Ireland — Time & Holidays
Ireland uses Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0) in winter and Irish Standard Time (UTC+1) in summer, changing the clocks alongside the United Kingdom and the EU.
National & Public Holidays
| Date | Holiday | What it marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January | New Year's Day Fixed | The start of the year. |
| 1st Mon Feb | St Brigid's Day Movable | A newer national holiday. |
| 17 March | St Patrick's Day Fixed | Ireland's national day, celebrated worldwide. |
| Movable | Easter Monday Movable | Part of the Easter weekend. |
| 1st Mon May/Jun/Aug | Bank Holidays Movable | Spring and summer long weekends. |
| Last Mon Oct | October Bank Holiday Movable | Autumn long weekend. |
| 25 December | Christmas Day Fixed | The principal winter holiday. |
| 26 December | St Stephen's Day Fixed | The day after Christmas. |
Time and holidays in Ireland
Ireland keeps Greenwich Mean Time in winter, UTC+0, and moves to Irish Standard Time, UTC+1, for the summer, switching on the last Sundays of March and October in step with the United Kingdom and the European Union. Sitting on the western edge of Europe, Ireland enjoys long summer evenings and mild, changeable weather, and its single national clock serves the whole island's republic comfortably.
St Patrick's Day and the bank holidays
St Patrick's Day on the seventeenth of March is Ireland's national day and one of the most widely celebrated national holidays anywhere, marked not only across Ireland with parades and festivities but by people of Irish heritage around the globe, often with rivers and landmarks lit in green. A newer addition, St Brigid's Day on the first Monday of February, recognises an important figure in Irish tradition and gives an early-year day off. The rest of the calendar follows a pattern of Monday bank holidays in May, June, August and late October that create reliable long weekends, alongside Easter Monday, New Year's Day, Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day on the twenty-sixth of December. Because several of these holidays are movable, their dates shift from year to year. The live clock above shows the current Irish time with the right seasonal offset.