It’s 2022 and we are finally fully free to throw the festival we’ve really been wanting to. We got shows, speakers, cinema and distilleries, Joyce and Jim Cogan. And most of all, fantastic guest artists. It was quite a year!
The Brochure of Events
“Drawing The Line”
Our central show this year, which took place in the PorterShed on Market Street, was called Drawing The Line, to celebrate how everything was suddenly wonderful and good again in 2022.
Our Sponsors
2022 As It Happened
September 30th – October 9th 2022!
March 28, 2022
Yes, it’s coming round again already
We’re excited to announce that the dates for this year’s Cartoon Festival have been set for the first week of October.
After struggling against the odds over the last couple of years, we’re hoping to really spread out again with this one. Thanks for all your support during the hard times!
Festival Submissions Are Open!
June 2, 2022
Deadline: July 31st 2022
Poster by Jon Berkeley The Galway Cartoon Festival is now inviting cartoon entries for our international exhibition 2022.
Our Theme: “Drawing The Line”
This is where we draw a line under the events of the last few years – or so we hope.
How do you, a cartoonist, make sense of it all? What needs to be said? What needs to stop right now, and what needs to start? What has made you laugh or cry – or laugh and cry?
Get it out of your system. Draw the line!
Teja Fischer, Germany Entries
- Entries should be emailed to info@
galwaycartoonfestival .ie as 300dpi jpegs. - Selected entries will be printed and exhibited in venues around Galway September 30 – October 9 2022.
- Closing date for entries is 31 July 2022.
- (We will not be accepting submissions of original works or limited-edition prints this year, except by prior arrangement with the artist.)
Terms and Conditions
Selected cartoons will be printed and framed by the Galway Cartoon Festival and offered for sale. Galway Cartoon Festival is a voluntary organisation promoting the art of cartoon and any sales will be put into meeting the costs of running this year’s festival or put into the budget for next year’s festival.
Submitted cartoons may also be used in publicity materials for the festival, where they will be credited to the artist.
Irish Language
Ciaraíoch Galway Cartoon Festival welcomes cartoons in any language and none, but we are particularly keen to get cartoons and comics in the Irish language for our “Tarraing é i nGaeilge” exhibition – the only national annual show of cartoons in Irish.
Works selected for Tarraing é i nGaeilge will be exhibited both in Galway City and on Inis Óirr in the Aran Islands.
Other Events
Alongside these open exhibitions, we have a fine bunch of other cartoon shows and events in the pipeline too. Stick around for further details – or just join the mailing list – and save the first week of October for a visit to Galway.
- Entries should be emailed to info@
Table Quiz!
July 13, 2022
Help us fund the Galway Cartoon Festival and have fun while you’re at it. The Dew Drop Inn, Wednesday 20th July, 8pm. Prizes, raffles, bar, laughs. Just €40 for a table of four.
Just Days To Go!
July 27, 2022
Deadline: Sunday July 31
Don’t think about it too much, just send us something. We’ve had submissions from over 100 cartoonists so far, so it’s going to be a party.
- Entries should be emailed to info@galwaycartoonfestival.ie as 300dpi jpegs.
- People have asked is there any limit to the number of entries you can send. The answer is no (just please be reasonable!)
- All entries we select will be printed and exhibited in venues around Galway, from September 30 to October 9 2022.
Additionally, these selected entries will appear in an online brochure and gallery of the 2022 festival.
If you submitted your work more than a week ago and have still not received an acknowledgement, please get in touch and we’ll check that it reached us.
Grand Opening
September 29, 2022
Friday 7:00 – Tomorrow night! – The PorterShed
All cartoon fans are welcome to the opening of the Galway Cartoon Festival 2022, which takes place in the PorterShed, Bowling Green.
Join us for a drink and a chat, and of course a great deal of very funny cartoons. This event doubles as the opening of the our main exhibition, ‘Drawing The Line‘, a gathering of new and topical cartoons by some of the best in the business, including this year’s international guests Steve Bell (The Guardian), Liza Donnelly (The New Yorker), Cristina Sampaio (SpamCartoons), and Ivailo Tsvetkov.
(Note that the actual entrance to the PorterShed is on the Market Street side, via the car park, and that the PorterShed isn’t at the train station any more!)
Taibhdhearc Shows
October 1, 2022
Sunday October 2nd
Tickets online or on the door.
The Comics of Jack B Yeats
4pm Tickets
Ilustrated talk by Michael Connerty with Q & A session and mini comic strip art exhibition by Jack B Yeats in An Taibhdhearc.
The State of The Art
A panel discussion with top Irish and international cartoonists in An Taibhdhearc, as part of Galway Cartoon Festival 2022
- Liza Donnelly (The New Yorker)
- Steve Bell (The Guardian)
- Cristina Sampio (SpamCartoons)
- Hunt Emerson (The Beano)
- Tom Mathews (Of Course)
Your host: James Harrold
7pm Tickets
SELECTED ARTISTS 2022
October 7, 2022
“Drawing The Line”
It is with huge thanks to everyone who sent work for consideration that we announce the artists who were chosen for our 2022 open international exhibition, “Drawing The Line”.
Alagon Italy Andrey Selivanov Russia Aongus Collins Ireland Bahman Jalali Nokandeh Iran Brandon Hicks Canada Brady Izquierdo Rodríguez Cuba Ciaraíoch Ireland Cristina Sampaio Portugal Dara McGee Ireland David Carmody Ireland David Hafez USA Dean Patterson Northern Ireland Dokhshid Ghodratipour Iran Doru Axinte Romania Evžen David Czechia Fabrice Matray France Fadi Toon Norway Glenn Marshall UK Graeme Keyes Ireland Harry Burton Ireland Hunt Emerson UK Ivailo Tsvetkov Bulgaria Jabar Saber Iraq Joe Boske Ireland Joey Mason USA Jon Berkeley Ireland Jonathon Bomser USA Liza Donnelly USA Mahboob Pakdel Iran Mark Winter New Zealand Martyn Turner Ireland Milko Dalla Battista Italy Nol France Philip Witte USA Raed Khalil Syria Richard Chapman Ireland Richie Brennan Ireland Salar Eshratkhah Iran Shen Hong Li China Steve Bell UK Teja Fischer Germany Til Mette Germany Tjeerd Royaards Netherlands Tom Mathews Ireland Viacheslav Kapreliants Ukraine Having received something approaching 2,000 entries this year, our chief regret is that we only had space to hang 90 pieces. We have been able to display nothing more than a brief sample of the cartooning talent that exists in Ireland and around the world.
All the chosen works remain on exhibition at the PorterShed Galway until Sunday October 9th (and will be available as an online gallery after the festival). Please come and enjoy them.
Don’t Miss These Shows
October 25, 2022
The main exhibitions of the Galway Cartoon Festival 2022 are still open, but must close soon. Now is your last chance to see…
Marilena Nardi – The Drawings of Tomorrow
Town Hall Theatre Bar
12:00pm – 5pm
Marilena Nardi teaches illustration and artistic anatomy at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, and her mastery of these disciplines is clearly evidenced by her works. She is a cartoonist of extraordinary power, a voice crying silently for justice, the passion of her meaning manifest in every line. Having appeared in leading newspapers such as Le Monde and Corriere della Sera, she now regularly contributes to Italian progressive daily Domani.
Jim Cogan Retrospective
Town Hall Theatre Foyer
12:00pm – 5pm
A brief preview of Jim Cogan at the Town Hall Theatre Each year, the Galway Cartoon Festival endeavours to choose one Irish professional to celebrate. Jim Cogan has been one of Ireland’s funniest and most famous cartoonists for decades, and deserves this honour more than most.
Tarraing É I nGaeilge
Galway City Library
10:00am – 5pm
“Draw It In Irish”, our annual showcase of cartoons and comics created in the first official language, is displayed both on Inis Oírr and – until this Thursday – at Galway City Library. It features both some of the best-known names in Irish cartooning and some completely new talent. This year we even feature contributions from Italy!
Drawing The Line
PorterShed Bowling Green
12:00pm – 5pm
And of course our main annual international exhibition, Drawing The Line, is still on show. Come and see cartoons from all around the world. Some by complete unknowns, others by the biggest names in the profession.
Included among the latter are some of the wonderful guests we had this year – Steve Bell, Hunt Emerson, Cristina Sampaio, Ivailo Tsvetkov, Brady Izquierdo Rodríguez, Graeme Keyes, Tom Mathews, Aongus Collins, Dean Patterson, Harry Burton and of course, Liza Donnelly. See their work, and much more, at the PorterShed Bowling Green.
