The Celtic and Irish Cultural Society promotes and supports awareness of

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

and Celtic culture in Crawley,

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

and throughout the southeast of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The Celtic and Irish Cultural Society organise a number of events in Crawley including the Crawley Irish

Festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

, the Crawley Saint Patrick's Festivities and the Crawley Fleadh. In addition to community events, the society supports community groups within the southeast of England by providing free

webhosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web h ...

and marketing. Formally established in January 2004, the Celtic and Irish Cultural Society developed from the organising committee of the Crawley Irish Festival and set out to establish additional events including the first Crawley Saint Patrick's Parade in March 2004 and the first Crawley Fleadh in August 2004 as an extension to the Crawley Irish Festival. In 2006, the Fleadh moved to November as a stand-alone event. The society is supported by

Crawley Borough Council Crawley Borough Council is the local authority for the borough of Crawley, in the county of West Sussex, England. The council consists of 35 councillors, either two or three for each of the 13 wards in the district. It is currently controlled by t ...

, part funded by West Sussex County Council, the Irish Government Dion Fund and sponsored by a number of business sponsors.

Crawley Saint Patrick's festivities

The Saint Patrick's celebrations in Crawley are celebrated annually during March. Several events take place throughout Crawley celebrating Ireland's national day of celebration. The 2007 event is expected to strengthen the format already established. From 2006, building on the success of the 2004 and 2005 Weekend, the Celtic and Irish Cultural Society with assistance from Crawley Borough Borough and the

Hawth Theatre The Hawth Theatre is an arts and entertainment complex located in of woodland about from the town centre of the English town of Crawley. It is wholly owned by Crawley Borough Council and is currently operated by Parkwood Theatres. History The ...

, organised the third annual event which covered two weekends to move closer to a week-long festival. The lineup includes a Saint Patrick's Parade, concerts, free dance and music displays at the centre of the town plus much more.

Crawley Celtic Weekend: Celtic Rock in the Park / Crawley Irish Festival

Crawley's Irish Festival has seen a major from 2006 with a new event added to the August Bank Holiday Weekend. The Celtic Rock in the Park open air evening concert - aimed at a younger audience. The first planned concert included the band
Limehouse Lizzy
an
Emerald Dogs
and focused on modern world music with an Irish edge and

Celtic Rock Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock, as well as a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context. It has been extremely prolific since the early 1970s and can be seen as a key foundatio ...

. The additions to the Crawley Irish Festival include a dedicated Irish dance stage and the traditional stage will see a large increase in bands, as a result. Children's Entertainment has also been added with children's theatre and magic shows. The Crawley Irish Festival attracts around 10,000 people each year. Collectively, both the Celtic Rock in the Park and Crawley Irish Festival will be referred to as the Crawley Celtic Weekend from 2006.

Crawley Fleadh

The Crawley Fleadh is a celebration of Irish culture taking place during November in and around Crawley, West Sussex. The Fleadh brings qualified Irish sports ( GAA) coaches into local primary and secondary schools for the first time in Crawley's history: it will give children the opportunity to play Gaelic Football and Hurling. Arts and literature will also be catered for with storytelling and much more. For adults, Irish language classes, set dancing classes and theatre. Plus there are plenty of activities for the whole family including Irish dance shows and live music.

Additional events

The Celtic and Irish Cultural Society organises a number of additional events throughout the year including

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

classes and music gigs at local venues.

External links

Celtic and Irish Cultural SocietyCrawley Celtic WeekendCrawley Fleadh
{{DEFAULTSORT:Celtic And Irish Cultural Society 2004 establishments in England Clubs and societies in West Sussex Culture of Ireland Celtic studies Crawley Organisations based in Crawley