The next iteration of Branar Meitheal commences in June 2025 supported by the Arts Council Ireland. We are currently looking to recruit two roles for the programme.

We are looking for to recruit a dynamic, motivated and experienced Programme Manager to work closely with the core Branar team to deliver the next phase of the Branar Meitheal initiative. The successful candidate will have an in-depth knowledge of the performing arts for young audiences nationally and internationally, will have at least 5 years experience in cultural management, is highly experienced in producing and is committed to the ongoing development of the sector. Read more and apply here

Closing date for applications is 16th April at 4:00pm

The next iteration of Branar Meitheal commences in June 2025 supported by the Arts Council Ireland. We are currently looking to recruit two roles for the programme.

We are looking to recruit a dynamic, motivated and experienced Programme Administrator to work closely with the Branar Meitheal Programme Manager and core Branar team to deliver this phase of the Branar Meitheal initiative. The successful candidate will have knowledge of the performing arts for young audiences nationally and will have at least 3 years experience in arts administration. Read more and apply here

Closing date for applications is 16th April at 4:00pm

James Joyce's epic story of one day in one city is brought to life in this inventive new show, bringing Ireland's most notorious book to audiences aged 8 and upwards, and to all those who haven't got around to reading it yet. Combining live performance, intricate paper design, an original score and Joyce’s odyssey, this is theatre that will excite both young and old.

The show takes place in the Linen Hall Library from Saturday 8th March - Sunday 9th March.

Suitable for ages 8+

For tickets and more information visit: https://youngatart.co.uk/events/youll-see

We were absolutely over the moon to be able to bring not one, but two shows to Brighton Festival in May!
You’ll See… runs in the Brighton Dome Studio Theatre on May 4th and 5th.
A huge thank you to Culture Ireland for their support.
You’ll See… was originally commissioned by and produced as part of Ulysses 2.2, a collaborative project between Anu Productions, Landmark Productions and Museum of Literature Ireland.
Commissioned by The Ark, Grand Soft Days co-produced by New International Encounter (NIE)
Supported by The Arts Council, Arts Council England, Culture Ireland and Foras na Gaeilge.

“Once there was a boy who was always looking up. He dreamt of having a star as a friend. This is the story of his adventure.”

Branar’s acclaimed adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ book headed to Polka Theatre, London last Summer.

Suitable for ages 3-5.

Supported by the Arts Council and Culture Ireland

London! Get your umbrellas, colourful wellies, sunglasses and winter coats ready! Grand Soft Day heads to the Southbank Centre, London, this June!

Splashing in puddles, wind whipping your hair, crunching frost under your feet, and rain dripping on your nose, now that’s a grand soft day. A playful show about always being prepared even though you do not know what the day will bring.

Supported by Foras na Gaeilge and The Arts Council. Originally commissioned by The Ark.

We were thrilled to announce that a new show, Ballad of a Bandit, written and performed by Miquel Barceló toured schools in the west of Ireland in February and March of last year!

A cleaner enters the classroom to empty the bin, distracted by something he sees, there ensues a rollicking story of a highway man, a Robin Hood-like character and master of disguise, Captain McNamara. Completely unaware that a show will take place, Ballad of a Bandit will have the children on the edge of their seats.

The show is accompanied by a specially designed creative engagement pack for use in the classroom after the show, with lots of potential curriculum links.

Photo by John McMahon.

Supported by The Arts Council, Galway City Council, Galway County Council and Branar Meitheal.

Here at Branar, we are proud to subscribe to the Safe to Create programme!

Safe to Create is a fantastic initiative that aims to impact change on the culture and practices of the arts and creative sectors across Ireland and create safer working conditions for all workers.

You can learn more about this fantastic programme at safetocreate.ie or on social media

Twitter - @safetocreate_ie

Instagram - @safetocreate_ie

Facebook - Safe to Create

Umbrellas, sunglasses, wellies, and winter coats at the ready! We were thrilled to bring Grand Soft Day back to Galway this past winter for a limited run!

Grand Soft Day ran in the O’Donoghue Theatre, University of Galway.

Photo by Anita Murphy.

Grand Soft Day is made in collaboration with New International Encounter (NIE)

Supported by The Arts Council, Arts Council England, Culture Ireland and Foras na Gaeilge.

Branar were delighted to have been commissioned by Galway Culture Company to create two new arts engagement offerings for schools in Galway city and county spanning music, theatre, and visual arts.

Rockin’ the Classroom, a music education programme in Irish and English for children in Junior & Senior Infants, 1st & 2nd Class. This is a Multiplatform education pack that brings the music from Branar’s show Rockin’ Rhymes into classes and will be posted to every school in the city and county.

Along with this, in Spring of 2024 Branar delivered a multifaceted creative arts programme in four Galway DEIS schools, across a range of art forms. The programme for each of the participating schools was devised in collaboration with the teachers with a view to ensuring maximum impact for the participating children.

Ciao Italia!

As part of the Creative Europe Mapping Project, we were thrilled to be bringing Rothar to Festival Visioni di Futuro in Bologna in October!

Rothar took place in Teatro San Leonardo, via San Vitale 63, Bologna.

Rothar was originally produced in association with Drama at University of Galway and Babaró International Arts Festival as part of Creative Europe’s Mapping Project.

We were delighted to be able to share a Work-In-Progress viewing of our new work “Fuaimrian: The Story of a Day” at Baboró International Arts Festival for Children’s Artist and Delegate night back in October.
Made in collaboration with Galway Music Residency, Fuaimrian has original illustrations and story by Mary Murphy, animated by Manuela Corbari. Composed by Tom Lane and performed by ConTempo Quartet & David Bremner.

Conducted by Sinéad Hayes.
Script performed by Clare Barrett.
Supported by the Arts Council, Galway City Council and Galway County Council.

Branar Meitheal was delighted to partner with Babaró International Arts Festival to present “Space for All: Towards Inclusive Practice”, a panel discussion with a focus on inclusive arts practice. We would like to extend a huge thank you to all who attended!

The panel took place on Wednesday 18th October in Nuns Island, Galway.

We were absolutely over the moon when Rothar won best show at the 32nd Season Opening festival at Kolibri as part of Creative Europe’s Mapping Project in Budapest in September!

Thank you to the audiences who visited our little bike shop at the end of town and well done to the Rothar team!

Rothar was originally produced in association with Drama at University of Galway and Babaró International Arts Festival as part of Creative Europe’s Mapping Project.

We were thrilled to cycle across the country this past Autumn with out Irish tour of Rothar! 

We kicked off the The Ark as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, we then took the bike lane to the Belltable in Limerick for Bualadh bob Children’s Festival, Mermaid Arts Centre Wicklow and Backstage Theatre in Longford.

Rothar was originally produced in association with Drama at University of Galway and Babaró International Arts Festival for Children as part of Creative Europe’s Mapping Project.

Following our recent open call, Branar and The Ark were delighted to announce the selected artists who will take part in our upcoming Pop-Up Poetry artist development workshops at The Ark, Dublin.

In the workshops, led by Marc Mac Lochlainn, The artists played and explored the world and words of early years children through poetry, rhyme, nonsense verse and song.

The selected participating artists are: (in alphabetical order) Joe Brennan, Luke Casserly, Helen Gregg, Orla McGovern, Shane McGrath, Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola, HK Ní Shioradáin, Sian Quill, Molly Twomey, Jen Wallace, and Grace Wilentz.

Pop-Up Poetry for 'Lil Peeps commissions new and original poetry, rhymes and songs by contemporary artists based in Ireland that resonates, engages with and inspires our youngest citizens. Stay tuned for news of the next phase of Pop-Up Poetry for ‘lil Peeps Volume 2.

We had a wonderful time with our Tar Isteach workshops in Branar HQ last week! A week full of sharing ideas, processes, games and stories.

The Tar Isteach workshops were facilitated by by Marc Mac Lochlainn, Jonathan Gunning, and Miquel Barceló.

Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Branar and NIE made the New Victory Theatre their home for a few weeks! Their show, Grand Soft Day, headed to New Victory in NYC in January for their 23/24 season.

They couldn't wait to perform for NYC families on their historic stage. More info: https://bit.ly/3X65zPz

Grand Soft day is a co-production by Branar and New International Encounter (NIE) Commissioned by The Ark Dublin

Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of England, Culture Ireland, and Foras na Gaeilge.

Tar Isteach is an invitation to play for theatre makers and performers* from under-served communities based in the West of Ireland who are interested in working in the area of arts for children and young people.

Deadline for applications was at 11:59pm on Wednesday, 31st May, 2023.

Applications are closed until further notice.

Meitheal group that travelled over to Edinburgh last week for the Edinburgh International Children's Festival. Four days of seeing shows, attending talks and networking!

Standing: Orla Henihan, Linda Geraghty, Mags Keoghan, Jess Rowell, Orla Clogher, Phillida Eves, Liam McCarty, Elaine Donovan, Selma Daniels, Claire O'Neill, Michelle Cahill.

Front Row: Noel Minogue, Niamh Ní Fhlatharta, Neasa Ní Chuanaigh, Caoimhe Whelan, Grainne Hope.

Devised and initiated by Branar, Meitheal is a pilot scheme funded by the Arts Council of Ireland

We were thrilled to announce that we presented 'You'll See...' at this years Galway International Arts Festival. 'You'll See...' was created in 2022 as part of the #Ulysses22 project, and explores James Joyce’s epic story of one day in one city.

Originally commissioned by and produced as part of Ulysses 2.2 a collaborative project between ANU, Landmark Productions and Museum of Literature Ireland

Huge congratulations to all the pupils and teachers who took part in Branar’s Digital Arts Flag activities in 2023. It has been a joy to receive images and videos documenting the creative endeavours of the schools who have taken part. The response has been hugely positive.

The Digital Arts Flag is a program designed to encourage and support arts engagement in schools. It comprises workshops in 5 different art forms presented in video format. There are senior and junior levels of each workshop. The artist facilitators have designed the workshop video in a way that enables teachers to be active participants in the art making also.

Branar is proud to be partnering with Acorn Life Group on the Digital Arts Flag.

Team picture of opening night of The Table at the Abbey Theatre last Thursday evening! We are over the moon to be bringing this show to Dublin audiences. Thank you so much to all the audience members we've had so far. We're looking forward to welcome even more into Gort na Goille for the last 2 weeks of our show.

Written by Christian O’Reilly and directed by Marc Mac Lochlainn, The Table is performed by an ensemble cast.

Rehearsals were underway! In the little bike shop at the end of town, a world of adventure awaits. Rothar travels to Belfast for the Belfast Children's Festival.

📍 Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, Belfast
📆 March 4th & 5th, 2023

Rothar is produced in association with Drama at University of Galway and Baboró International Arts Festival for Children as part of Creative Europe's Mapping Project.

On Saturday, They finished their run of The Table at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway. Thank you so much to our Galway audiences who travelled to Gort na Coille with us.
The Table is written by Christian O’Reilly and directed by Marc Mac Lochlainn, The Table is performed by an ensemble cast.

The Table is kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Galway County Council and Foras na Gaeilge

Image by Anita Murphy

We were thrilled to see so many Meitheal Participants involved in this year’s Baboró International Arts Festival.

Polar Bear & Penguin by Paul Curley, with producer Claire O’Neill.

Making Waves by Jess Rowell, with producers Caoimhe Whelan and Mags Keohane.

Fall and Float by Monica Muñoz, with producer Michelle Cahill.

Devised and initiated by Branar, Meitheal is a pilot scheme funded by The Arts Council.

Their second year of Meitheal has been a Blast! They expanded their programme through their new producer strands, bringing their total number of participants up to 16!

Following a call out for participants, they had 4 Nurture Producers taking part in the programme; Michelle Cahill, Gráinne Hope, Mags Keohane, and Claire O'Neill.

They also introduced 2 new 'Producer in Residence' awards to support the professional development of two new producers, Elaine Donovan and Caoimhe Whelan.

With these residencies, They were aiming to deepen and advance the knowledge and experience of an emerging producer while providing the support and insight of working within a company and a venue context.

Meitheal is a pilot scheme funded by the Arts Council Ireland, and devised and initiated by Branar.

The whole team were gathered around the table today for their first readthrough of 'The Table'! They were so excited to start rehearsing this show ahead of its premiere in February.

With this new project, the team at Branar sensitively explore the impact of the Civil War through this resonant story of how a family can be divided. Written by Christian O'Reilly and directed by Branar's own Marc Mac Lochlain, 'The Table' is an exploration of family, history, and language, coming to Galway and Dublin this spring. Don't miss out and book your tickets!

'The Table' was at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, from February 14th-18th, before moving to the Peacock Stage at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, from March 1st-18th.

And that's a wrap on How to Catch a Star's trip to Theatre Hullabaloo in Darlington, UK.

The boy flew the Branar team over in his rocket for a magical run of 39 shows from the 2nd-24th of December. The Branar team were home just in time for Santa to come!

A huge thank you to everyone at Theatre Hulabaloo for looking after us. Merry Christmas from the Boy and all at Branar. We look forward to showing what more wonder lies in store for the future.

We were thrilled to announce our new show “The Table” In the early months of 2023 to the Town Hall Theatre Galway and The Peacock Stage at the Abby Theatre, Dublin.

Branar sensitively explored the impact of the Civil War through this resonant story of how a family can be divided. Written by Christian O’Reilly and directed by Marc Mac Lochlainn, The Table is performed by an ensemble cast.

Supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council and Foras na Gaeilge.

We were thrilled to be launching a new Producer Development Strand as part of Meitheal.

Applications were open until 4:00pm, December 14th.

Are you a producer who is working, or interested in working, across the area of performing arts for young audiences? Are you keen to expand your producing practice or learn more about working this area? This Meitheal strand supports independent producers to develop their knowledge and skills in this area and to build relationships with artists in a supported environment.

Open to both emerging and experienced producers seeking to move into or further develop their skills in the field of performing arts for young audiences.

We are looking to appoint up to 3 new board members to work with the existing board and staff to help us achieve our strategic goals goals as we implement our new strategic plan (2022 - 2025). We are looking to extend and deepen the skills and expertise on our board. Specifically, we are looking for individuals with the following skills:

Legal expertise

HR

Communications

The Board meets formally every 2 months (including our AGM) and board positions are undertaken on a voluntary basis.

For an informal discussion about how you can contribute to Branar’s future please contact Marc Mac Lochlainn at info@branar.ie

You'll See... finished its run in the Cork Midsummer Festival. A huge thank you to the wonderful audience members who joined us as we explored James Joyce's epic story in a very Branar way!

In case you missed the live show, you can still catch the film version of You'll See... online and take part in #MyBloomsday where we invite children throughout Ireland to celebrate and tell us about their Bloomsday, 100 years in from the book's original publication date.

Branar HQ was alive with activity last Wednesday when we had our very first Meitheal artists day!

Artists from across all three strands of Meitheal came to the office for a day of workshops, talks, and skill-sharing. We were delighted to be able to meet up in person as a group as we have previously only met digitally.

Having spent the day hearing about each artist's upcoming projects, we could not be more excited about the future of Meitheal.

Bloomsday (June 16th 2022), we asked young people from 2nd to 6th class to tell us all about a day in their life. And teachers, it's a schoolday – so they need your help!

As a follow-on activity from watching our You’ll See… film, we wanted to capture the diversity of lived experiences of young people from around the island of Ireland and put their voice and perspective at the heart of this day. Schools from across the country are taking part, and the submissions will be presented as an online archive later this year.

More info here

How to Catch a Star finished its run in the Irish Arts Centre last Sunday. A huge thank you to everyone who came to see our show and to the team at the Irish Arts Centre for looking after us. We were also delighted to have How To Catch A Star included in the New York Times list of "What to Do in New York City in May"!

The How to Catch a Star team now has a few days rest before heading to Ottawa for the Ottawa Children's festival from the 19th - 23rd May

This tour is supported by Culture Ireland, Arts Council Ireland, Galway City Council, and Galway County Council.

Branar went to Cork Midsummer Festival! They premiered their new live show from June 16th - June 19th.

James Joyce’s epic story of one day in one city is brought to life in this inventive new show, bringing Ireland’s most notorious book to audiences aged 8 and upwards, and to all those who haven’t got around to reading it yet.

More information coming for schools soon.

We were WHEELY excited to be touring Rothar to schools around Galway as part of our 21st birthday celebrations.
They toured from the 27th of April to the 13th of May.

Rothar first premiered in Baboró 2021, and now we are thrilled to be bringing it to students all over the county.
There will be more birthday surprises coming later in the year so keep an eye out.

Supported by Galway County Council and Foras na Gaeilge

Introducing our brand new strategy 2022-2025

We here at Branar are delighted to launch our new strategy for the company for 2022 to 2025. Alongside our new strategy, we have also launched our new Branarfesto! This can be found on our website and is available in both Irish and English. To read more click here.

Branar are delighted to return to international presentation this May after over 2 years. How to Catch a Star will tour to Irish Arts Center, New York, from the 4th–15th May, and Ottawa Children’s Festival, Canada, from the 19th–24th May. We are excited to be presenting How to Catch a Star as part of the Irish Arts Center, New York’s opening season, in their brand new beautiful building, you can book tickets here: https://irishartscenter.org/event/branar-how-to-catch-a-star

Plans are developing for our new show for early years. It’s about the weather, about rain and snow and hot and cold and splashing in puddles and putting on wellies. It will be presented inside a beautiful, immersive, forest like installation. Further development was held in autumn 2022 with the show opening in October. Grand Soft Day is a co-production with NIE (New International Encounter). Suitable for ages 3 -6 (TBC)

1 book. 1 year. 18 artistic experiments.

We were delighted to be working with Anu Productions, Landmark Productions and Museum of Literature Ireland to present Ulysses 2.2 and inviting children throughout Ireland to work with us!

"Yes, by Jove, Mr. Dedalus said. That will be worth seeing, faith."

Ulysses is a year-long, nationwide odyssey of creative responses to the 18 episodes that chronicle an ordinary day in the life of Leopold Bloom. Find out more at www.ulysses22.ie

Ulysses 2.2 is curated, presented and produced by ANU, Landmark Productions and Museum of Literature Ireland and is funded by an Open Call award from Arts Council Ireland.

Branar were delighted to commission composer Moisés Mas Garcia & filmmaker Alice McDowell to create new work for children aged 2 -5 years with support from the Arts Council Ireland Commissions Award 2021.

Moisés and Alice visited the children & staff of Ulla Beag Early Learning, Co. Clare, last month where the children introduced them to their environments and the sounds within them.

This new work was disseminated as part of Fuaimrian, Branar's exploratory digital arts project, more info coming on this soon.

We were delighted to open applications for Meitheal, a new creative production services initiative by Branar, made to support artists creating work for young audiences.

Meitheal supports are divided into two distinct strands to help artists at different stages in the development of their work. These strands are “Seed and Sow” and “Nurture and Grow”.

“Seeds and Sow” is for early concept development across the performing arts disciplines.

“Nurture and Grow” is for further development of potential productions.

We turned 21 years old in 2022 and we had a great year of celebrations and exciting projects planned 😎

Thank you to everyone who has supported Branar in our first 20 years! Without your support we would not be able to create wonderful arts experiences for children.

As part of Branar’s 21st year celebrations, we will be posting throwback photos from past productions and events all year long so keep an eye on our social media or use #Branar21.

Thanks to everyone who came to our shows or worked with Branar this year! We've put together just a few of our favourite figures from this year.

117 live performances.
3,463 streams globally.
35 collaborating partners.
140 artists and creative professionals.
1,288 classrooms reached nationally.
4 commisons.

Here's to an even bigger and better 2022!

Branar and The Ark were delighted to open this call for professional writers & song writers with an interest in composing new & original poetry and nonsense rhymes for children from birth to aged 6 to participate in exploratory workshops for Pop up Poetry Volume 2!

We love to discover new voices and we are seeking applications from artists across a range of linguistic backgrounds and who work in a diversity of languages as well as English and Irish.

We're rocking on up to the Belfast Children's Festival this March with Rockin' Rhymes! 🎤🥁🎹🎸

Rockin' Rhymes is a show for music lovers aged 2 to 102. It is a rock-n-roll adventure, performed by a band of five musicians, featuring nursery rhymes as you’ve never heard them before.

As well as Rockin' Rhymes, Branar will also be taking part in a Talking TYA "Learning to Listen" panel as part of the festival. We will have more information on this soon so stay tuned!

Rockin' Rhymes is produced in association with the Pavilion Theatre and Roscommon Arts Centre