WELCOME to the 21st Cork Lifelong Learning Festival I am honored as Lord Mayor of Cork and Patron of the Festival to extend a very warm welcome to you to the 2026 Cork Lifelong Learning Festival, our 21st Festival. I also want to congratulate everyone involved in the Festival’s milestone year, and all those who have contributed to the sustained success of ‘an Féile Foghlama’ since the earliest years. As First Citizen of Cork I also want to acknowledge and thank all of my fellow citizens who work to make the festival happen, by hosting events, encouraging participants to attend, by connecting with people and inspiring them to discover the huge range of learning activities available all year- round in our city. These efforts have created a strong network of Learning City partners in Cork. This has led to international recognition by UNESCO, who have presented Cork with a second Learning City Award in 2024, the only city in the world to have achieved this honour. We have a lot to celebrate as a leading international Learning City and the Lifelong Learning Festival is our flagship. It is a festival for everyone, a people’s festival, and it is one that we all can be proud of. It is recognised and admired the world over. It has inspired many other cities to take this approach and I want to extend a very warm welcome to representatives from these cities around Europe, North America and further afield who will join us during festival week this year.
Cllr Fergal Dennehy Árdmhéara Chorcaí Lord Mayor of Cork FESTIVAL PATRON
As a proud resident of Togher Learning Neighbourhood I am very much looking forward to attending and supporting this years events as Lord Mayor. Cork can be proud of the unique connection between the office of the Lord Mayor and all the schools of the city. It is a tradition that dates back over 100 years to Lord Mayor Terence McSwiney, and has remained a constant commitment ever since as our city has grown, and will continue to grow in the future. It is the people of Cork who make the festival what it is. I want to encourage all of you to live up to the festival motto – to ‘Investigate, Participate and Celebrate’ in one of most engaging weeks of the year in Cork!
Message from our Learning City Co-Chairs On behalf of all our Cork Learning City partners, welcome to the 2026 Lifelong Learning Festival. Since the very first festival it has been a celebration of all that is best about our city and the value that we place on education and lifelong learning. Our motto captures the essence of lifelong learning and we encourage
you to: Participate, Investigate and Celebrate learning in all its forms. We wish to extend our gratitude to our hard working voluntary festival committee and our festival co-ordinator, James Leonard, and to Catherine Sheahan for maintaining the excellent standard of the festival since its inception.
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