This year we laid emphasis on the pressing topic of AI, with our Artficial Idiocy exhibition at the Galway City Museum drawing great crowds.

We also brought more big names than ever before, including Ed Steckley of Mad Magazine fame from the USA and veteran French caricaturist Jean Michel Renault. Old friends Martin Rowson of the UK’s Guardian and Cristina Sampaio of SpamCartoons in Portugal gave us fascinating and hilarious talks, while cartoonist and academic Donal Casey spoke on the representation of Irish people in caricature. Joining us virtually from wartorn Ukraine to discuss the meaningful role that cartoons can play was Vladimir Kazanevsky.

Our featured Irish cartoonist was our youngest one yet – rising star Harry Burton, editorial contributor to the Examiner and winner of second place at this year’s European Cartoon Awards.

Here’s Our Programme From 2023

And here’s how it went…

News from 2023 in the order it happened.

• The Galway Cartoon Festival 2023

  June 7, 2023

  Will open on September 29th and run until October 4th!

  

  Don’t be taken by surprise.

• Submissions Are Now Open

  June 14, 2023

  For the 2023 Galway Cartoon Festival!

  This year we have three separate shows that are open to public submissions. Feel free to send stuff in to any or all of them:

  Artificial Idiocy

  

  Are You Ready To Be Replaced!?

  This could be the last Galway Cartoon Festival, folks. Soon they won’t need us any more. Just tell a computer what makes you laugh and it will turn out side-splitting gag after gag, all beautifully drawn in its own inimitable style.

  Well, someone’s inimitable style.

  What do you think – is Artificial Intelligence a useful tool and amusing toy? Or will it murder us all and boil down our corpses for useful minerals? It could go either way. Give us your artistic reaction to the rise of the machine.

  While you can.

  General Mayhem

  Wait, you’re not concerned about humanity’s harrowing future? You have something to say about humanity’s harrowing present instead? Good on you. Or perhaps there’s a simple but hilarious gag cartoon or a comic strip you’d like to show.

  

  No problem. We’ll also be doing a show about everything except AI. As is tradition, we call it General Mayhem.

  Tarraing É I nGaeilge

  Which is Irish for “Draw It In Irish“, and is our show specifically for cartoons in that language – the only one of its kind!

  Works selected for Tarraing é i nGaeilge will be exhibited both in Galway City and on Inis Oírr in the Aran Islands.

  

  The Terms and the Conditions

  • All our exhibitions are open to submissions from anyone, anywhere.
  • They should be sent, as 300dpi jpegs, to: info@galwaycartoonfestival.ie – Please include a little biographical information.
  • Selected cartoons will be printed and framed by the Galway Cartoon Festival and offered for sale. The 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.
  • Submitted cartoons may be used in publicity materials for the festival. They will be credited to the artist.
  • Submission deadline:

  20 August ’23

  

• Êtes-vous un dessinateur francophone?

  June 26, 2023

  Toutes les informations sont ici

  

• Here Comes The Poster

  July 21, 2023

  

  Coming soon to a bare patch of wall near you, the 2023 Galway Cartoon Festival poster!

  This year’s poster image is by the marvellous Jim Cogan, whose style will be unmistakable to anyone in Ireland.

• Announcing Our Programme

  September 16, 2023

  …is what we’ll be doing on Culture Night!

  Meet us at the Town Hall Theatre at 6pm, and be among the first to hear our great lineup of events and guest cartoonists for 2023.

  

  Along with this, we’ll be unveiling “Still Crazy After All These Years”, a hilarious retrospective of gag-meister supreme Tom Mathews.

  Full Details

• Cartoon Auction Tonight!

  September 19, 2023

  

  It’s that time again when we auction off some of last year’s cartoon prints to help fund this year’s festival. Not only would you be helping us out, you could pick up a great gift.

  And also have…

  • Music on the Night
  • A raffle with spot prizes
  • Superb cocktails

  Wednesday, September 20th
  Pálás Cinema Bar
  7.30pm

  We would love to see you there!

  Here are some cartoons that will be under the hammer:
  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• Our ’23 Programme!

  September 25, 2023

  

  Simply print it out and staple it together!

  Or download it to your phone, that works too.

• Welcome to the Seventh Festival!

  September 29, 2023

  Welcome to all of you who will come to our workshops and our talks, who will wander around our exhibitions chuckling – it’s OK to laugh aloud in fact, this isn’t your everyday sort of exhibition – and who will take part in our live drawing events which mostly happen in pubs for some reason.

  Welcome, to everyone who enjoys cartoons. You can just drop in and enjoy the jokes, or you can pick up a pen and participate.

  

  And a special welcome to the poor cartoonists of many countries who were tricked into coming here and drawing – and in many cases talking – for the amusement of Ireland in general and Galway in particular. Thank you, you lovely people. We will try to make it worth your while.

  Fáilte romhaibh go léir.

  Festivities begin at 5:30pm tonight with the opening of our exhibition of fresh cartoons from all around the world, in the new PorterShed 2 (where the Connacht Tribune used to be). We’ll be having beers and hugging old friends and laughing at all sorts of things, so please come along.

  And then the events begin in earnest. There are art workshops and talks which will be somehow both instructive and stupidly funny, from the likes of Ed Steckley (MAD magazine), Cristina Sampaio (SpamCartoons) and Martin Rowson (The Guardian), not to mention some of Ireland’s finest such as Graeme Keyes and Harry Burton. There will be expert caricaturists wandering around, making fun of people’s faces. There will be shows all about the city, plus related events in schools and in the Pálás cinema, as well as on Inis Oírr.
  
  If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the programme. Feel free to download it to your phone:

• Saturday Events

  September 29, 2023

  

  There’s stuff on today for just about everyone:

  11:00 – Children’s stories

  Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

  Ed Steckley reads from his children’s books in Charlie Byrne’s.

  12:00 – Irish Apes

  Portershed 2

  Donal Casey gives a fascinating talk about the ways Irish people were portrayed in the anti-Irish cartoons of 19th century Britain and America.

  1:00 – Drawing Time

  A Nearby Pub or Café

  Come with us for a sketchy lunch.

  3:30 – Ed Steckley Masterclass

  PorterShed 2

  The very talented American cartoonist-illustrator will give us a live-action illustrated talk about why he loves cartooning so much. This will be amazing. Anyone who wants to make a career in drawing – or anyone who just loves to see it done well – should not miss this.

  [Yes it does say “12:30” in the brochure. Sorry about that, gremlins struck. Ed’s show is definitely at 3:30.]

  5:00 – Harry Burton’s Solo Exhibition

  Town Hall Theatre

  Every year we honour an Irish cartoonist; sometimes one we’ve loved for decades, sometimes one fresh and new. This time it’s about as fresh as it gets. Harry Burton has shot to international fame in the last few years, simply because he has an outstanding talent for political cartoons.

  As if that were not enough, veteran cartoon genius Martin Rowson will deliver a few words to get the show on the road.

  8:00 – Mass Drawing Event

  Some Pub (Probably Neachtain’s)

  OK so this isn’t so much an official event as “Woah that was some day, let’s go to the pub now”. But drawing will ensue and you’re welcome to join in.

• Monday’s Events

  October 2, 2023

  

  Cristina Sampaio, literally one of the best cartoonists in the world, will talk about how she turns an idea into one of her unforgettable images. Anyone working in art or the media can learn something from her methods.

  Cava Bodega, Middle Street, 4:00

  Arrive early.

  If it’s not unnecessary to say, the show will be magnificently illustrated.

  This will be followed by a spontaneous drawing outbreak, and we also hope to give a guided tour of the exhibition of AI cartoons in the City Museum. Check our social media or call our number for details.

  Then we go to Charlie Byrne’s at 6.00 for a performance of cartoon-related poetry. Tom Mathews, Caoimhe Lavelle and Gerry Hanberry will talk to us using words.

  And don’t forget that all our exhibitions are now open:

  General Mayhem – PorterShed 2

  Artificial Idiocy – City Museum

  Tarraing É I nGaeilge – City Library

  Harry Burton – Town Hall Theatre

  Vladimir Kazanevsky and Martin Rowson – The Pálás Cinema bar

  Terry Willers’ Water Safety – An Taibhdhearc

  Joey Mason – All around the Latin Quarter

• This Year’s Chosen Artists

  October 3, 2023

  General Mayhem

  We received an overwhelming response this year from cartoonists all around the world – over 1,000 entries in total – and we gratefully thank everyone who put in the time and effort to create and send us their work; we wish we could have shown twice or three times as much. It’s an almost heartbreaking process to whittle all that down to the relatively few that we have room to exhibit.

  And if your name is not here, please do remember that we have still to announce the work chosen for our Artificial Idiocy and Tarraing É I nGaeilge exhibitions. We hope to do this by the end of the week.

  1	Aidan Cooney	Ireland
  2	Aongus Collins	Ireland
  3	Boris Erenburg	Israel
  4	Brendan O'Brien	Ireland
  5	Ciara Kenny (Ciaraíoch)	Ireland
  6	Colin Klotzbach	USA
  7	Cristina Sampaio	Portugal
  8	Dave Coverly	USA
  9	Dean Patterson	Northern Ireland
  10	Des Buckley	United Kingdom
  11	Ed Steckley	USA
  12	Fadi Abou Hassan	Norway
  13	Fergus Boylan	Northern Ireland
  14	Fintan McAlindon	United Kingdom
  15	Gatis Šļūka	Latvia
  16	Ghost Harsanta	Indonesia
  17	Gio Alzapiedi	United Kingdom
  18	Glenn Marshall	United Kingdom
  19	Graeme Keyes	Ireland
  20	Gulliver	France
  21	Harry Burton	Ireland
  22	Jean-Michel Renault	France
  23	Jeremy Banx	United Kingdom
  24	Jim Cogan (Original Drawing)	Ireland
  25	Liza Donnelly	USA
  26	Luke Warm	Ireland
  27	Marilena Nardi	Italy
  28	Mark Winter (Chicane)	New Zealand
  29	Martin Rowson	United Kingdom
  30	Martyn Turner	Ireland
  31	Matt Porter	Ireland
  32	Patrick Hickey	Canada
  33	Pete Songi	United Kingdom
  34	Ramsés Morales	Cuba
  35	Róisín Curé	Ireland
  36	Ron McGeary	United Kingdom
  37	Seán Lennon	Ireland
  38	Sophie Coyle	Ireland
  39	Steve Best (Bestie)	United Kingdom
  40	Steve Jones	United Kingdom
  41	Teja Fischer	Germany
  42	The Surreal McCoy	United Kingdom
  43	Til Mette	Germany
  44	Tom Mathews (Original Drawing)	Ireland
  45	Valentina Stecchi	Italy
  46	Virgina Cabras (Alagon)	Italy
  47	Vladimir Kazanevsky	Ukraine
  48	Zbigniew Piszczako	Poland

  

• Chosen Artists 2

  October 12, 2023

  Artificial Idiocy

  Galway City Museum

  How do you feel about the role that Artificial Intelligence increasingly plays in our world?
  
  We asked some of the world’s best cartoonists for their reactions.

  

  Brady Izquierdo	Cuba
  Brandon Hicks	Canada
  Chris Madden	UK
  Cristina Bernazzani	Italy
  Damir Novak	Croatia
  Dave Coverly	USA
  Dawn Mockler	Canada
  Dean Patterson	Northern Ireland
  Graeme Keyes	Ireland
  Igor Pashchenko	Russia
  Jeremy Banx	UK
  Joey Mason	USA
  Lena Siew	Ireland
  Liviu Stanila	Romania
  Marco De Angelis	Italy
  Mark Winter	New Zealand
  Martyn Turner	Ireland
  Matt Percival	UK
  Mike Stokoe	UK
  Milos Randak	Slovakia
  Raita Ohtani	Japan
  Royston Robertson	UK
  Teresa Power	Ireland
  Tim Leatherbarrow	UK
  Tom Tomorrow	USA
  Vladimir Kazanevsky	Ukraine

  We would also like to thank the Galway City Museum, which has become a remarkable focus for interaction between the arts and sciences. The show continues here for the month.

• General Mayhem ’23

  November 24, 2023

  And now, online at last, the cartoons selected for this year’s anything-goes open international exhibition.

  Thanks once more to everyone who visited the show, our wonderful hosts at PorterShed 2, and of course the many artists who sent us their fantastic work to show – not least, to the very, very many whose work we didn’t have room for.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• Tarraing É I nGaeilge ’23

  December 31, 2023

  Every year, the Galway Cartoon Festival brings together the latest cartoons created in the Irish language. Many thanks to all who helped us in 2023.

  Gach bliain, bailíonn Féile Cartúin na Gaillimhe na cartúin is nuaí a cruthaíodh i nGaeilge. Míle buíochas le gach duine a chabhraigh linn in 2023.