An tÉalú at Town Hall Theatre

What to Expect

An tÉalú is a comedy musical in Irish about an independent woman placed in a nursing home who has no intention of staying there. She plots her way out again and again, sometimes with help from the friends she has made inside, and the show follows whether she manages it. The premise is light, but the writing has a sharper edge underneath about autonomy and who gets to decide how an older person lives.

The production is staged by Cumann Léirithe Bhéal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh, the drama society from Ballingeary in the Cork Gaeltacht, and it arrives in Galway at a scale most amateur companies do not attempt. There are twenty-four performers on stage backed by a live eight-piece band. The whole show is fully surtitled in English, so fluency in Irish is not needed to follow the story or the jokes. Running time is 130 minutes including an interval.

Good to Know

• Saturday 29 August 2026 at 8pm, Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square, Galway City.
• Tickets are €30, with a €25 concession rate.
• Running time 130 minutes including an interval.
• Performed in Irish with full English surtitles throughout.
• Cast of 24 with a live eight-piece band.
• Booking through Town Hall Theatre at tht.ie.

Getting There

Town Hall Theatre sits on Courthouse Square at the city end of the Salmon Weir Bridge, a short walk from Eyre Square through Eglinton Street and Woodquay. Drivers reach Galway on the M6 and N6 from Dublin and Athlone, or the M18 and N18 from Limerick and Ennis. The Cathedral car park directly across the bridge is the nearest large car park, and the Corrib Shopping Centre multi-storey on Eglinton Street is a few minutes away. Ceannt Station serves trains and Bus Éireann coaches and is roughly ten minutes on foot, which makes the evening workable for anyone travelling in from Athenry, Tuam, Loughrea or Ballinasloe.