The Kerry Homecoming Festival at Halloween takes place from 18th October to 1st November  2024 as part of the Global Irish Festival Series. The festival is supported by Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs, to deliver a festival to encourage Kerry’s diaspora to visit during the festival and reconnect to their communities.

Kerry Homecoming Festival is a call home from all aspects of Kerry Business, Tourism, Sports and Cultural organisations to come and enjoy close to fifty events and activities such as Samhain spectacles, storytelling, Jack-o-Lantern carving, genealogy workshops and heritage talks, star-gazing, an American Wake at Kerry Writers Museum and much, much more.

The legendary Cailleach (Hag / Witch), will be the centerpiece of a thrilling Samhain spectacle in Listowel, Dingle, Kenmare and Tralee.  The Cailleach is the goddess of the winter months.  Her season begins on Samhain (the origin of Halloween), October 31st, when the Goddess Brigid hands her staff over.  Her ability to form the landscape and mountains means that many prominent mountain landmarks are attributed to her.  In Kerry she has given her name to the Hag’s Glen in the MacGilliycuddy Reeks mountains where the Hag of Corrán Tuathail (Carrauntoohill) plunged to her death in the lake known as Hag’s Lake.

The Samhain Spectacles will be supported by a series of family friendly workshops in 16 towns and villages,  in the run up, led by Juli Ní Mhaoileoin, the Dingle Druid, in which people of all ages will learn how to make traditional Samhain masks and Jack-o-Lanterns and they in turn can take part in the spectacles wearing their masks or bearing their lanterns. Genealogy and family research feature heavily in the programme with talks and workshops being presented by experts Kay Caball in the Killarney and Tralee libraries and Tom Dillon in Castleisland and Killorglin.

Kerry’s tradition of storytelling, particularly of the otherworldly kind at Halloween is also honoured through a number of storytelling sessions from Seán Ó’Laoghaire, Niall de Búrca and Tom Dillon throughout the county.

The programme also features the Global Gaelic Games Social Festival, in Killarney on October 18^th and 19^th. This truly unique celebration will bring together Gaelic Football enthusiasts from all corners of the globe to take part in non-competitive 9-a-side Gaelic games that emphasize inclusiveness and integration.

All of the existing seasonal Kerry festivals and some new ones, including and Féile Eile in Killorglin will also be joining in the fun – Kenmare Halloween Howl, the  Patrick O’Keeffe Music Festival  in Castleisland, the Skellig Coast Archaeology Festival the Kerry International Film Festival celebrating its 25th anniversary and Oireachtas na Samhna, both taking place in Killarney, as well as Tralee’s annual National Circus Festival and The Tralee Half Marathon.

Programme details are available on the Discover Kerry website – www.discoverkerry.com/live/homecomingfestival/.