The second part of Oireachtas na Gaeilge, the main Irish-language festival of the year, starts today in Killarney. The sean-nós singing and dancing competitions are the centrepiece events, but there is also a wide range of other activities, much of which this year will be broadcast on TG4 and Raidió na Gaeltachta. Live footage of the Oireachtas will also be streamed online.

In the words of Liam Ó Maolaodha, director of Oireachtas na Samhna: ‘At the Oireachtas we gather to meet and compete in some of the oldest Irish artistic traditions. For some it’ll be their first Oireachtas, for others their sixtieth.’

This year’s competitors include 2010 winner Gearóid Ó Dubháin, veterans such as Edwina Guckian (see below) and Emma O’Sullivan (pictured), as well as Tura Arutura, a dancer from Zimbabwe living in Belfast, who has been studying sean-nós dancing for the past six months.

Performers at the Cabaret Craiceáilte, hosted by Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Rónán Mac Aodha Bhuíinclude, include Mo Hat Mo Gheansaí, two brothers, Oisín and Tadhg Walsh-Peelo, from Wicklow who by their own description play ‘a mix of folk, pop and the blues in both English and Irish’.

This being the fortieth anniversary of his death, TG4 will launch a special programme on Seán Ó Riada during the festival with the programme itself being broadcast on Monday, 7 November at 9.30pm.

www.antoireachtas.ie