About Us

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Siamsa Tíre, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, is one of Ireland’s busiest and most vibrant arts centres.
We provide live family entertainment and performances of traditional Irish music, song and dance, from our beautiful centre in Tralee, Co Kerry.

WELL-STROKE

About Us

What we Do

Siamsa Tíre works to ensure that people of all ages and backgrounds can explore, understand, feel at home and enjoy Irish folk culture: its past, present and future. 

At Siamsa Tíre, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, we bring people together to share stories and skills and explore Irish folk culture with joyful curiosity. 

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Preserving and Promoting Irish Folk Culture

Irish folk culture is not a tangible product nor an artefact of history. It is our living cultural heritage, alive in us, now, here, together, being ourselves. It is rooted in social connection and the passing on of skills across generations and among close-knit communities both intimate and large scale. It is a value system, a philosophy, a way of living, thinking, behaving and being. It is part of Ireland’s acknowledged soft power in world affairs.

Passed from parent to child,from neighbour to neighbour, our intangible cultural heritage evolves with and shapes the people and communities who experience it and who are inspired by it.

The visible output of Irish folk culture encompasses performing arts practices; our craftwork and handiwork; our oral traditions and expressions, including our language as both a vehicle and repository of our cultural identity; our folklore, myths, and legends; the demonstration of our enduring social values; our customs, rituals and festive events; our understanding of and interaction with nature and the universe.

At Siamsa Tíre, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, we bring people together to share stories and skills and explore Irish folk culture with joyful curiosity.

Our presented programme follows 

the Celtic Calendar and is designed to reflect an inclusive, responsive, and contemporary approach to the rich and varied cultural heritage and creative life of Ireland’s close-knit communities by:

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Exploring

through creative learning, participation and development programmes.

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Sharing

folk stories and traditions through in-house productions, co-productions, commissions.

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Welcoming

a full range of hosted events across artforms from local, national and international groups.

Our Theatre

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2021 celebrates 30 years of the development of our iconic and bespoke theatre and arts centre located in Tralee, Co Kerry on the Wild Atlantic Way which has a capacity of 350 (measures have been put in place for COVID restrictions).

Siamsa Tíre is one of the busiest theatres and arts centres in Ireland.  As the home of the National Folk Theatre, we present five months of folk theatre productions from our repertoire between May and September.  Our Folk Art has been handed down across generations over 50 years through our National Folk Theatre Training Academy.  Young people from the ages of 6 upwards, learn the traditional arts, and as part of a folk community work together to produce new work and tour internationally throughout the rest of the year.