Bank Holidays in Ireland 2026 and 2027

Ireland has ten bank holidays a year. Most fall on a Monday, which is why they anchor the domestic travel calendar: a bank holiday weekend is the single biggest driver of hotel bookings, festival dates and traffic on the roads west.

As of August 2026, the next bank holiday in the Republic of Ireland is the October Bank Holiday, Monday 26 October 2026, followed by Christmas Day on Friday 25 December. In Northern Ireland the next one is the Summer bank holiday, Monday 31 August 2026.

Below are the full dated lists for 2026 and 2027, followed by what actually opens and closes, the rules that move the dates around, and Northern Ireland’s separate calendar.

Bank Holidays in Ireland 2026

Note the tail of 2026: Christmas Day lands on a Friday and St Stephen’s Day on a Saturday. That gives most people a long weekend, but it also means St Stephen’s Day falls on a non-working day for anyone on a Monday-to-Friday contract — see what happens when a bank holiday falls on a weekend below.

Bank Holidays in Ireland 2027

2027 is an unusually poor year for holidays: New Year’s Day is a Friday, St Patrick’s Day falls midweek on a Wednesday, and both Christmas holidays fall at the weekend. Easter is early too — Easter Monday on 29 March means the St Patrick’s Day and Easter breaks are only twelve days apart, and there is then nothing at all between Easter Monday and 3 May.

How Many Bank Holidays Does Ireland Have?

Ten. The Republic had nine for almost fifty years until St Brigid’s Day was added in 2023, the first new Irish public holiday since 1974. The full set is fixed in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and administered by the Workplace Relations Commission.

For comparison: Northern Ireland also has ten, but a different ten (see below). England and Wales have eight.

”Bank Holiday” or “Public Holiday”?

Both, and in Ireland people use them interchangeably — you will hear “the October bank holiday” and “the October public holiday” from the same person in the same conversation.

The distinction only matters in employment law. “Public holiday” is the legal term: it is what the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 designates, and it is what entitles employees to a paid day off or an equivalent benefit. “Bank holiday” is the older informal name, inherited from the Bank Holidays Act 1871, when the closure of the banks was the most visible consequence of the day.

There is one genuine gap between the two lists, and it catches people out every spring.

Is Good Friday a Bank Holiday in Ireland?

No. Good Friday is not a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland. In law it is an ordinary working day, and you have no automatic entitlement to time off.

What confuses people is that it looks like one. Most banks close voluntarily. Many schools, solicitors’ offices and public bodies close. Until 2018 the pubs were legally shut, which made the day feel like the most restricted in the calendar. Since the repeal of that ban, pubs and off-licences trade normally.

Good Friday dates: 3 April 2026 and 26 March 2027.

In Northern Ireland, Good Friday is a bank holiday — one of several places where the two calendars diverge.

St Brigid’s Day: Ireland’s Newest — and Only Moveable — Fixed Holiday

St Brigid’s Day, marking Imbolc and the start of the Celtic spring, joined the calendar in 2023. It has a rule of its own, and it is the one people get wrong:

The holiday is the first Monday in February, unless 1 February itself falls on a Friday — in which case the holiday is Friday 1 February.

So it is a Monday in most years, but occasionally a Friday. The next Friday occurrence is 1 February 2030. In our two years here it is Monday 2 February 2026 and Monday 1 February 2027.

Brigid is one of Ireland’s three patron saints, and the day has become a genuine cultural moment rather than just a day off — Kildare in particular runs a week of events around St Brigid’s Cathedral and St Brigid’s Holy Well in Kildare town. Expect rush-weaving workshops, trad sessions and early-spring craft fairs in most counties.

What Happens When a Bank Holiday Falls on a Weekend

This is where Ireland differs sharply from the UK, and where a lot of online holiday calendars are simply wrong.

Ireland has no automatic substitute Monday. The Workplace Relations Commission states plainly that where a public holiday falls at a weekend, there is no legal entitlement to have the next working day off. What you are entitled to is the benefit of the holiday, delivered in one of four ways at your employer’s choice:

• a paid day off on the public holiday itself
• a paid day off within a month of it
• an additional day of annual leave
• an additional day’s pay

Many employers do give the following Monday, and public-sector arrangements often do so as a matter of course — but that is custom and contract, not statute. Don’t book flights on the assumption.

It matters for St Stephen’s Day 2026 (Saturday 26 December) and for both Christmas holidays in 2027, which fall on the Saturday and Sunday.

Northern Ireland Bank Holidays 2026 and 2027

Trips.ie covers all thirty-two counties, and the North runs a different calendar. Northern Ireland follows the UK bank holiday list with two local additions — St Patrick’s Day and the Battle of the Boyne — and, unlike the UK, it does apply substitute Mondays when a date falls at a weekend.

*Substitute day, because the actual date falls at a weekend.

The practical differences if you are travelling across the border:

• The North has no St Brigid’s Day, no June bank holiday and no October bank holiday. Business in Belfast, Derry and Enniskillen carries on as normal while the South is off.
• The South has no Good Friday, no late-May Spring bank holiday, no 12 July and no late-August Summer bank holiday.
• 12 July is a major event, not just a day off. Parades and bonfires around the Twelfth mean road closures, altered bus and rail timetables and busy accommodation across Antrim, Down and Armagh. Plan around it rather than into it.
• Only five holidays are shared: New Year’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter Monday, the early May Monday and the Christmas pair.

What’s Open and Closed on an Irish Bank Holiday

For a typical Monday bank holiday, the short answer is that the country is open and in good form — it is a day out, not a shutdown.

• Banks — closed, every public holiday. ATMs, contactless and online banking all work as usual.
• Shops and supermarkets — open. Larger stores and shopping centres often run Sunday hours; smaller independents in rural towns may not open at all.
• Pubs and restaurants — open, and busy. Bank holiday Sunday night is treated as a Saturday in most towns.
• Public transport — reduced. Irish Rail, Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus, Luas and Translink typically run a Sunday timetable. Check before travelling; Christmas and St Stephen’s Day services are far more limited again.
• Schools, government offices, post offices — closed.
• Tourist attractions — open, and often with extra programming. OPW heritage sites, national parks and castles run their busiest days of the year on the May, June, August and October bank holidays. If you visit several, the Heritage Card pays for itself quickly.
• GP surgeries and pharmacies — reduced hours or closed; out-of-hours services and emergency departments operate normally.

The exceptions. Christmas Day closes essentially everything, including public transport. Good Friday closes most banks, schools and offices even though it is not a public holiday. St Stephen’s Day is a patchwork until the sales open, and hospitality books out weeks ahead.

How Each Date Is Set

Easter Monday is the only one that swings widely — anywhere from 23 March to 26 April. The four Monday holidays are locked to their position in the month, so they can be diaried years ahead.

Planning a Bank Holiday Weekend

Bank holiday weekends are the busiest domestic travel dates in the Irish year, and the pattern is predictable enough to plan around.

• Book accommodation early. The June, August and October weekends are peak for the west coast and the Wild Atlantic Way; Kerry, Clare, Galway and Donegal fill first. Six weeks out is not early.
• Expect a price step. Hotels, car hire and flights all step up around St Patrick’s Day, Easter and the summer bank holidays.
• Reserve intercity seats. Friday-evening and Monday-evening trains out of and back into Dublin sell out on bank holiday weekends.
• Go against the traffic. Leaving the city on Saturday morning rather than Friday evening, and returning Tuesday rather than Monday, is worth an hour or more each way on the M50, N7 and M6.
• Check what’s on locally. Bank holidays cluster festivals, markets and agricultural shows — our what’s on guides list dated events county by county, and the events calendar covers the whole country.
• Pick the right weekend for the trip. The October bank holiday is the best of the year for scenic drives and empty beaches; June and August are the ones for walking festivals and road trips. Our guide to the best time to visit Ireland has the seasonal detail.

Where the Official Lists Live

Dates and entitlements on this page are checked against the Workplace Relations Commission and Citizens Information for the Republic, and gov.uk for Northern Ireland. Those are the canonical sources if you need to cite a date formally.