Atlantic Irish Fest Culture & Music Program Jan 17-27 2019

29th January 2019

We are old friends  and enthusiastic supporters of the Milwaukee Irish Festival, and when they proposed the idea of doing a program in Ireland that would include history, culture, traditional music and some time in Donegal, we jumped at the chance and designed an ISAI program to suit. And so we developed the Atlantic Irish Fest – a five day mini-program in Donegal, which then was attached to Dublin’s fantastic Temple Bar Tradfest, making a 10-day program for our friends from Milwaukee and beyond.

The program was a fantastic success- beginning in Dublin, checking in at the amazing Lough Crew passage graves, and onwards to Bundoran. Our history and culture included talks on ancient Ireland, Celtic Ireland, and modern Ireland, and we did guided tours to Donegal Castle, Belleek, Yeats Country, Ballyshannon and Derry. Each evening, we brought in our best musicians to play for our group- this year we had Erdini, The Logues, The Henry Girls, and Johnny Gallagher & Boxty. The itinerary also included whiskey tasting, harp and fiddle recitals, lots of sampling of the great restaurants locally, and plenty of craic. We returned to Dublin to spend four days enjoying the incredible music and venues lined up at Tradfest.

We can’t wait to do it again, and so we’ve it pencilled in for Jan 2020!