The Galway Cartoon Festival is an international celebration of funny drawings, hosted in Ireland’s most sociable city.

Galway is a place obsessed with art and culture, with festivals throughout the year for everything from literature to furniture. But noticeable by its absence was the ‘ninth art’, as they call it in France – comics, caricature, and cartoons. In 2017, we decided to change that…

Our Aims and Plans

Our event has particular goals:

• To nurture, promote, and develop the art of the cartoon in Ireland, particularly as a living means of social commentary and protest. 

• To be international in outlook, forging links and exchanging ideas between our cartoon culture and the ones beyond these shores.

We also plan to have a lot of fun.

We regularly hold an exhibition open to submissions from anyone, anywhere in the world. Please get in touch if you’d like to be part of it. We’re especially eager to show female cartoonists; women are seriously under-represented in the cartoon arts in Ireland.

But as well as exhibitions, we want to do things to get people involved with cartooning. We organise workshops, talks, discussions, even games. For children and adults.

Who We Are

The Crew

Richard Chapman	Artistic Director & Co-Founder
Margaret Nolan	Festival Manager & Exhibition Curator
Paul Callanan	Graphic Designer
Catherine Gagneux	International Liaison
Willy Brennan	Treasurer
Gar O’Brien-Collins	Advisor & Graphic Novel Guy
Séamus Hughes	Advisor & Aisteoir Offigiúil
Tom Mathews	Creative & Advisor
Dara McGee	Creative & Advisor
Kernan Andrews	Public Relations

What We’ve Done

Check out our Archives

Press Coverage

2022

• Coverage on RTÉ

2019

• Preview in the Galway Advertiser
• Preview in the City Tribune

2018

• Feature in the Irish Times
• Preview in the Irish Independent
• Interview in the Galway Advertiser

2017

• Coverage in the Times of London
• Story in the Galway City Tribune
• Preview in the Galway Advertiser
• Follow-up in the Galway Advertiser