Win tickets to ‘In Good Company’ featuring at First Fortnight festival in The Abbey Theatre.

Cassidys Hotel on Cavendish Row Upper, a cosy, family-run boutique hotel offering warm Irish hospitality in an unbeatable central location. Your gem in the heart of Dublin City is only a short walk from our National theatre; The Abbey.

First Fortnight Mental Health Arts & Culture Festival 2026 is offering one lucky subscriber the chance to win tickets to In Good Company – an evening of conversation and music featuring musician and author Declan O’Rourke and comedian and actor, Deirdre O’Kane together with artist Toshín at The National Theatre of Ireland – The Abbey, and an overnight stay at the family-run boutique hotel, Cassidys on Cavendish Row Upper; offering warm Irish hospitality in an unbeatable central location; your gem in the heart of Dublin City, on the night of the event.

For 15 years, this festival has grown through conversations, collaboration and the simple act of showing up for one another. This year continues this tradition. The 2026 programme brings together artists whose work holds courage, creativity and care in equal measure, inviting all of us to pause, reflect and connect.

Join us and an array of contributing artists from both at home and farther shores, some contributing to their first, (First Fortnight) festival. In 2026, we are privileged these include iconic musician, acclaimed songwriter and author Declan O’Rourke, comedian and actor Deirdre O’Kane, poets Vona Groarke (Ireland’s Professor of Poetry) and Jan Brierton, Dagogo Hart, Emmet O’Brien and Samuel Yakura. Visiting Ireland to contribute to our festival for their first time are Inuit and First Nations artists from Alaska and Canada; Taqralik Partridge, Melissa Shaginoff and Leslie Kachena McCue. Also, author Niamh Garvey, founder of AsIAm, Adam Harris, writer and performer, Chandrika Narayanan together with additional sensational music artists from across the country, including Tolu Makay (who co-headlines our Nollaig na mBan celebration on the opening day of the festival), Limerick’s own, Emma Langford, David Costello, RUA, Wexford’s Rachel Grace and the vocal powerhouse, Toshín being just a few from many glorious artists and genres to feature.

We are honoured this year to programme an event taking place for the very first time in The National Theatre of Ireland – The Abbey; the perfect setting for In Good Company featuring Declan O’Rourke and Deirdre O’Kane in conversation. In addition, we are thrilled to travel with the adored, Therapy Sessions, to six locations this coming season instead of three; one of which, for the first time is to an Island; the big one; Árainn Mhór off the coast of Donegal, to the intimate and beautiful setting of Early’s bar. Our 2026 festival programme also features a Virtual Reality series for the first time which include three separate VR works from artists Tara Baoth Mooney and Sarah Ticho together with Brú Theatre. Finally, First Fortnight supported by The Arts Council Commission Award present the premiere of Antidote2; A dose, A herb, A flat 7-up for your mind performed by WeAreGrio is commissioned especially for our 2026 festival. Our 2026 festival will run from January 6th to January 17th.

For our 15th festival edition we are looking forward to bringing you 45 plus events during the first two weeks of January, representing numerous artistic disciplines and panel discussions; yet all have a shared focus; story-telling and connectivity taking in Dublin and across the provinces, including regional development partnerships in counties Donegal, Down, Kildare, Wexford, Cork, Kerry and Limerick. In addition to, as mentioned above, the festival debuting at Ireland’s National Theatre, The Abbey this coming year, we are also returning to some beautiful venues who we partner with annually including Riverbank Arts Centre in Kildare, to Duncairn Arts Centre in Belfast, Wexford Arts Centre, Presentation Arts Centre, Wexford, Glór in Ennis, St. John’s Theatre in Listowel, and The Workmans Club, the inspired St. Patrick’s Cathedral, beautiful Smock Alley in Dublin’s City Centre and so, many more.

To find out more information, please visit: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter #FirstFortnight26 #TheArtOfMentalHealth

For your chance to win, simply fill in the form below. Good luck!

Terms & Condition

1. The promotion is open to residents of Ireland aged 18 years or over except employees of the Promoter, their families, agents or anyone professionally connected with the promotion.
2. A valid entry consists of a correct answer entered in the form above, accompanied by the entrant’s name, email address and a phone number.
3. No applications from agents, third parties, organised groups or applications automatically generated by computer will be accepted. No incomplete, illegible, or corrupted entries will be accepted. No entries not in accordance with the entry instructions will be accepted.
4. The Promotion will run from 26/12/2025 to midnight on 01/01/2026 inclusive.
5. All entries must be received by the Promoter by no later than midnight on the Closing Date. All competition entries received after the Closing Date are automatically disqualified.
6. Promotion limited to one entry per person. No entrant will win more than one prize.
7. By submitting an entry to the Promoter, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.
8. It is the responsibility of You, the entrant, to provide correct, up-to-date details when entering the promotion and on acceptance of the prize. The Promoter cannot be held responsible for winners failing to supply accurate information which affects prize acceptance or delivery of their prize
9. Responsibility will not be accepted for entries lost, damaged, delayed or prevented as a result of any event beyond the Promoter’s control including, but not limited to, user error and any network, computer, hardware or software failures of any kind. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt. Entries will become the property of the Promoter.
10. The prize is two tickets to IN GOOD COMPANY on Sunday, January 11th, 2026 at The Abbey Theatre as well as an overnight B&B for two people at Cassidys Hotel, Cavendish Row Upper, on the night of the event, January 11th. There will be one winner.
11. All prizes will be subject to any additional terms and conditions of the supplier of the prize to the Promoter. This prize is only available on Sunday, January 11th, 2026 and cannot be refunded or redeemed for cash.
12. The Promoter shall not be liable for any loss, including, without limitation, indirect, special or consequential loss, or loss of profits, damage or consequential damage of any nature in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise caused by the acceptance of the terms and conditions or in connection with the prize, save for any liability which cannot be excluded by law.
13. In the event of unforeseen circumstances the Promoter reserves the right to substitute the prize for an alternative of equal or greater value.
14. The winners will be notified by email. The winner must claim the prize before Saturday, January 10th, 2026 If the prize is unclaimed after this time, it will lapse and the Promoter reserves the right to offer the unclaimed prize to a substitute winner selected in accordance with the Promotion rules.
15. Where a winner has successfully claimed the prize, the Promoter shall dispatch, or arrange to dispatch, the prize to the winner at the earliest opportunity. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall be interpreted as placing an obligation on the Promoter to dispatch, or arrange to dispatch, the prize within a specified period of time.
16. The Promoters’ decision is final and binding in all matters and no correspondence will be entered into.
17. The winners’ details (name and county) will be made available on The Irish Times website.
18. The winner may be required to participate in unpaid publicity arising from this promotion.
19. The Promoter will only process your personal information as set out in https://www.irishtimes.com/policy-and-terms/privacy-policy and as set out in these terms and conditions.
20. Prizes are non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash.
21. These terms and conditions shall be governed by Irish law and the Courts of the Republic of Ireland shall have exclusive jurisdiction.
22. Promoter and Data Controller: The Irish Times DAC, The Irish Times Building, P.O. Box 74, 24 - 28 Tara Street, Dublin 2.
23. The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel or amend the Promotion where it becomes necessary to do so.