‘Rekindle Festival of Lost Skills’, a North Clare festival, has been shortlisted for the Inclusive Event Award at the National Heritage Week Awards 2026.
Organised by Common Knowledge, the fourth ‘Rekindle’ festival took place in August 2026 between Ennistymon, Kilfenora and Lisdoonvarna, drawing a crowd of approximately 2,000 people across three days.
The free-to-attend festival brought together traditional skills from different cultures and from every generation, with young and old learning traditional skills side by side for the three days.
Irish crafts such as uilleann pipe reed-making, weaving, scything, wood turning, dry stone walling and blacksmithing sat alongside Palestinian tatreez embroidery and dabke, Ukrainian song and Rajasthan straw ropemaking, with sean-nós dancing and a pop-up Gaeltacht running through the weekend.
The festival opened at the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon with ‘People of Rekindle’, an exhibition of portraits by photographer Patrick Cross of traditional skill sharers living in Clare.
The exhibition grew out of ‘Shared Skills, Shared Stories’, a series of community workshops developed with the Clare Integration Team in the lead-up to the festival and will continue as an ongoing record of the people and skills of County Clare.
On the Sunday of the festival, the Square in Lisdoonvarna closed to traffic and became an open-air workshop, while Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shelley McNamara joined storyteller Aindrias de Staic at the Old Spa Well for a conversation on heritage and place, facilitated by Paula Carroll.
Music also ran through the weekend - from two Lasraí concerts featuring Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin and Ultan Ó Brien and the Lyons family, to a Céilí Mór with Ennistymon Comhaltas and the North Clare Refugee All Stars in the historic Rathbaun dance hall.
“It’s a real honour to be shortlisted for the Inclusive Event Award,” co-organiser of Rekindle at Common Knowledge, Aoife Hammond said.
“Traditional culture and heritage belong to everyone, whether your family has been in Clare for generations or you arrived last year.
“What matters to us is keeping the connection between generations and between communities so that knowledge keeps being passed on.”
The National Heritage Week Awards recognise the community groups behind the most engaging events of National Heritage Week, which is co-ordinated locally by Clare County Council and the Heritage Council.
The winner and two runners-up in each category at the Heritage Council-organised awards, will be announced at a ceremony in the Grand Hall, RDS, Dublin, on Thursday, October 29, at 12.30pm, livestreamed on heritageweek.ie.
“We are so fortunate to have Common Knowledge based in County Clare, where people and community are brought together to share traditional skills, enabling us all to live more sustainable lives,” Clare County Council Heritage Officer, Congella McGuire said.
“The ‘Rekindle of Lost Skills’ event was among the 99 Heritage Weeks events held throughout Clare in August this year.
“‘Rekindle of Lost Skills’ is worthy of the acknowledgement of their efforts to bring so many people together, from different background, interests, and ages to enjoy an action-packed programme of activities over a three-day weekend as part of Heritage Week.”