Step back in time to 1324 and uncover the chilling tale of Ireland’s first Witchcraft Trial brought to life through Kilkenny’s newest festival - Kilkenny's Toil & Trouble.
Discover the spells cast on society as we delve into the infamous Kilkenny Witch Trials. Learn about the powerful and wealthy Alice Kyteler, accused of witchcraft and heresy by the Bishop of Ossory, Richard Ledrede. Alongside Alice’s dramatic tale, explore the tragic fate of Petronella de Meath, the first person in Ireland to be executed for witchcraft.
Join us in commemorating the 702nd anniversary of these dark events. Through immersive storytelling and engaging experiences, this festival will explore the societal fears, power struggles, and personal stories that shaped this notorious trial.
Illustration created by Cartoon Saloon
The Red Book of Ossory Exhibition
Discover the remarkable Red Book of Ossory. Created almost 700 years ago, it is on public display at St Canice's Cathedral for the first time. From medieval distillation to a bishop’s poetry, its pages reach into the past and show us, through scribed words, aspects of Kilkenny life previously obscured by centuries.
Visit it now at St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny City, R95 V63H.
What's Happening Around Kilkenny
Check out the Toil & Troublesome events happening during the
2026 Home of Halloween festival!
The Juniper Tree movie screening with Live Score
Watergate Theatre, R95 D320.
8pm - 9:20pm, Thursday, 29th of October.
Internationally renowned composer Matthew Nolan, accompanied by musicians Seán Mac Erlaine, Lisa Dowdall and Kilkenny native Damien Lennon, present a specially-commissioned live score for Nietzchka Keene’s stark, stunning debut feature The Juniper Tree.
Loosely based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same name, The Juniper Tree stars Björk in her first feature-film performance and premiered to glowing reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991. Set in medieval Iceland, it follows Margit, played by Björk in a riveting performance, and her older sister Katla as they flee for safety after their mother is burned to death for witchcraft. Finding shelter with Johan and his resentful young son, Jonas, the sisters form an improvised family unit soon strained by Katla’s burgeoning sorcery.
Price: €20 + €1.50 booking fee
Age: 15+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Note: Disturbing images, moderate sex, brief nudity, domestic violence, and references to bereavement.
Accessibility information: The Watergate Theatre has a number of allocated wheelchair spaces situated in the main auditorium. These spaces can be booked online or by phone on 056-7761674
Sing Along Social presents The Witches' Ball
Watergate Urban Park, Parliament Street.
7.15pm - 10.30pm, Friday, 30th October.
In partnership with Kilkenny Night Time Economy, Sing Along Social bring their mass-participation, no-mic-required singalong to Watergate Urban Park on Friday 30th October, with The Witches' Ball built around the women who've soundtracked generations of witchy women; Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Cyndi Lauper and more. Led live by the Craic Mechanics, it turns a night of pop anthems by female artists into a mass act of collective, unapologetic voice. Open to all, fancy dress encouraged!
Price: €5 + €1.50 booking fee
Age: 16+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Note: This is an outdoor event, please dress for the weather. This is an alcohol free event. There are no bathroom facilities available.
Accessibility information: The Watergate Urban Park is wheelchair accessible.
Anakronos presents The Red Book of Ossory - Contemporary & medieval music performance
St. Canice's Cathedral, R95 V63H.
8.30pm - 9.40pm, Friday, 30th of October.
Medieval music meets jazz in this compelling reimagining of one of Ireland's most remarkable manuscripts.
The fourteenth-century Red Book of Ossory preserves the Latin lyrics of sixty songs written by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory, the architect of the infamous witchcraft trial of Dame Alice Kyteler. Although the original music has been lost, Anakronos, comprised of some of Ireland’s most celebrated and adventurous virtuoso musicians from the worlds of classical music, early music, jazz and traditional music, has reconstructed and transformed these extraordinary songs using melodies from medieval musical sources - tunes that could well have been sung in Kilkenny in the 1300s.
Price: €25 + €1.50 booking fee
Age: 12+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Note: The Cathedral may be cold in October, please dress appropriately.
Accessibility information: The venue is wheelchair accessible. The outdoor paths are suitable for wheelchairs, with a ramp leading directly into the main building.
BRIDGET film screening + Q&A
Billy Byrne's Gastrobar, R95 K091.
12pm - 1pm, Saturday, 31st October.
In March 1895, Bridget Cleary, a 26-year-old seamstress from Ballyvadlea, Co. Tipperary was burned to death by her husband, who had convinced himself, and then her family and neighbours, that she had been taken by the fairies and replaced with a changeling. The trial that followed in Clonmel was reported around the world, and the case became known internationally as the last witch burning in Ireland. She was buried at night, without mourners. In the parishes of Cloneen and Drangan, the story went largely unspoken for more than a century.
Bridget is the first film by Anne Williamson, who grew up two townlands from where it happened, hearing the story at her grandfather's fireside. Co-written with Brian Andrew Clancy and performed by local actors from the Fionn MacCumhaill Players, it sets a present-day framing in colour against a black-and-white retelling of Bridget's final days, shot by cinematographer Louis Buggy of Kilkenny's Diceman Films. It carries an original ballad, The Maid of Old Clooneen, written and sung by Chris Kavanagh. In 2026 it won Best First-Time Female Director at the Indie X Film Fest in Los Angeles.
The screening is followed by a Q&A with Anne Williamson.
Price: €10 + €1.50 booking fee.
Age: 15+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Note: Contains some strong language.
Accessibility information: The venue is wheelchair accessible.
Writing Historical Fiction: A writing workshop with Molly Aitken
Mayfair Library, R95 N23R.
2pm - 4pm, Saturday, 31st October.
Join Molly Aitken, prize winning novelist of Bright I Burn and Island Child with a PhD in Creative Writing and History for a 2 hour workshop on writing historical fiction. Open to anyone with an interest in writing about the past, you'll consider how material culture, the archives as well as the study of emotions and the senses can help in writing compelling fiction set in the past.
No prior writing experience is needed - just a love of history.
Price: FREE, but advance booking is required due to limited spaces. Call 056 7794174 or click "Book now" to send the Mayfair Library an email.
Age: 18+
Accessibility information: This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Magic & Mischief at Rothe House
Rothe House, R95 P89C.
2pm - 5pm, Saturday, 31st October.
Step inside if you dare! Magic & Mischief awaits at Rothe House this Hallowe'en with a spine-tingling programme of drop-in activities for children and families. Play the enchanting Bemusement Games in the Rothe House Courtyard and let DJ Raven's spooky tunes set the scene. Step into the witch’s laboratory in the Tudor Kitchen with Scientific Sue and uncover the science behind witches' potions and special effects. Print a folklore and witches themed storybook page with artist Blaise Butler and follow the clues in a quest to discover the witch’s hidden treasure through Rothe House Gardens. With roving performers and free face painting, Magic & Mischief will prepare little witches and wizards for an unforgettable Hallowe'en.
Price: FREE, no booking required, just drop in on the day. Entry on a first come, first served basis.
Age: 4-12 year olds and families. (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.)
Note: Some of this event will be outdoors. Please dress appropriately for the weather. Flat shoes are advised due to cobblestones in the courtyard.
Accessibility information: This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Cures and Curses by Sarah McKenna
Home Rule Club, R95 T382.
3.30pm - 4.15pm, Saturday, 31st of October.
For two years, Sarah documented traditional cures and curses from the border counties and she has a story to tell about where this ancient practice fits with modern Ireland. ‘The cure’, as it is known, is the ability of a unique person, place, or object to heal particular illnesses, while curses are deeply tied with dark folklore, invoking the land to betray it’s inhabitants.
An unusual tradition for a Western European country to have, surviving centuries of colonialisation, religious change, and famine, it connects us directly with our ancestors. Now it faces a future where they could be lost.
A 45 minute storytelling performance intertwining Irish mythology with her journey collecting stories from ordinary people who practice an extraordinary tradition.
Price: €10 + €1.50 booking fee.
Age: 12+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Accessibility information: The Home Rule Club is not wheelchair accessible.
Cailleach by Macnas
John Street to Canal Square, Kilkenny City.
6.30pm, Saturday, 31st October.
Inspired by the true story of Petronilla de Meath and Alice Kyteler, Macnas presents Cailleach, a breathtaking new street spectacle reclaiming the power of the women persecuted in Ireland’s first witch trial in 1324.
Petronilla, once burnt at the stake, now leads and controls the energies of fire through the streets of Kilkenny. She is accompanied by ecstatic townsfolk, marching behind her to the rhythm of their drums, while Alice commands the scene from behind, giving life with the help of her mysterious healers.
Cailleach combines Macnas’ signature large-scale puppetry with incredible performances and special effects to create an image of Petronilla and Alice as influential women of their time, while reimagining the figure of the witch as a revitalising force shaping the elements, land, and stories around her.
Price: FREE
Age: All ages
Note: This is an outdoor event, please dress for the weather.
Blaise Butler presents
Print the Witch! Lino Printmaking workshop
Butler Gallery, R95 YX3F.
11am - 2pm, Sunday, 1st November.
Inspired by the stories, folklore and legends surrounding Kilkenny's famous witch trials, Print the Witch! is a relaxed, beginner-friendly introduction to the traditional craft of linocut printmaking.
Guided by local artist and printmaker Blaise Butler, you'll learn how to carve and hand-print your own witch or folklore-inspired design. You'll be guided through each step of the process; from designing and carving to pulling your finished print.
No previous experience is needed, and all materials are provided. Leave with your own unique hand-printed artwork and a new appreciation for one of the oldest forms of printmaking, all while celebrating the rich folklore and mysterious history that inspired the Toil & Trouble Festival.
Price: SOLD OUT!
Age: 17+
Note: Wear something you don't mind getting inky!
Accessibility information: Butler Gallery is wheelchair accessible.
Bright I Burn: Molly Aitken hosted by Anya Bergman
Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle, R95 YRK1.
1.30 - 2.45pm, Sunday, 1st November.
Seven hundred years ago, a Kilkenny woman was condemned as a witch. The records that survive were written by the men who prosecuted her. Alice Kyteler's own voice is nowhere in them.
Bright I Burn gives it back to her. Molly Aitken's novel, a New Yorker and BBC Best Book of 2024, and shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Prize, imagines Alice from the inside: an innkeeper's daughter who took over her father's trade and grew it, built a fortune in a city that had no place for a wealthy woman, married four times and outlived three husbands, and found that the gossip trailing her money could harden, in the end, into a charge that carried a death sentence.
In this intimate reading and conversation in the Parade Tower at Kilkenny Castle, hosted by novelist Anya Bergman, Aitken brings medieval Kilkenny to life and opens up the questions underneath the story. How does a community decide that one of its own has become dangerous? What is the difference between a woman with power and a woman to be feared? And what does it take to recover a voice that history worked hard to erase? Look deeper. Ask why. Challenge the story.
Price: €10 + €1.50 booking fee.
Age: 16+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.)
Accessibility information: This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Burning Woman
The Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle, R95 YRK1.
3.30pm - 5pm, Sunday, 1st November.
On 3rd November 1324, Petronilla de Midia became the first person in Ireland to be burned at the stake for the practice of witchcraft in a dark episode of Kilkenny's history that would have reverberations around the world for centuries to come. Burning Woman takes that story and asks: why is this story still relevant today? This new seminar, the first in an annual series, brings together historians, feminist voices and storytellers to dig into the Kilkenny Witch trial and the bigger themes hiding inside it – power, wealth, status, church and state, and who gets blamed, excluded or pushed to the margins.
Joining the panel are Dr Andrew Sneddon, Senior Lecturer in International History at Ulster University and a leading historian of witchcraft and magic in Ireland; Dr Celeste McNamara, Assistant Professor in Early Modern European History at DCU; and Mary McAuliffe, Director of Gender Studies at UCD.
With Ireland holding the EU Presidency this year, we're widening the lens to ask how far women's rights and treatment have really come across Europe since. Part history, part hard conversation, Burning Woman connects a 700-year-old trial to very present-day questions about power, gender and belonging.
This event is funded as part of Cultúr 2026, the Culture Programme for Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2026.
Price: FREE but ticketed event.
Age: 16+ (Under 18's must be accompanied by an adult)
Accessibility information: The Parade Tower at Kilkenny Castle is wheelchair accessible.
MORB presents The Ghost Story Gathering
Top Bar, Kyteler's Inn, R95 RP40.
3.30pm - 5.45pm, Sunday, 1st of November.
Welcome to a spine-chilling storytelling event for lovers of the supernatural. Over one otherworldly afternoon, three writers and two performers will present brand new ghost stories made to curdle your blood. Hosted by Peter Dunne (Petrified Podcast) and featuring writers and performers from Kilkenny, with John Morton and Mairead Kiernan penning tales of terror and performers Amy Dunne and Ed Murphy bringing them to life. Come join us in the shadows to hear stories that will freeze your bones, as we raise the dead and delve into the city’s mystic past.
Beware! The frights aren’t just confined to the stage – hardy souls who come along just before the show will have the opportunity to create their own ghost stories, which could be read during the event. Are you brave enough to attend? The ghosts are gathering!
Price: €15 + €1.50 booking fee.
Age: 16+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Note: Contains adult themes and strong language. There will be 2 intervals of 10-15 minutes.
Accessibility information: The Top Bar of Kyteler's is not wheelchair accessible.
Growler Herself - Performance, music & storytelling
Cleere's Bar & Theatre, R95 YR61.
6pm - 7.10pm, Sunday, 1st November.
Growler is Dee Mulrooney's alter-ego and performance piece: an 86 year-old, drum-banging, shamanic alchemist who transmutes women's pain into storytelling, song, and spoken word. A tongue like a lash, a heart of gold, and absolutely no filter. Part theatre, part portal, with a shamanic vulva at its centre, Growler's Grotto conjures a fictitious 86-year-old vulva from inner-city Dublin activist, abuse survivor, feminist, and unrepentant comic, weaving song, spoken word, and razor-sharp humour into something that's equal parts ritual and riot.
Come for the alchemy, stay for the Grá.
Price: €15 + €1.50 booking fee
Age: 16+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Note: Contains strong language and deals with topics of sexual assault.
Accessibility information: Not fully suitable or equipped for standard wheelchair access due to elevation changes and tight spaces.
June McGrane and Fais Moi Rêver presents SAMHAIN: Witches Are Wise Women Music & Performance
Rothe House, R95 P89C.
7.30pm - 9pm, Sunday, 1st November.
Step into an Otherworld, where stories of the Goddess Tlachtga lighting the first fire at Samhain thousands of years ago meet those of super star impersonators with a fondness for Barm Brack and electric guitar. Where Witches - revealed to be the Bean Feasa, Bean Ghlúine and Bean Chaointe - prophets, carers and healers, creators, mothers and daughters, masked and unmasked, transformed and disguised dance to the beats of Samhain. As the veil dividing this world and the otherworld is drawn back, so too is the curtain between ancestral celebrations and today’s multicultural Hallowe’en festivities. Traditions of long ago intertwine with contemporary folklore in a celebration of myth, memory and mischief, weaving a vibrant tapestry of live music, tales and truths, satire, silly pranks, laughter, song, ritual and revelation.
Price: €15 + €1.50 booking fee.
Age: 16+ (Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult)
Note: The show contains outdoor elements, please dress appropriately for the weather. Flat shoes are recommended due to cobblestones.
Built with Shorthand