ANALYSIS: A brief look into the history of bank holidays in Ireland

With the recent August bank holiday in Ireland, The Nationalist looks back on the history of public holidays in the country.

Over the last weekend, many of us lucky to not have work celebrated the ‘bank holiday weekend’ by travelling, visiting family and friends or just relaxing for the long weekend.

But why do we have ‘bank holidays’ in Ireland and are they the same dates as other countries?

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The term ‘bank holiday’ comes from the origins of banks closing on these days or on holy days, like saint’s days, in the year.

In Ireland our bank holidays sometimes take place on the first Monday of a month, bar special days like New Year’s Day, St Bridget’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter Monday, Halloween, Christmas Day and St Stephens Day.

In 1939, the Oireachtas passed the Holidays Act which established public holidays like Christmas Day, St Stephen’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter Monday, Whit Monday and the first Monday in August.

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Another Act in 1973, replaced the Whit Monday holiday with the first Monday in June. New Year’s Day was not added until 1974 as a public holiday.

The October Holiday (Halloween) was added in 1977. The first Monday in May was then added in 1993 and the most recent holiday, St Bridget’s Day, was added to the list of bank holidays in Ireland in 2023.

Of course Ireland had bank holidays prior to 1939. While under British rule Ireland shared the same bank holidays as the UK.
The UK has had official bank holidays since 1871.

John Lubbock is credited with creating the idea of a ‘bank holiday’ in the UK, to allow banks to close on a certain date, the same date each year.

This would help things run smoother for businesses, if people knew when the bank was closed every year and not just a random different day each year for special events, which was the case and caused confusion prior to this.