The Love Hungry Farmer by John B. Keane

Siamsa Tíre stages The Love Hungry Farmer by John B. Keane on Thursday, 3 September 2026 at 8:00pm, a one-night booking in the National Folk Theatre’s home venue in Tralee. Keane is Kerry’s own playwright, a Listowel publican who wrote through the 1950s to the 1980s and gave Irish theatre some of its most performed rural dramas, The Field, Sive and Big Maggie among them, all built around the pressures of land, money and marriage in small-farm Ireland.

What to expect

Keane wrote from behind his own bar in Listowel, and his plays are known for characters drawn from the customers and neighbours he watched for decades: farmers, matchmakers and small-town strivers caught between duty and desire. His work sits at the centre of the amateur and professional Irish drama repertoire, still staged constantly by companies across the country and abroad, and a Siamsa Tíre booking of one of his plays is as close to a home fixture as Kerry theatre gets, given his roots in the county. Siamsa Tíre runs a full autumn season across theatre, comedy and music, and a single-night Keane production like this one tends to draw both regular theatregoers and visitors keen to see his writing performed close to where he lived and worked.

Getting there

Siamsa Tíre is in Tralee’s Town Park, a short walk from the town’s bus and rail station, the terminus of the line from Cork and Mallow. Kerry Airport at Farranfore is about 16km away, and the venue is close to Tralee’s central car parks.

While you’re in Tralee

Tralee is Kerry’s county town, and John B. Keane’s Listowel is less than an hour away, so a night at Siamsa Tíre can anchor a wider trip around Keane country. There is more to see in Tralee and across Co. Kerry.

Good to know

• Date: Thursday, 3 September 2026
• Time: 8:00pm
• Venue: Siamsa Tíre, Town Park, Tralee
• Price: paid, see siamsatire.com for ticket prices
• Booking: siamsatire.com or +353 66 712 3055