acted frequently as the king's deputy in Ireland.
The Reformation and Kilkenny
Under their protection Kilkenny was spared the worst horrors of Henry VIII's Reformation and the devastating cycle of rebellion and repression that ensued during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Butlers conformed to Protestantism and silently suppressed the city monasteries, which became civic property.
John Bale, an English friar appointed the first conforming Bishop of Ossory, smashed statues in the cathedral and wrote fiery sectarian pamphlets, but he is better remembered in Kilkenny for the morality plays he wrote and had performed at the Market Cross, which once stood near the center of High Street.
The city could not totally escape the racial and religious conflict of the times, however. When another revolt the Ulster Rebellion, which would be brutally crushed by Oliver Cromwell broke out in 1641, Kilkenny became the seat of the independent Irish Parliament set up by Anglo-Irish and Old Irish Catholics united in their common defense. It met from 1642 to 1648, presided over by Lord Mount Garrett, a member of a minor Catholic branch of the Butlers, while the earl, the king's man, sat on the fence.
Though the Confederation went so far as to establish a mint, manufacture weapons, raise an army, and receive ambassadors, it fell apart from within when its Norman and Irish factions began to disagree, and it disbanded in confusion. In 1660, Cromwell arrived to take Kilkenny for the English Parliament.
After the ritual window breaking and statue smashing in St. Canice's Cathedral, Cromwell's rule in Kilkenny was less bloody than elsewhere. Families involved in the Parliament were banished west of the Shannon, to Hell or Connaught, along with the rest of the propertied Catholics who had opposed the Protector.
Those from Kilkenny never went, however; they secretly stayed around the city until the Restoration brought back the king, with a Butler again, now Duke of Ormonde, as his viceroy. The duke managed to orchestrate a return of some of the lands confiscated from Kilkenny's leading citizens, but they and the city never quite recovered from the events of the century and never regained their former influence.
Perhaps because of the long, dark years of decline that followed, much of Kilkenny's early architecture remains intact the city was simply not prosperous enough to tear things down and rebuild them on a grand scale, nor was there any need to do so. The gloom began to lift with a cultural revival in the 19th century and dispersed completely in recent years, leaving only a lingering air of quaintness to temper the changes of a city now in expansion.
The Butlers have been gone from the castle since the 1930s but they characteristically and munificently presented it to the people. Its beautiful gardens and park are intact, the art gallery has a notable collection of portraits, and in 1965, the dukes' fine stables became the government-sponsored Kilkenny Design Workshops, a wellspring of modern design talent. Since early 1989, the enterprise has been under the stewardship of townspeople. The Rothes' house has been restored as a museum and library; the Shee almshouse has now been refurbished.
Things to do in Kilkenny Ireland
Once a year, Kilkenny Arts Week causes music to resound in Kilkenny Town through castle and cathedral. The little medieval city that witnessed so much Irish history is still the integral core of a busy, modern, yet still traditional community. The street that straggles from the castle to the cathedral is Kilkenny's Royal Mile. It starts at the castle gates as the Parade, an oblong plaza with the castle's classical stables and a decorous row of Georgian houses on one side and a tree lined promenade, the Mayor's Walk, along the garden wall on the other side. It then turns into High Street, Kilkenny's main commercial street, with the medieval just under the surface of its respectable Georgian face.
The Tholsel, the house of taxes, is the midpoint of High Street. Beyond it on the right, a unique Kilkenny feature occurs at intervals the slips, or arched, stepped alleyways giving access to the street at river level. Dashing down slips and side alleys is very much part of sightseeing and shopping in Kilkenny. After High Street, the thoroughfare widens again as Parliament Street, and the restored Rothe House and the classical courthouse come into view.
Then it narrows to medieval size for Irishtown and leads to St. Canice's Steps at the foot of the cathedral. Kilkenny Castle Kilkenny's most imposing monument looms grandly through trees over the river at the southeastern end of town. Strong bow, the Norman conqueror, had put up earthen fortifications here, and his successor in the early 13th century, William the Earl Marshall, replaced them with an irregular quadrangle of curtain walls reinforced by a fat round tower at each of the four corners.The Butler family, Norman Earls of Ormonde, bought it in 1391, after which they dominated the city.
Though the family in residence remained the same for over 5 centuries, the castle itself underwent many changes. When the earls became dukes in the 17th century, the castle was rebuilt as a French chateau; it was made Gothic in another major reconstruction in the 19th century. The gardens and park are open to the public in daylight hours and the interior may be visited (guided tours are available).
Car rentals Kilkenny
Car rentals in Kilkenny are easy to pre-book before you travel to Ireland, and the best way to arrange your car rentals is to pre-book a hire car from the airport.Particularly notable is the 19th-century Gothic Revival picture gallery. Designed by Benjamin Woodward, it has a painted hammer beam roof by J. Hungerford Pollen and a fine collection of Butler family portraits. The old castle kitchen serves home cooked snacks, tea, and coffee.
Design Centre Kilkenny - Formerly the government sponsored Kilkenny Design Workshops, this cupola crowned classical group of buildings, with a semicircular courtyard, once formed the castle's stables.
The horses' stalls originally had decorated plaster ceilings, and the grooms occupied plainer and more cramped quarters upstairs. In 1965 the buildings became the home of the Kilkenny Design Workshops, where everything from traditional craft products to electronic hardware was designed for Irish manufacturers, and young Irish designers gained initial work experience.
Since 1989, however, the complex has shifted from a single government funded project to a mix of independent enterprises. A group of Kilkenny citizens now operates the Design Centre Shop, while the Crafts Council of Ireland has set up a dozen crafts workshops in the courtyard. Visitors can tour the courtyard and watch the craftspeople• ply their trade and then enter the shop to purchase items.
Shee Almshouse Kilkenny - One of the few surviving Tudor almshouses in Ireland, this was founded in 1582 by Sir Richard Shee for the accommodation of 12 poor persons. The charity thus begun by one of Kilkenny's leading families endured for 3 centuries.After the adjoining St. Mary's Church became Protestant during the Reformation, a chapel in the almshouse was used for Catholic services. In the present century, the house has served as a storehouse, but it has been refurbished and now holds the city's tourist board. Upstairs is a model of Kilkenny as it was in 1642, when the Confederation Parliament made it the capital of Ireland a status that lasted just a few years.
St. Mary's Church - Parts of this church are believed to date from the 13th century. A fine display of Tudor and Stuart grave monuments is housed in the north transept.High Street Kilkenny – The main street has undergone considerable change through the centuries, but a pause here and there still helps to recall its earlier days. Numbers 17, 18, and 19 hide a Tudor house (built in 1582) that belonged to the Archers, one of the town's ten leading families, and their crest is visible above the door.
Behind it are the remains of the Hole in the Wall, a supper house famous enough in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to have merited a verse: If you ever go to Kilkenny / Ask for the Hole in the Wall / You may there get blind drunk for a penny / And tipsy for nothing at all. Above the shopfronts on the north side of High Street, about 100 yards from the main cross street, is a Tudor gable with the impaled arms of Henry Shee and his wife, Frances. He was a Mayor of Kilkenny in the early 17th century and this was their townhouse.
Tholsel The Saxon word for the house of taxes is another name for Kilkenny's Town Hall. Built in the mid18th century, it has open arcades that provide a market below and support a fine Georgian council chamber above.
High St. Rothe House Kilkenny - John Rothe built this solid Tudor merchant's house actually three houses around two courtyards, with room for shop, storage, and living quarters in 1594. Rothe was a member of one of Kilkenny's important families, and his wife, Rose, was an Archer. After the Rothes lost the house in the 17th century because of their association with the Confederation of Kilkenny, it eventually became a school.Finally, the Kilkenny Archaeological Society bought it, restored it, and opened it in 1966 as a library and historical museum.
St. Francis Abbey Kilkenny - This one-time Franciscan friary is on the premises of the 18th-century Smithwicks Brewery, desolate among beer casks and empty crates but still worth seeing. It was founded in the 13th century by Richard the Marshall and suppressed, along with the rest of the Irish monasteries, in the 16th century. The seven light east window and the bell tower with its unusual supporting figures are from the 14th century. Off Parliament St.
Black Abbey The church of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, is on high walled Abbey Street just beyond Black Freren Gate, the last remaining gate in the city walls.
Places to visit in Kilkenny Town
Its history is similar to that of the Franciscan abbey; both were founded and suppressed at approximately the same time, though the Black Abbey survives today as an active Dominican priory. Immediately after suppression, however, townspeople built thatch roofed huts within its walls and it was for a time used as a courthouse before being reclaimed, restored, and opened again for worship.
St. Canice's Cathedral Kilkenny - This building, raised in the 13th century by the first Norman bishop, Hugh de Rous, occupies the site of the early Irish monastery of St. Canice and a later Romanesque church. A plain cruciform structure, it is nevertheless impressive for its size the second largest medieval cathedral in Ireland and its simplicity.
The Master of Gowran (a mason who also worked on a neighboring church at Gowran) contributed some vigorous stone carving, in the west doorway particularly, but the renowned stained glass of the east window survived the Reformation only to be smashed to bits by Cromwell's troops, who also left the cathedral roofless and did considerable damage to its many monuments.
The church's collection of l6th and 17th'century tomb sculptures, many by the O'Tunneys, a local family of sculptors, is still remarkably rich, and its hammer beam roof (a product of a later restoration) is notable. Outside, the round tower predates the cathedral, though its roof is not the original one. St. Canice's Library, established 300 years ago, has 3,000 old volumes.
Great places to go in Kilkenny Ireland
Kilkenny Arts Week takes place at the end of August or the beginning of September. It is basically a music festival, •with lunchtime recitals and grand evening concerts in the castle and cathedral, the classical music interspersed with programs of traditional music and folk song. Poetry readings some well-known writers have read their work here are another fundamental ingredient, as are art exhibitions and street theater.
It is a friendly, participatory event that actually lasts for 9 days, each one ending at the Arts Week Club, where the social side of the festival goes on until the wee hours.
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