The day started with a bang when the Beat Your Drum team rang in Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 on the Millennium Drum at Wells House and Gardens in Wexford. Surrounded by a great team of junior drummers from North Wexford, the original Millennium drummer Ken Samson was joined by his 18 year old son Jimmy to ring in the national day of free creativity for children and young people.

The day was captured by RTÉ’s news2day team.

Now in its fourth year, Cruinniú na nÓg celebrates and encourages participation by children and young people in creative activities. Most of the events were led by the local Creative Ireland Programme teams across the 31 local authorities, with huge support from locally based creatives in the areas of arts, heritage, STEAM and even TikTok.

With over 600 events to choose from this year, there really was something for everyone. From creating art out of disused drinks cans to investigating invertebrates on a Dublin Zoo webinar; to making willow lanterns and catapults at home to a Deb’s TikTok drama as Gaelige,the  Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 programme was packed!  With a strong emphasis on participation, there were lots of starter workshops specially designed to spark an interest and encourage young people to start a wonderful creative adventure!

This year Creative Ireland led Cruinniú na nÓg with a strong programme of national events designed to ‘kickstart’ creative activity around the country.  These national programmes were initiated by the Nenagh Children’s Film Festival, Dance Ireland, Brian Fleming and the Glór Arts Centre, Airc Damsha, Garageland and Airfield Estate and created a strong foundation of activities, workshops and creative challenges that provided children and young people with a n opportunity to express themselves.

Around the country our partners in local authorities delivered some marvellous projects including a gorgeous retelling of the old fairy tale of the Selkie by the school children of Fanore National School in Clare.

While in Waterford the young people from Phort Lairge Gaelscoil created a stunning example of sand art at Kilmurrin Cove that expressed their vibrancy, zest for life and positive ambitions for the future.

These are just two projects that encapsulated the spirit of Crunniú na nÓg this year. While most of the events were online where possible local Creative Ireland Coordinators programmed small socially distanced events outside that reflected our new freedoms as lockdown is eased.

As always Creative Ireland are so grateful for the ingenuity, imagination and flexibility of our Local Authority partners when delivering Cruinniú na nÓg . We are also enormously grateful for the support extended to the programme by RTÉ and TG4 who both ensured that our programme was enjoyed by as many young people as possible.

Every year the programme gets bigger and more imaginative and already we are really looking forward to Cruinniú na nÓg 2022.