{"id":441638,"date":"2026-05-10T11:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/441638\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T11:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:26:09","slug":"bealtaine-celebrations-take-place-on-the-hill-of-uisneach-in-co-westmeath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/441638\/","title":{"rendered":"Bealtaine celebrations take place on the Hill of Uisneach in Co Westmeath"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of people from around the world have gathered for a Celtic fire festival celebrating the beginning of summer in Co Westmeath.<\/p>\n<p>Two days of events are being held at the Hill of Uisneach, which is dubbed the sacred centre of Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday night saw The Bealtaine Fire Festival continue a ritual that dates back over a millennium to the time of the High Kings of Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>A procession of light and fire wound through the ancient ceremonial site before an enormous bonfire was lit to welcome the summer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"399\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bealtaine-celebrations-take-place-on-the-hill-of-uisneach-in-co-westmeath.jpg\" alt=\"Bealtaine Fire Festival\" data-title=\"Bealtaine Fire Festival\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Niall Carson\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>Revellers queuing up to enter the Bealtaine Fire Festival (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Live craft demonstrations, storytelling events, and traditional Irish games are taking place across the weekend alongside mindfulness and yoga sessions.<\/p>\n<p>Festival-goers dressed as Celts and wearing leaf head-dresses also took part in events.<\/p>\n<p>Jerry Jago from Dublin, who was dressed as the sea god Manannan mac Lir, said, \u201clook around, families are here, there\u2019s people dressed up, they really get into it, and they mean what they are doing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou walk around here, you won\u2019t see a blade of grass out of place, you won\u2019t see a bit of litter, and that\u2019s just the people who come here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778412369_442_bealtaine-celebrations-take-place-on-the-hill-of-uisneach-in-co-westmeath.jpg\" alt=\"Bealtaine Fire Festival\" data-title=\"Bealtaine Fire Festival\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Niall Carson\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>Arek and Jadwiga Kondek from Poland attend the Bealtaine Fire Festival (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Fellow Dubliner Vinnie Woods, who has been attending the event for 25 years, said: \u201cIt\u2019s like the revival of the Irish language, people are becoming more conscious of our heritage.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"not-prose no-underline\" data-action=\"click\" data-category=\"Read more article clicked\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/brothers-irish-marathon-challenge-inspiring-says-william-1897831.html\" data-value=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/brothers-irish-marathon-challenge-inspiring-says-william-1897831.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2-84504019-e1778402376855.jpg\" class=\"rounded-sm object-contain bg-transparent z-10 w-full h-full not-prose\" alt=\"Brothers\u2019 Irish Marathon Challenge \u2018Inspiring\u2019, Says Prince William\" width=\"278\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Ireland<\/p>\n<p>Brothers\u2019 Irish marathon challenge \u2018inspiring\u2019, says Prince William<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey may not be able to fully understand it, but they want to do something to participate, to say \u2018we\u2019re Irish, and this is part of our heritage\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The late broadcaster and writer Manchan Magan, known for his love of the Irish language, traditions and landscape, was remembered with a mural.<\/p>\n<p>His ashes were scattered on the hill, which is steeped in Irish mythology, following his death last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people from around the world have gathered for a Celtic fire festival celebrating the beginning of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-441638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}