Farmleigh set for feast of free events

Another summer series of free public events will take place at Farmleigh, the stately mansion in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

The programme of events includes music, the outdoors, food and the arts and will run until October.

The estate has attracted more than 100,000 visitors since the Government reopened the property in 2001, after buying and refurbishing it for €52 million.

There will be music at Farmleigh every Sunday afternoon in July, with jazz concerts and the six-night RTÉ Farmleigh Proms. The music programme will culminate with a family jazz afternoon on July 31st.

The public will be able to watch sculptors at work in the grounds of Farmleigh during July when a sculpture symposium will be held.

August will be a month for gardening and for the great outdoors at Farmleigh. The programme will include talks from gardeners and nature enthusiasts such as Eanna Ní Lamhna, Gerry Daly and Dermot O'Neill.

Children's gardening workshops and craft workshops will also be held. And the music programme will continue with live music every Sunday in August.

A gourmet food programme will be held in September, involving chefs such as Richard Corrigan and the food critic John McKenna. Talks on healthy meals for children and vegetarian cooking will also be held. A new craft and design gallery will open at Farmleigh in October, beginning with a Derek Hill exhibition. Adrian Kelly, curator of the Glebe Gallery, will lead a "walk about" of the exhibition.

A series of workshops on decorative arts will also be held in October. This will include demonstrations on book binding, tapestries, Japanese wood block binding, screen printed wallpaper, and plaster moulds and casting.

All events are open to the public and will be free of charge. Tom Parlon, Minister of State for Finance, encouraged people to visit the estate this summer and said there was something for every taste in the diverse programme.