The Mary From Dungloe International Festival is a popular Irish music festival held annually, usually at the end of July in the small town of

Dungloe ''An Clochán Liath'', known in English as Dungloe or Dunglow ( ), is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. It is the main town in The Rosses and the largest in the Donegal ''Gaeltacht''. Dungloe developed as a town in the middle of the 18th century ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

. The festival is centred on a pageant to find out which contestant has the spirit of the festival, who is then crowned "Mary From Dungloe". The winner of the contest holds this title for a year and acts as an ambassador for the festival. Irish emigrant communities from around the world, as well as some Irish counties and towns, participate by nominating a young woman, endearingly titled a "Mary", to represent their community at the contest. The festival has grown in popularity over the years and now regularly attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the area. The festival is inspired by the song " Mary from Dungloe" as the Rose of Tralee festival is by " The Rose of Tralee". In 2019, the festival celebrated its 52nd anniversary, with Roisin Maher from New York becoming Mary From Dungloe 2019.

Participating communities

Many communities around the world with links to

have their own local contests to pick their community's "Mary" who subsequently is nominated to travel to Dungloe to compete in the Mary From Dungloe contest. Irish communities who have entered contestants include:

Traditional festival events

There are a number of traditional events which are run every year as part of the festival. Here are just a few examples: :

2022 Contestants

As the festival had been cancelled in 2020 and a virtual Mary contest took place in 2021 due to Covid-19, the selected 2020 contestants or 'Marys' took part in the 2022 festival. These contestants are as follows * Shannon Hester - Bayonne * Caroline Galvin - Belfast * India Kennedy - Donegal * Ann-Michelle McConalogue - Dublin * Libby McCole - Dungloe * Shauna Ní Dhochartaigh - Gaeltacht * Cíara Gallagher-Murphy - Glasgow * Caitlin Finn – London * Saoirse Moloney Stevenson - New York * Olivia Lisowski - Philadelphia * Sarah Lawlor – San Francisco * Kaitlyn Likas – Washington DC

Contest winners

Below is a complete list of contest winners from 1968 to 2007.

Entertainers and musicians

Many Irish and international acts have performed at the festival over the years. The traditional annual crowd puller, however, continues to be internationally renowned folk singer

Daniel O'Donnell Daniel Francis Noel O'Donnell, MBE (born 12 December 1961) is an Irish singer, television presenter and philanthropist. After rising to public attention in 1983, he has since become a household name in Ireland and Britain; he has also had cons ...

, who made his festival debut in 1985. *

Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band, created in 1993 by talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's '' The Late Late Show''. Their most successful line-up was composed of Keith Duffy, Steph ...

, Brian Kennedy,

Donal Lunny Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

, Altan,

The Hothouse Flowers Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock band that combine traditional music of Ireland, Irish music with influences from soul, Gospel music, gospel, and rock. Formed in 1985 in Dublin, they started as street performers. Their first album, ''People ...

Goats Don't Shave Goats Don't Shave are an Irish folk rock band formed in 1990. Formed in Dungloe, County Donegal, the group was fronted by singer-songwriter Pat Gallagher and backed by musicians, Charlie Logue (keyboards), Declan Quinn (whistle), Gerry Coyle (ba ...

Nathan Carter Nathan Kane Tyrone Carter (born 28 May 1990) is a British-born Irish country music singer based in the UK and Ireland. He has released thirteen studio albums and six live albums as of December 2022, five of which peaked at number one, and four ...

, Christy Moore, The Sawdoctors, Paul Brady, Shane McGowan * Barry Sinclair, Jimmy Buckley,

Hugo Duncan Hugo Duncan (Hugh Anthony Duncan) (born 26 March 1950, in Strabane) is a singer and BBC broadcaster born in Strabane, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 26 March 1950. His nickname is "The wee man from Strabane" or "Uncle Hugo". In the early ...

, Mad Dog Macrea, Louise DaCosta,

Riverdance ''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions Jean ...

, Jake Carter and many more.

Famous comperes

The Mary From Dungloe contest final has been compered by a number of famous faces. *

Gay Byrne Gabriel Mary "Gay" Byrne (5 August 1934 – 4 November 2019) was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was first host of '' The Late Late Show'' over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. ''The Late Lat ...

Marty Whelan Marty may refer to: Names * Marty (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters, also includes stage names * Marty (surname), a list of people Places in the United States * Marty, California, a former settlement * Marty, Min ...

Pat Kenny Patrick Kenny (born 29 January 1948) is an Irish broadcaster, who currently hosts the daily radio show ''The Pat Kenny Show'' on Newstalk and the current affairs show ''Pat Kenny Tonight'' on Virgin Media One. Prior to this, Kenny had a 41-yea ...

Thelma Mansfield Thelma Mansfield (born 1949) is an Irish people, Irish television presenter and artist that worked mainly with RTÉ television. She started out at RTÉ in 1965 as a continuity announcer. From 1986–97, she co-hosted the RTÉ 1 afternoon show ' ...

Gerry Kelly Gerard Kelly (Irish: Gearard Ó Ceallaigh; born 5 April 1953) is an Irish republican politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member who played a leading role in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement on 1 ...

* Noel Cunningham * Dave O'Connor

External links

*
Linda Farrell Is Mary From Dungloe
1986 episode of ''Faces and Places'' from the

RTÉ Television RTÉ Television is a department of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the Republic of Ireland's state controlled national broadcaster. Its first channel was Teilifís Éireann, which began broadcasting on 31 December 1961. Since the 1960s, RT ...

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