← All events
music · Saturday 5 September 2026 · 4:00pm 
Charlie McGettigan at the Lovely Laois Homecoming Festival
At Preston House · Main Street, Abbeyleix, Co. Laois
At Preston House · Main Street, Abbeyleix, Co. Laois
Charlie McGettigan, the Donegal singer-songwriter who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 with “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids”, plays an intimate afternoon show at Preston House in Abbeyleix on Saturday, 5 September 2026. The performance is part of the Lovely Laois Homecoming Festival, a week of events across the county built around welcoming home the Laois diaspora, and is billed as a small-venue set rather than a full concert. It is a separate ticketed event from the festival’s gala dinner at the Midlands Park Hotel the same evening.
McGettigan built his career as a songwriter before Eurovision success brought him wider recognition, and this show leans into that: expect a solo or lightly backed performance of his own songs, told with the between-song stories that come from decades of writing and touring. Preston House, a restored Georgian manor on Abbeyleix’s Main Street, gives the show a small-room, listening-room atmosphere rather than a big stage production, with an afternoon start time that suits an older festival crowd and families making a day of it in Abbeyleix. The event description calls it “an intimate musical event celebrating the talent and artistry” of the performer, which matches both the venue and the 90-minute running time.
Preston House is on Main Street in Abbeyleix, in the centre of the town and an easy walk from anywhere in Abbeyleix itself. Abbeyleix sits on the N8, about 20km south of Portlaoise, with Bus Éireann services connecting the two; there is no train station in the town, so the nearest rail stop is Portlaoise or Ballybrophy.
Abbeyleix is a Heritage Town, laid out as a planned estate by the de Vesci family in 1770, and the Georgian streetscape around Preston House is worth a walk before the show starts. Morrissey’s, the town’s combined grocery and bar, is a few doors down Main Street. There is more to see in Abbeyleix and across Co. Laois.
Heading to Preston House in Abbeyleix? Laois has plenty more to see. Read the Abbeyleix area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.