As part of the St. Patricks Day festivle, they’ve announced a 5K road race on Sunday 15th of March ‘09 at 12.00. It starts and finnishes at the Mansion house and being only 5K even the most unfit of us can safely sign up without fear of straining ourselves.

On the day there are 0ver €6,000 of prizes including some fancy dress prizes.

So get dressed up if your up for putting a few smiles on people’s faces (as you whizz by them on your first peice of exercise in years, only to hear the cruel taunts of some 5year old later as they pass you out while your panting under a tree, avoiding near death, during your midway break), grab some little relations if you can (awesome excuse to take breaks) and make it a fun family day out.

So here’s the best of official scedual for the St. Patricks day festivle in Dublin.


12th March 2009
St. Patricks Day Kicks off in style with the festivle opening celebration and our pick of the day questionably is the “Best of the Fest” comedy night at the laughter lounge. Comedy goers were asked to vote for their favourite comedians and these 5 comics will all preform for 3 nights only over the St Patrick’s Festival weekend!


Doors 7.00pm – Show – 8.30pm Tickets 25Euro, and half price for impoverished students.


13th March 2009
The Spheres @ Grand Canal Square, Docklands, D2

“The internationally renowned, Strange Fruit from Melbourne, present their distinct performance style fusing theatre, dance and circus. In Spheres, eight performers perched on giant, illuminated orbs reveal a unique and utterly stunning performance.”


Shows @6.30pm & 8.00pm This is a free ticket event and you can get your tickets here


Also on the Friday is the launch of the Fun Fair at merrion square!


Saturday 14th March


Saturday is going to be the most fantastic day next to the parade. With several of our favourite events on the one day!


Start off the morning by nabbing a kid, anyones will do, and head to the Denny Treasure hunt which kicks off at City Hall, Dame Street – registration is at 10.00am – 1.00pm. If you are interested in detective stories, murder mysteries, whodunit thrillers, lost treasure and unsolved puzzles then Denny Treasure Hunt is for you.





Then on to without a shadow of a doubt the best part of the festivle – The Ceili! Which is traditional Irish dancing done in the outdoor festivle concert style. BÉALSPRAOI CÉILI this year is to take place on the Saturday from 12pm.


Sunday 15th March
Denny Big Day out be huge so here’s the blurb: “With more than 10 zones to suit everyone from tots to teens, expect Merrion Square to be a hub of activity. Featuring acts from Ireland and around the world, you can expect amazing performances, fun workshops, quirky installations, gorgeous puppetry, storytelling, circus and lots and lots of games.”


Monday 16th March


The calm before the storm! Take this one easy, there’s another chance to check out the “Best of the Fest” comedy night at the laughter lounge.

Tuesday 17th March – St Patricks Day
The Parade starts from 12 at Parnell Square, get dressed up in your greens, paint the face and enjoy what being Irish is all about!


In the evening Sean Keane and the Irish Scattering play in the national concert for the more sophisticated amongst us, but the real Ceoil agus Craic (for our American readers ‘Craic’ refers to fun here in Ireland!) will be taking place in the pubs across the Emerald Isle

St. Patrick’s day is a world wide celebration of all things Irish. For many that simply means a serious drinking session but what some people forget is exactly how important and how much fun St. Patrick’s day really is in Ireland. So to all our international readers, with thanks to the official St. Patrick’s Day site here just a little taste of the real deal:

A few of our friends can’t seem to get why we get so excited around St. Patrick’s day – If you haven’t been to the Dublin Parade and the outdoor Ceili Mor (which is a massive traditional Irish Dance) down by Earlsfort Terrace – get yourself to Ireland for a truly unique experience.

So yes there will be plenty of the black stuff drunk and much singing of Irish songs from people that don’t quite know the words – but sure we wouldn’t want to have it any other way. Like many other things you only get out of it what you put in and everyone is welcome to part-take in the fun.

In Ireland, the St. Patrick’s festival is no longer a one day event – being the classic over achievers that we are we grew the festival into a full week with various activities on every day. So for anyone of thinking about visiting Ireland there isn’t a better week in the calendar to do so and for those of us just thinking about getting back to our heritage its the one week where we sit back to appreciate how lucky we are to be Irish and murmor a few “cupla focal” – which means a ‘few words’ in the Irish language. While we appreciate the big man for banishing snakes from our green isle.

We’re looking to add a new person to our office support team to keep up with our expanding business. Candidate should be fun, friendly, very social and have good knowledge of using computers. CV’s should be e-mailed into info@thecostumeshop.ie.

Job will be normal working hours Monday – Friday at our Portlaoise Offices. This is a full-time position and is suitable for someone looking for a permanent career path.

With Valentines now within stone throwing distance we’ve been hearing talk about a who new theme of Valentines parties for the weekend.

This year the day before Valentines is Friday the 13th! For the superstitious among us that means bad fortune and a day when anything that can go wrong will! Others have Friday the 13th associated with a great movie and an excuse to dress up in the scariest horror costume that one can find.

So the idea for many pubs and clubs for Friday the 13th 2009 is to embrace the bad fortune and scariness associated with it. After all you can choose to stay home scared or be part of the problem!

So get dressed up and have some fun with it!