The National St. Patrick’s Festival takes place 12-17 March 2021. Dúisigh Eire! / Awaken Ireland! is the theme of this year’s festival, a clarion call to the Irish across the world to throw off the long, dark months and rise to embrace the brighter days ahead. 
Dúisigh Eire! / Awaken Ireland! promises to be a positive and uplifting celebration of our incredible people, our beautiful island, our community bonds, our young people, artists, creators and makers, and our diaspora across the world. This year, the events are taking place on St. Patrick’s Festival TV (SPF TV), an online TV channel at stpatricksfestival.ie, which launches on March 12 and runs over six great virtual days and nights, and will be accessible globally through the festival website and also at RTÉ’s dedicated culture website rte.ie/culture.


History and heritage, food and culture, community, traditions, tours and more come together for the Festival’s Living Ireland strand of events, a reflection of Ireland now - how we live and love, work and play, make and create, remember and celebrate. Just because we might not be able to be there in person doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the best of Irish food at this year’s festival. Join Sheena Dignam and Gosia Letowska from Galway Food Tours as they take you on a culinary tour of the city, giving a great overview of the City of Tribes passionate people and beautiful produce, which combine to make Galway one of Ireland's gourmet jewels. 

Chef and Food Studies graduate Tadgh Byrne promises us more epicurean treats with his A History of Irish Food five part mini-series. Showcasing Ireland’s culinary history from prehistoric times to the present day A History of Irish Food centres around the Irish diet with Tadgh visiting some iconic historic locations around Ireland, chatting with a range of guests from historians and food scientists to foragers, chefs and farmers while sampling plenty of delicious food along the way. From Prehistoric to Christian Ireland, British Rule to independent Ireland, the present and the future, Tadgh will take us on a tasty journey looking at wild food, dairy produce, potatoes and meat, how we went from bacon and cabbage to paninis, while also looking at modern Irish cuisine and what the future has in store for our taste buds. 

While we look forward to a time when Ireland commences the journey towards reopening, and prepares to welcome the world to our beautiful, vibrant, island, this year St. Patrick’s Festival invites all our people of every age to celebrate from home, in support of the tireless work of our healthcare warriors and our frontline workers, who battle on every day to protect our people and lead us out of the pandemic.