Carrick-on-Suir's Bard in The Quarter Festival made Shakespeare accessible to all

The Tudor Artisan Hub artists’ collective brought the works of Shakespeare into the heart of Carrick-on-Suir through The Bard in the Quarter Festival last weekend.

The hugely successful three-day festival involved 60 local actors, artists and other creatives staging theatre, music, visual art, spoken word, storytelling and Irish folklore events, workshops and immersive experiences.

It was co-produced by the Tudor Artian Hub’s Linda Fahy and Enda O’Driscoll and created in collaboration with Ormond Castle, Brewery Lane Theatre and The Strand Theatre/Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society.

The festival opened last Friday night with two sold-out performances of The Citizen's Comedy at Christy's Bar at the Strand Theatre. The 60-minute production brought together hilarious scenes from Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors, celebrating mistaken identities, romance, wit and glorious comic confusion. It was an entertaining and accessible evening of theatre for all.

There were also full houses at Brewery Lane Theatre on Saturday for The Human Condition, which explored Shakespeare's darker works through intense performances of scenes from Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Othello that explored ambition, love, jealousy and betrayal.

At the Tudor Artisan Hub, visitors checked out the Shakespeare Idiom Trail — a quirky, visual journey through everyday expressions originating in Shakespeare’s works.

Local artists, makers, young creatives and performing artists transformed 30 Shakespearean idioms into 30 visual installations. The trail proved particularly popular with younger audiences, turning Shakespeare into something they could see, discover, laugh about and interact with.

Ormond Castle was the venue for several key festival events.

Audiences joined Margaret O’Brien for Shakespeare Surprises, an engaging and interactive exploration of The Bard which included drawing, discussion and plenty of curious minds discovering just how relatable Shakespeare’s characters and themes remain today.

Dr John Flood of the University of Groningen took his audience on A Time Traveller’s Guide to Shakespeare’s Theatre, exploring the world in which Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed.

The audience was enthralled, with so many questions and such lively discussion that the conversation could have continued for hours.

The castle's Long Gallery was the perfect setting for The Empty Tunic: Echoes Across the Waters – From Moyle to Avon, an immersive installation directed and produced by Linda Fahy in collaboration with 13 local creatives.

This profoundly moving work was inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the story of Hamnet and the Irish legend of the Children of Lir and included the River Suir and poetry of the late Michael Coady from Carrick-on-Suir. It explored childhood, loss, memory and what remains and incorporated visual art, folklore, music, poetry, ritual and a 96-foot River Suir created by six local Memory Keep Makers.

At its heart was The Empty Tunic and Swan, created by artist Sheila Wood, representing Hamnet and the Children of Lir - a powerful image of absence, memory and lives no longer physically with us.

Due to demand, a second performance was added and both performances were sold out.

Visitors were invited to take part in a Legacy of Ink, writing the name of someone they love and carrying that name through the Long Gallery, connecting Shakespeare, Michael Coady, memory and the enduring power of words.

The weekend ended spectacularly with two sold-out performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Ormond Castle's courtyard was transformed into a magical world of fairies, lovers, music, folklore, costumes and Shakespearean mischief for the production, which involved a large local ensemble. They worked intensively for eight weeks to prepare for the play and were supported by a huge collaborative team behind the scenes.

Linda Fahy said she was proud of what they achieved at the festival.

“We wanted to show that Shakespeare belongs to everyone, including people who may not have encountered him since school. We wanted people to be able to walk into a gallery, a theatre or a castle and discover Shakespeare through whatever form speaks to them.

“I am incredibly proud of what our community has achieved.

"We didn’t need to bring in a touring production to create something ambitious. We had the talent, imagination, heritage and resources right here in Carrick-on-Suir’s Cultural Quarter.”

The festival was part of Cultúr 2026 — Ireland’s EU Presidency Culture Programme for Tipperary, and funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, Culture Ireland, Tipperary County Council and Tipperary Arts Office.

Check out the page of photographs and this report in the print edition of The Nationalist now on sale in local shops.