South Dublin festival offering free events to beat the January blues
South Dublin will see a variety of free events across its libraries for people feeling the “cash-strapped horrors” of January.
In its second year, Firstival – a week of hobbies and activities for people to try for the first time – will see events like Korean paper making or joomchi, painting with prosecco, line dancing, silver ring forging and terrarium crafting.
Run by South Dublin County Council (SDCC), in its second year, Firstival will run from January 12 to 17.
“If people wanted to book this sort of thing on their own, they’d have to pay for them and it could be prohibitively expensive – this is giving access to people to try things they normally wouldn’t,” said senior librarian Sarah McHugh.
“We don’t charge, it’s free for people to book in – it’s not even just open for members, we would prefer anyone in the area join.”
The events are open to book in through the SDCC website – libraries in Lucan, Tallaght, Clondalkin, Ballyroan, Castletymon and Palmerstown will host a number of different events.
“It’s a time of year when people are feeling the horrors. They are financially strapped, the radio is talking about how to sort your budget – here’s a reminder that your local library is free, and in south Dublin, we have events you wouldn’t expect to do for free,” said Ms McHugh.
“Nobody really likes January – people are going back to work, it’s really cold out, the days are short, the nights are long and can be a but miserable. This is something to look forward to, getting to chat to people while trying a new hobby is good across the board.
“People are going back to work, we have a lot of older members in the library who are retired don’t have the money for events like these – it’s nice to have something new and exciting for them as well.”
SDCC decided to bring the event back for 2026 after the success of its events around the county in its first year.
“Last year, everything was sold out and pretty much most of the events are sold out for this year as well,” said Ms McHugh.
“People loved the painting with prosecco event, we also had Wicklow Willow - a whole day basket making event that was really popular. So we’ve brought them back and also have a lot of new events for this year.
“These events are specifically for adults – we do a lot of stuff for children and for families across our libraries. So we wanted to do something specifically for older people to try something new.”
The events have also helped drive more people to join their local library and to increase membership numbers in south Dublin.
“When people book in who aren’t members, we also encourage them to join – it helps keep memberships up. We’re always looking to get more people in and the idea of doing a festival like this is also trying to get more people to show interest in their local library,” said Ms McHugh.
“These events are free across our branches – the books and the events are all free. I find that the only people who don’t love libraries are people who are not using them already – so this is an opportunity for people to discover that.”