Full Programme Announced for Ireland's Edge 2025

Ireland’s Edge have just unveiled the full programme - plus the final wave of speakers and performers - for their 11th Edition.

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Taking place on 28–29 November at The Skellig Hotel, Ireland’s Edge returns to Dingle for its 11th edition - once again gathering artists, thinkers, makers, activists and organisers to explore ideas from the edge of things.

This year’s theme, Welcome Here, Kind Stranger // Fáilte Romhat, a Strainséir Shéimh, centres on empathy, belonging and the radical act of making space for one another - shaping a programme that reaches across borders, disciplines and experiences.

New additions to the line-up include: Carole Cadwalladr, author of How to Fight the Broligarchy, alongside Forbes “30 Under 30” multidisciplinary artist  Lava La Rue and journalist Dimi Reider, co-founder of +972 Magazine. West Kerry poet Dairéna Ní Chinnéide will deliver a special reading honouring Manchán Magan, to whom this year’s edition is dedicated. Also appearing is New Yorker writer Ed Caesar, noted for his acclaimed investigative work, Gaeltacht housing activist Adhna Ní Bhraonáin, with special musical performances from SOAK and rising talent Dove Ellis.

Over two days of conversation, performance, and reflection, Welcome Here, Kind Stranger examines how humanity, art, and place intersect today. The programme brings together voices engaged with justice in Palestine, the impacts of the AI boom, and urgent questions around climate, housing, and gentrification, alongside reflections on the resurgence of the Irish language and craft.

Keep reading for a moire in-depth look at this year's panels!

Friday 28 November | 15:30–19:00

Rage Against the Machine? AI and Its Discontents
With Carole Cadwalladr, Niamh McIntyre, and Roisin Kiberd. Moderated by Christopher Kissane.

The internet has become a very different place thanks to the rise of AI, with automated content, generative bots, and dynamic algorithms changing the nature of our online world. For many, 'artificial intelligence' is the route to a better future, but for others, it is a regulatory nightmare metastasizing toxic bias. So are new technologies improving our online world, or contributing to its 'enshittification', and how do their effects filter through to our offline real lives?

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Bearing Witness: Voices and Testimonies from Gaza and Palestine
Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib (Médecins Sans Frontières) and Caoimhe Butterly. Moderated by Christopher Kissane

As the horrors of the genocide in Palestine have unfolded, the reaction from policy-makers and the international community has not matched the will of ordinary people to respond. Humanitarian workers and activists  have gone to extraordinary lengths to make a difference, but after decades of violence, many feel little hope for the prospects of peace and justice.

As a country with a deep commitment to both peace and solidarity, how can we both bear witness to the suffering and further the cause of a just peace? Caoimhe Butterly and Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib are two people who have devoted much of their lives to this cause as an activist and advocate and as a doctor and witness. We are deeply grateful that both have agreed to share their experiences and perspectives with us.

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“Weak Become Heroes”: Culture, Coalition and DIY Collectivism
With Lava La Rue and Shampain. Moderated by Una Mullally

Audre Lorde described the margin as a site of radical possibility, a place to experiment, play, ask different questions, subvert, resist, and imagine the world anew.

It is in this spirit that this discussion explores how subcultures, grassroots cultural movements and DIY collectives can foster community, create inclusive spaces, build coalitions, and drive positive change. At a time of deep existential anxiety, polarisation, dislocation and loneliness, how can free parties, art and music promote dialogue, connection and collaboration beyond our silos and echo chambers? 

An ode to the underground, the Other, and creative and emotional freedom that comes from living outside of convention, and a reflection on the essential role of the arts in realising the world we dream of.

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Music at the Edge:  SOAK 

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Saturday 29 November | 12:00–18:00

The Tide Is High: Protecting Ireland’s Coastal Future
With Martha Farrell and Dr Salem Gharbia. Moderated by Christopher Kissane.

Nearly half the Irish population lives within a few miles of the coast, and the rising sea levels and extreme weather associated with climate change are putting our coastal areas at risk. Both coastal erosion and urban flooding are increasing dangers for coastal communities, many of which also face issues of economic and demographic sustainability. How can we prepare our coasts for the challenges of the next decades

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Rabharta Gaeilge (Irish language panel)
With Shampain, Peadar Ó Goill and Una Mullally. Moderated by Emma Ferrari.

Tá athéirí suntasach ag tarlú thart orainn i saol na Gaeilge – rabharta mór Gaeilge atá ann.  Tá an teanga ina gné lárnach agus tathagach i zeitgeist ár linne, agus tá sí ag fágáil a lorg go láidir ar cheol, scannánaíocht, scríbhneoireacht, faisean, agus na meáin ar bhealaigh atá úrnua, fuinniúil, agus spreagúil. 

Cén borradh atá taobh thiar den rabharta mór seo? Cén tionchar atá á imirt ag cultúr agus ealaíon ar an teanga? Cén léargas a thugann sé seo dúinn ar ár bhféiniúlacht náisiúnta, agus cén buntáiste is féidir a bhaint as seo le leas na Gaeilge ó thaobh tacaíochta agus maoiniú de sna blianta atá amach romhainn?

Beidh Emma Ferrari ag comhrá le triúr a bhfuil tionchar á imirt acu ar chúrsaí cultúrtha, ar an chomhcheangal agus idirspleáchas atá le sonrú idir theanga agus chruthaíocht, an borradh suntasach atá le sonrú in ealaíon Ghaeilge an lae inniu, agus an dóigh a bhfuil an Ghaeilge agus saol an lae inniu fite fuaite le chéile.

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The Irish language is in the midst of a remarkable resurgence. From music, film, and literature to fashion and new media, it has become part of the cultural zeitgeist in ways that feel unprecedented, invigorating, and uplifting.
What’s driving this powerful new wave? How have art and culture shaped its story? What does this moment say about our national identity, and how can this momentum be translated into meaningful funding and long-term support for the language’s future?
Emma Ferrari sits down with three leading cultural voices to discuss the symbiosis between language and creativity, the flourishing of contemporary Irish-language art, and its intersection with life in modern Ireland.
This conversation will be conducted completely in Irish with simultaneous translation accessible via translation headsets. Please note, there are a limited number of headsets which will be given out on a first come first served basis.

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The Maker Makes: The Art of Irish Craft
With Hugo Byrne, Domino Whisker and Anike Tyrrell. Moderated by Didi Ronan. 

In an age of mass production, craft offers a way of imagining a better world, a slow, human process that connects us to material, to place, and to one another. Artist Domino Whisker, knife-maker Hugh Byrne, and Anike Tyrrell, founder and artistic director of J. Hill’s Standard Glass, discuss the resurgence of Irish craft and its dialogue with design, memory, identity, and modern culture. From handmade glass to forged steel, tufting and embroidery, this conversation explores the preservation and reimagining of Irish craft, the relationship between art and function, and the quiet power of making as both resistance and renewal.

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Music at the Edge: Dove Ellis

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"What's Left?": A Conversation with Dimi Reider
Moderated by Christopher Kissane.

Left-wing journalists across the world continue to report on injustice and violence, but their work has become ever more difficult in the face of rising authoritarianism. Dimi Reider is an Israeli journalist living in London. He is the co-founder of +972 Magazine, the Palestinian-Israeli media collective that has undertaken many major investigations into the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and was a major critic of the rise of Israeli authoritarianism. After moving to the UK, he was also founding editor of The Lead, a group of progressive local and national publications in England. He has written and reported widely on politics in both the Middle East and Britain, and his articles have appeared with The New Statesman, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, and many others. As a facilitator and researcher, he has explored peace-building and dialogue in Northern Ireland. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Othering and Belonging Institute at University of California, Berkeley. He speaks with Christopher Kissane about what more we can do in the struggle for solidarity.

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Oró Sé do Bheatha ‘Bhaile: Housing, Gentrification & the Gaeltacht
With Gemma Dunleavy, Lorcan Sirr and Adhna Ní Bhraonáin. Moderated by Christopher Kissane. 

What began as an issue in isolated pockets of Ireland’s cities has become a national crisis affecting every facet of Irish life. Though it consistently tops opinion polls as Irish people’s most important issue and continues to be debated and discussed at every level of media discourse, progress or even clarity on the issue of housing often feels beyond our reach.
Hosted by journalist and author, Una Mullally, this discussion will try to tell this story from a different perspective – to focus on areas less covered and less understood in the current discourse. From gentrification to the Gaeltacht, our panel including artist and musician, Gemma Dunleavy, BÁNÚ spokesperson, Adhna Ní Bhraonáin, and lecturer & housing policy analyst, Lorcan Sirr, will dig into the issues both diffuse and acute facing different communities on our island, and how such communities might be key to charting our collective path forward.

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Reporter at Large: A Conversation with Ed Caesar
Moderated by Christopher Kissane

In our age of ever-shorter attention spans, long-form reporting has become an endangered art. But some stories require months and years of investigation and thought to be told properly.
Ed Caesar is a Staff Writer for The New Yorker Magazine, whose recent feature essay, ‘The Irishman’, offered the most in-depth look yet into Daniel Kinahan and his criminal empire. He has previously been named Journalist of the Year by the Foreign Press Association of London for his coverage of the civil war in the Central African Republic, alongside other investigations of diamonds, money laundering, and sinking ships, while his most recent book The Moth and the Mountain was a Telegraph Sports Book of the Year.
He speaks with Christopher Kissane about the process and importance of deep reporting and long-form storytelling.

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Tickets are still available - get yours below via Eventbrite!

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