The 2026 Craic 🌍

So, What’s the Craic?

The Craic is back with some new-year-new-me shenanigans, delivering news and views on all things Irish to your inbox. The Craic is the weekly newsletter from Shift, the global home of the Irish and Culturally Irish. Want a friend to have The Craic too? Sign them up for free here. Want Shift? You can get our lovely app for your smartphone right here.

News from Home

A little change of pace this week, as we wanted to swerve the traditional news (nothing happens over Christmas anyway) and deliver a little themed newsletter on Ireland looking ahead to 2026, while also having a wee look back to boot.

Trad to the Bone. The big cultural event of the year is the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, which will have a historic home in Belfast in August, but we also wanted to highlight the pub-centric (you know we love our pubs at Shift) TradFest 2026, taking place in every wee nook and cranny Dublin has to offer from Jan 21-25. Unmissable stuff. Bloomsday will also have its annual outing when the sun is (hopefully) back in June. And if you’re unlucky in love, you have about nine months to get those flights booked for the Lisdoonvarna Match-Making Festival in September.

Sports Year. We’ll keep you up to date on the aul ups and downs of Irish sports over the course of the year, including our improbable quest to make it to the World Cup (we really want that campervan trip), but there’s plenty of other stuff to whet the appetite: The Six Nations gets underway in a few weeks; Ireland is sending a (small) team to the Winter Olympics in February; the All-Ireland Football and Hurling Championships start in April. And file this one under ‘hunch’: we also feel that Katie Taylor will be drawn out of her boxing hiatus to fight again.

Business and Politics. No big elections planned for the country this year, but it’s a huge year in Irish politics because Ireland will be taking over the Presidency for the EU Council in July. No, that does not mean we can tell Germany and France what to do, but it does mean that Ireland sets the tone of the agenda for the bloc of 450 million people. Big responsibility. As for the Irish economy, we are ticking along okay, but stuff like tariffs and the AI tech bubble loom large. As ever, the cost of living and affordable housing remain the biggest socio-economic issues at home. Plus ça change.

The Craic Recommends. As Ireland’s national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, AKA RTÉ, has come in for plenty of criticism down years, but the good points have always outweighed the bad. In 2026, RTÉ is celebrating its 100th birthday, and the broadcaster has started releasing all types of content that effectively chart a century of Irish media. You can check out some of the best bits here, and we will be sure to keep you posted on special events and programs throughout the year as this national treasure, warts and all, marks its centenary.

The Irish Influence

As the Irish invasion of Hollywood continues apace, we wanted to give our prediction of who will be the next megastar to rival the Mescals and the Ronans – Jessie Buckley. After stealing the show in Hamnet, Buckley is now favorite to win the Best Actress Oscar in March. While she’s no stranger to accolades (she’s been Oscar-nominated before), Hamnet, we feel, is going to put her into the stratosphere. Also, keep an eye out for Buckley in The Bride! in March, where she plays the title role and gets top billing ahead of Christian Bale, Jake Gyllenhaal and Penelope Cruz. She’ll soon be a household name – you can’t take that check to the bank and cash it. 

Cúpla Focal

Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit {ah-vleeyun fwee vah-sha ditch} – Happy New Year to you (singular). If you’re sending a belated New Year’s text or card and want to add a bit of pizazz, you can throw in the wish as Gaeilge.

Blast from the Past

The New Year period is always an intriguing one for those interested in all aspects of Irish History. The release of “State Papers,” i.e., the annual publishing of documents showing us former governments’ true thoughts on a whole host of subjects. This year’s release has all sorts of insights, from the suspicion of Saudi Arabia’s plans to build an oil refinery in Cork to what politicians really thought of British Royals. Yet, the most intriguing nugget comes from 1987, with the papers detailing how the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs thought the rising popularity of U2 would be key to promoting Ireland around the world. Irish diplomats hatched a plan to secure VIP tickets for notables for U2 gigs across the US. Only problem was that the diplomats got carried away with their guest lists, and U2 didn’t have enough tickets to go around. The government called the gaffe “embarrassing.” 

And One Last Thing….

So, here we all are now at the end of this first edition of The Craic for 2026. What a ride. Anyway, we wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little about our goals for Shift in the year ahead. Like, err, Napoleon driving through Austerlitz in 1805, our aim is for expansion, and in real terms that means we will be expanding across US cities and officially launching in Ireland and Europe soon. We will also be expanding the features and the remit of the app itself, of course. We will let you know here and on Shift socials when we get exact dates, but for now, let’s just say we are excited about the year ahead (Patrick can hardly contain himself). We’ve loads of goodies to share with you in the coming weeks and months, and we are so glad that you lads and lasses are coming on this journey with us. ❤️☘️