Here's new ways to hang out and have fun this Easter weekend
ALREADY the walls of houses all over the country are screaming with families cursing the three-week Easter holiday.
If you’ve already filled your quota of playground and play centre visits then breathe a sigh of relief; we can give you lots of reasons to be happy that Easter is early this year.
We have chosen activities that will wear out minds and legs, aiming to make the time that you all spend together at home as peaceful as possible.
Go Arty
If you are rearing tiny artists, it would be remiss of you to ignore the Lewis Glucksman Library this Easter break.
Extremely family-friendly, the library runs family Sundays, where practising artists invite children and their parents to learn all about making art.
The workshops are free of charge — just pop by at 3pm, along with your creative brood.
This year’s family Sundays are exploring the creative reuse of materials to make art. The Lewis Glucksman Library is closed every Monday.
www.glucksman.org
Reach The Stars
Blackrock Observatory is running an Eggstronaut and other Planet Eggsplorers Workshop throughout the Easter holidays.
Aimed at children aged eight to 12, the workshops last an hour and a half and are running six times over the holiday period.
Eggstronauts will find out how planetary landers are constructed; design their own system to land on a comet or asteroid; and even launch a real raw egg off the castle.
The workshops cost €10 per child, and pre-booking is advised.
See: www.bco.ie
Journey Time
Take a picnic and journey out towards Rosscarbery and onto Drombeg stone circle where 17 standing stones date from between 153BC and 127AD. The area around the circle is perfect for children to run around and explore.
From there, make your way to Liss Ard Estate and visit the Sky Garden, where artist James Turrell has created a crater from which to appreciate the sky.
It may sound hokey, but if you haven’t visited, add it to your list — it is breathtaking.
www.lissardestate.com
Hop Fota
Fota House and Gardens is celebrating its 10th annual Easter Egg Trail this year and has again come up trumps with something truly spectacular.
The gardens have been transformed into a tribute to Peter Rabbit, who is celebrating his 150th birthday this year.
Visit Jeremy Fisher and Mrs TiggyWinkle as you search for all the hidden eggs. Finish off the day at Flopsy’s Garden Party where music, garden games, and food stalls will keep spirits high.
The last day of the trail is today, March 26.
Tickets cost €8.50 per child and each ticket provides access for one child to the Easter egg trail and one Easter egg.
Adults go free and pre- booking is advised.
www.fotahouse.com
na
Surely the sweetest festival of the year, the Tír na nÓg Children’s Festival returns to Tralee this Easter weekend with a huge event calendar created with tiny people in mind.
Programme highlights include Easter egg hunts, puppet shows, arts and crafts workshops, a bonny baby competition, and duck races. Many of the events are free of charge.
www.tralee.ie
Get Racing
The Easter Racing Festival at Mallow offers a huge range of family activities as well as some fantastic horse racing.
The festival kicks off today and has lots to keep the kids occupied, including magic shows, an Easter egg hunt and lots more.
If the racing gets too much, the festival is also running local heritage trails and historical talks and if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, there will be live music between races.
www.corkracecourse.ie
A Forest
Bigger kids with a penchant for adrenaline may threaten spontaneous combustion when you tell them you are bringing them to the Zipit Forest Adventure in Farran Park.
Kids will be able to climb high into the trees, swing into cargo nets and fly down one of the many ziplines.
With five circuits ranging from one to 20 metres high, Zipit offers fun for all levels of adventurous spirit.
It’s well manned, with extremely well trained and affable staff. Children must be seven years or over to head to Zipit, and must be a minimum of one metre tall.
Prices start at €15 for seven to eight-year-olds and go up to €29 for age 15+.
www.zipit.ie
Paint The Park Red
Basecamp Action Adventure park is open throughout the Easter holidays.
Located 30 minutes from Limerick City, it offers a plethora of action adventure activities for older children, including teenage-only paintball.
The park also runs regular courses in bushcraft and survival, so if you fancy giving your screen-addict pre-teen a taste of the great outdoors, this may be just the ticket.
Bushcraft courses are available for kids aged eight and over, and promise to teach students how to build shelter, find and purify water and make a campfire.
A Kids’ Bushcraft Experience lasts three hours and costs €30 per person.
www.basecampadventurepark.ie
Get A Life
The Lifetime Lab is catering for mini scientists with an Anyone 4 Science camp, where children as young as four spend two days learning what it’s like to work in a lab.
Children will focus on age-appropriate experiments and work on some building projects, all relating to flight.
The science camps are divided into groups aged 5-6, 7-9 and 10-12 and run from 10am to 2pm on March 29 and March 30.
www.lifetimelab.ie
Centenary Celebrations
There is a huge amount of amazing events taking place across the country to commemorate the Easter Rising.
Here’s our pick of the top three to take in this Easter:
The GPO: Witness
A brand new visitor experience is opening in Dublin’s GPO this Tuesday, March 29, when an interactive and immersive exhibition will tell the story of the Easter Rising, and its aftermath.
Visitors will get to experience the events as active participants through a range of electronic touch screens, video, audio visual booths, sound and authentic artefacts — many of them previously unseen.
If your children are fascinated by the Easter Rising, then this is the perfect place for them to begin their own exploration.
Easter Monday 2016
A commemorative ceremony will take place at 12 noon at the National Monument on Grand Parade, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Rising.
At 1.15pm, the time that the first shots of the 1916 Rising were fired, a synchronised wreath- laying ceremony will take place in Cork and Dublin.
This promises to be one of those ‘I was there’ occasions that your children will talk about for years to come.
Commemorations at the Crawford Art Gallery
The Crawford Art Gallery is home to a collection of work depicting the life and politics of the era and offers a great visual idea of how life really was.
The exhibition will be at the gallery all year, and exhibits will change periodically, so that visitors will experience as much of the art of the time as possible.
For a full programme of Cork’s 1916 centenary programme.
see: www.corkcity1916.ie
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
