This one-day interdisciplinary symposium at Maynooth University hopes to reach a greater understanding of the relationship between the Irish cultural traditions of Samhain and Halloween, and the various industries in Ireland that capitalise on those traditions. Samhain and Halloween have a complicated, intertwined, and often contested history. Many of the practices and iconography we now associate with Halloween originated in Ireland but were popularised in the United States in places like Anoka, Minnesota, which according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office is the ‘Halloween Capital of the World’®. These practices, like carving pumpkins instead of turnips, were ‘introduced’ to Ireland in the 20th Century by the global reach of US media and have now become a major source of revenue. The average per person spend on Halloween in Ireland in 2022 was €36.22, with a total national spend of around €56 million (Byrne, 2022).

The need to reach an understanding of this relationship becomes clear when one considers how other diasporic celebrations of Irish identity have historically been commercialised. St Patrick’s Day, for example, was a culturally significant celebration for the Irish people and their diaspora for centuries. However, throughout the 20th Century it arguably lost much of its cultural significance in favour of its commercial value. In the 1990s, cultural heritage organisations began an attempt to reclaim St Patrick’s Day as a key event in the domestic Irish calendar:

to refocus celebration on the island where the saint carried out his work. This approach is a reaction to, and in some ways in defiance of, the diaspora-based St Patrick’s celebrations that have claimed virtual ‘ownership’ of the festivities abroad. (Cronin, 2002: 219)

It would seem a similar reclamation of ownership is taking place across Ireland in relation to Samhain and Halloween. In 2019, for instance, the state invested €1.5 million to develop the Púca Festival, a now annual four-day festival in Co. Meath that is intended to position Ireland ‘as the home of Halloween internationally’ (Fáilte Ireland, 2019). Like many similar events that take place across Ireland each October, this festival aims to breathe ‘life into old traditions and [forge] new connections to [Irish] roots through performance’ (Púca, 2025), but like St Patrick’s Day, it is simultaneously ‘an economic driver for communities and business across the region’ and brings approximately €3 million per year into the local economy (Donohoe, 2023).

Reaching a greater understanding of the relationship between Samhain and Halloween, and the various industries in Ireland that capitalise on them, therefore ‘requires an awareness of the particular context in which [the] commemoration [takes] place, as well as an appreciation of changing patterns of observance over time’ (Cronin: viii). This symposium thus invites interdisciplinary scholars to document and discuss the context of Samhain and Halloween in 2025 neoliberal Ireland, as well as its changing patterns of observance.

The following is a list of potential areas from which one might approach the subject. However, feel free to offer ideas beyond these if you feel they are more suitable to your discipline:
• Cultural Policy
• Digital Media
• Environmental Impact and Sustainability
• Folklore and Mythology
• Globalisation
• Horror
• Identity
• LGBTQI+
• Literature, Art, Music, Film, Performance etc.
• Marketing
• Political Economy
• Popular Culture
• Postcolonialism
• Tourism

Funding

This symposium is made possible through a National University of Ireland grant. As such, all participants will be fully funded for national and international travel, food while attending the symposium, and two nights on-campus accommodation.
Submission Requirements
Please send a 250-word abstract and 100-word bio by midnight on Wednesday September 17, 2025, to samhain.industry.symposium@gmail.com. Notifications will be sent by September 24, 2025. For any other queries, please contact simon.hewitt@mu.ie.

Organiser

Dr Simon Hewitt,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Media Studies,
Maynooth University.