What is August Bank Holiday?
The August Bank Holiday is an Irish public holiday on the first Monday of August. It is the main summer break of the Irish calendar and a secular holiday with no particular theme, falling in the middle of the school summer holidays. Many people use the long weekend for a trip to the seaside, for festivals, for agricultural and county shows, or for visiting family. The Monday completes a three-day weekend which is typically the busiest holiday weekend of the Irish summer. It is one of the busiest weekends of the year for domestic holiday travel.
The same Monday is a holiday in other places that have inherited the British tradition, for example the Civic Holiday in parts of Canada, and in Scotland the first Monday of August is also a bank holiday. In Ireland the weekend often features horse racing meetings, music festivals and the Puck Fair, a traditional festival in Killorglin, County Kerry, which takes place in the days around 10 to 12 August. Check the festival listings locally. In Scotland, which has a similar early August holiday, many towns hold their own festivals and agricultural shows at the same time of year, so the date is a recognised part of the British Isles summer calendar. Visitors can find regional events listed by local tourism offices.
Why it is observed
The first Monday in August was one of the original bank holidays created for England, Wales and Ireland by the Bank Holidays Act 1871, together with Easter Monday, Whit Monday and 26 December, which is called Boxing Day in England and Saint Stephen's Day in Ireland. In the Irish calendar the August Monday became the traditional summer holiday and has remained so. In England and Wales, the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 moved the equivalent holiday to the last Monday in August, but Ireland kept the first Monday, which is why the Irish and the English summer holidays now fall on different weekends.
How the date is set
The August Bank Holiday in Ireland is the first Monday in August, so it falls between 1 and 7 August.
How it is observed
In Britain, bank holidays date from the Bank Holidays Act 1871, introduced by the banker and politician Sir John Lubbock, which let banks close on named days and allowed payments due on those days to be made on the next working day. In Ireland the August Bank Holiday is a public holiday. Banks, public offices and schools are closed, and public transport runs on a holiday schedule, while many shops, restaurants and attractions stay open. Traffic and accommodation are busy near the coast. Entitlements to pay or time off depend on Irish public holiday law, the employer and the contract.
Ireland