May is in my opinion the best month of the year in Ireland with fresh growth on trees and hedgerows, flowers in bloom including bluebells carpeting woodlands and hillsides all over Ireland just like in the image here.

May is also the month of the Bealtaine Festival, celebrating arts and creativity for older people, a program of thousands of events throughout Ireland for older people to engage with arts and crafts through learning and teaching.

This festival takes its name from the ancient Irish festival of Bealtaine, held at the start of May and which marked the start of summer in Ireland.

Running since 1996 it was indeed the first such festival in the world; previous years have seen the likes of Colm Tóibín talking about his novels and other works.