Irish Arts & Culture Immersion Programme

I had a great time here with the arts program! The artists we work with are really talented and fun, and offer a lot of different ways for students to be creative. The community and location is great, both the natural landscape by the ocean and the mountains inland, as well as the town and the people we met. We had a pretty fair bit of freedom to ourselves, living “unsupervised” in a communal house, and rarely had moments where and issues couldn’t be figured out in a way that didn’t feel fair. That said, covid limited a lot of what we could do, and led to a fair bit of frustration and cabin fever. We spent much of our free time in houses, as public attractions were shut for the season, and some of the changes in program rules due to covid caused some disagreement, but the staff were all reasonable with finding a middle ground that worked well. All in all, a fun time with good people

I had so much fun on IGY! I’m going to miss my peers, staff and Ireland very much! Fiona Mulrine is an angel of a woman, she is so supportive and always has us in her best interest, she deserves a raise and a thick bonus!!! We had a bunch of amazing tutors that helped us all create beautiful pieces of art. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from our tutors and classes and I’ll be going home with a whole new range of skills learnt here. I really enjoyed Vandoren of the town I found it very quaint and peaceful being by the sea. The surfing was a lot of fun as well!

Irish Gap Year fosters valuable skills in its students that apply far beyond the program. The art tutors are the best around, and taught in a very experiential and encouraging way. I was able to create art pieces I couldn’t believe were my own. Outside of the classroom, the program introduced me to a level of independence and autonomy I hadn’t really experienced before. Being able to live on my own and make new connections with people my age, while still having a great support network if needed, was a great experience.

Going on IGY's arts and culture program this spring was the best thing I did this gap year! Our program leaders were so lovely and welcoming (s/o Phil and Fiona!), and the arts tutors are amazing at what they do. The program is kept exciting (even during covid) with lots of hikes, arts workshops, day trips out to different cities, and group activities around Bundoran. I met some of my favorite people while getting to enjoy all the beauty of county Donegal--I'd definitely recommend this program to anyone who's excited about art or Ireland :)