{"id":635571,"date":"2026-09-25T11:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635571\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:44:09","slug":"dublin-city-council-denies-doing-u-turn-on-christmas-lights-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635571\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin City Council denies doing U-turn on Christmas lights \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin-city-council\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin-city-council\/\">Dublin City Council<\/a> has denied doing a U-turn on when it is hosting its annual Winter Lights festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On Wednesday, the council said the popular annual event was \u201cmoving from December to the new year\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt will start mid-January and finish on St Brigid\u2019s\/Imbolc public holiday weekend,\u201d a statement said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Despite a commitment to also illuminate the city with \u201clighting and projections\u201d in the weeks leading up to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/christmas\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/christmas\/\">Christmas<\/a>, there was much criticism \u2013 including from some councillors \u2013 of the decision to host the festival in January. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The council clarified in a later statement the festival \u201cwill still take place during December\u201d and is \u201cextending into January\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Tony Smithers of the council\u2019s events section denied the update amounted to a U-turn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe story has not changed,\u201d he told RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Morning Ireland on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe were always going to project our lighting projections across iconic buildings across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said the plan was always to have Christmas-themed lights in December, as well as other lighting displays in the new year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe fact is, we are expanding our Christmas experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">When presenter Sarah McInerney said \u201cthe words expansion and extension were nowhere to be seen in the press release\u201d or in an interview with Dublin Lord Mayor Daryl Barron earlier this week, Smithers said he would \u201ctake that\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s not a U-turn. [It was] always our intention &#8230; to have eight to nine weeks of beautiful lighting projections across iconic buildings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThis year we would have our Christmas theme and celebrate Christmas, and in January we\u2019re going to light and project on beautiful buildings again with that winter theme, helping footfall &#8230; come into the city in January.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Dublin Winter Lights festival. Photograph: Conor McCabe Photography\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/I3VM2MUPLBHVVDZA6UCPL7XVFA.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Dublin Winter Lights festival. Photograph: Conor McCabe Photography <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/health\/2026\/09\/25\/first-new-private-hospital-project-in-dublin-for-two-decades-under-way\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">First new private hospital project in Dublin for two decades under wayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In the statement released on Wednesday, Smithers said: \u201cThe move to January and into Brigid\u2019s weekend will give the festival its own place in the city\u2019s events calendar. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt will illuminate Dublin city in the shoulder season between Christmas and St Patrick\u2019s Festival, bringing much-needed light, activity and artistry to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Winter Lights festival includes light projections and installations on landmarks, buildings and parks in Dublin city. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A Christmas market, TwinkleTown, will return to Smithfield in the north city centre, while TwinkleTown Southside will take place in St Patrick\u2019s Park in the Liberties. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/ireland\/dublin\/2026\/09\/24\/herzog-park-naming-debacle-caused-deep-community-division-council-report\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Herzog Park \u2018denaming\u2019 debacle caused \u2018reputational damage\u2019 to Dublin council, says reportOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin City Council has denied doing a U-turn on when it is hosting its annual Winter Lights festival.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9484,615,13288,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-635571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-christmas","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635571","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=635571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}