Féile na Laoch (The Festival of Heroes) celebrates our cultural heroes, including storyteller, poets, actors, dancers, singers, and musicians.
The féile was inspired by the life and work of one of Ireland's true cultural giants, Seán Ó Riada, and this year we commemorate 80 years since his birth and 40 years since his death.

Filí / Poets
Dairena Ní Chinnéide

Dairena Ní Chinnéide

Ó Chorca Dhuibhne a shíolraigh Dairena, file sa dá theanga, a chaith seal mar chraoltóir, iriseoir, léiritheoir teilifíse agus ateangaire i bParlimint na hEorpa. Tá “An Trodaí & Dánta Eile/The Warrior and Other Poems”, “Poll na mBabies” agus “Bleachtaire na Seirce” i measc na  gcnuasaigh filíochta atá foilsithe aici ó 2005. Chraol RTE agus RnaG...
Michael D. Higgins

Michael D. Higgins

Michael D. Higgins has had a multitude of labels attached to him – politician, orator, philosopher, human rights activist, and now presidential candidate. But it is especially for his gift of poetry that we welcome him to Féile na Laoch. Michael D. was born in Limercik seventy years ago, and commented that while he had...
Gabriel Fitzmaurice

Gabriel Fitzmaurice

(http://feilenalaoch NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/gabriel_fitzmaurice NULL.jpg)Gabriel Fitzmaurice was born, in 1952, in Moyvane, Co. Kerry where he still lives. He teaches in the local Primary School.   A former Chair and Literary Advisor of Writers’ Week, the Writers’ Conference in Listowel, Co. Kerry, he is author of more than twenty books, including poetry in English and Irish, children’s...
Nuala Rua Ní Dhomhnaill

Nuala Rua Ní Dhomhnaill

(http://feilenalaoch NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/nuala-na-dhomhnaill NULL.jpg)Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill is one of the most prominent poets writing in the Irish Gaelic language today. Her poetry has been translated into English by a number of well-known Irish poets, including Seamus Heaney, Medbh McGuckian, and Paul Muldoon (http://feilenalaoch NULL.com/2011/07/paul-muldoon/). Irish themes, including language, are central to her poetry and range from...
Paul Muldoon

Paul Muldoon

(http://feilenalaoch NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/PaulMuldoon NULL.jpg)Paul Muldoon was born in 1951 in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, and educated in Armagh and at the Queen’s University of Belfast. From 1973 to 1986 he worked in Belfast as a radio and television producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Since 1987 he has lived in the United States, where he is...