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heritage · Thursday 20 August 2026 · 1:00pm 
Minding the Music, Minding the Heritage
At Nenagh Arts Centre · Banba Square, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
At Nenagh Arts Centre · Banba Square, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
Nenagh Arts Centre hosts a free afternoon of traditional Irish music on Thursday, 20 August 2026, as its contribution to National Heritage Week. “Minding the Music, Minding the Heritage” runs from 1pm to 3pm and is built around the idea that a tune passed from one musician to another is as much a piece of heritage as a building or an artefact. The session is open to the public and needs no ticket.
National Heritage Week runs across Ireland every August, and Tipperary’s arts venues, museums and heritage groups put on a full week of talks, tours and performances around it. This session at Nenagh Arts Centre focuses specifically on music as living heritage rather than as background entertainment, with local traditional musicians playing tunes and explaining where they come from, who taught them, and how they have changed as they have passed between players over the generations. Expect fiddle, box and flute playing typical of a midlands and Munster session, with room for conversation between sets rather than a formal concert format. Because it runs midweek in the early afternoon, it draws a mixed crowd, from regular session players to visitors who are in Nenagh for the week’s other heritage events. It sits alongside the more talk-focused Eddie Lenihan folklore evening at the same venue later that same day.
Nenagh Arts Centre is on Banba Square in Nenagh town centre, an easy walk from the main car parks and the bus stop on Pearse Street. Nenagh sits on the Dublin-Limerick road and rail line, so it is reachable by Bus Éireann or Irish Rail from either city.
Heritage Week brings extra reason to explore Nenagh itself. Nenagh Castle, the old Governor’s House heritage centre and the town’s Franciscan friary ruins are all within a short walk of Banba Square. There is more to see in Nenagh and across Co. Tipperary.
Heading to Nenagh Arts Centre in Nenagh? Tipperary has plenty more to see. Read the Nenagh area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.