Ireland 2026 Bank Holidays: Complete List and Dates

There’s a quiet change in the Irish calendar that’s easy to miss until you try to book a week off: 2026 is a 10-holiday year, and St Brigid’s Day is the reason February finally has a Monday worth protecting. The dates below come straight from Citizens Information (official state guide), so you can plan work, school runs, or site shutdowns without the guesswork — and the calendar has settled into a new rhythm with construction workers having a second set of dates to watch.

Total public holidays in 2026: 10 · New permanent holiday: St. Brigid’s Day (2 February) · First holiday: New Year’s Day (1 January) · Last scheduled holiday: St. Stephen’s Day (26 December) · CIF construction holidays: To be confirmed (typically 2–3 extra days)

One table condenses the whole year into the numbers that matter for payroll and planning: the statutory dates are fixed, one holiday is newly permanent, and a small set of construction-specific details is still pending.

What are the Bank Holidays in Ireland in 2026?

The 2026 date list at a glance

Monday dates: 6 of 10 · Weekend falls: 1 (St Stephen’s Day) · Long-weekend window: Oct 24–26

Six of the ten dates fall on a Monday, which is the quiet pattern worth noticing before you start booking.

The list matches the official 2026 calendar published by Ireland.com (official tourism site), and Extra.ie (Irish news outlet) also flags 26 October as the Halloween/October bank holiday.

Weekend falls and substitute days

• St Stephen’s Day 2026 lands on a Saturday, which triggers a substitute-day arrangement; BPFI’s 2025–2027 banking calendar lists Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 December as the additional Christmas-period dates (BPFI, banking and payments federation).
• Christmas Day falls on Friday 25 December, so no substitute is needed for that date.
• The payroll takeaway: the December banking window effectively runs from 25 to 29 December, even though only two of those days are statutory holidays.

The pattern: the final week of December carries more holiday weight than the calendar shows at first glance, and that is exactly where payroll mix-ups happen.

How many bank holidays are there in 2026?

The count: 10, up from 9

2026 count: 10 · Pre-2023 baseline: 9 · Change: +1 (St Brigid’s Day)

The jump from nine to ten happened in 2023, when St Brigid’s Day joined the permanent list. The Irish Times (national newspaper) notes it has been a bank holiday since then. The practical effect: school calendars, annual leave schemes, and payroll forecasting all shifted to a 10-holiday template, and 2026 is the first full year where that template is fully settled.

Republic vs Northern Ireland

• Northern Ireland runs a different set of holidays; for 2026, Ireland.com (official tourism site) lists 4 May, 25 May, and 31 August as the main bank holidays there.
• In the Republic, Easter Monday carries the statutory April holiday; Good Friday is handled separately by many employers, including construction.

What this means for planners: a national “bank holiday” list only exists inside each jurisdiction — borrowing another region’s calendar is how missed deadlines happen.

Is Ireland getting an extra bank holiday?

St Brigid’s Day and the February rule

The rule, set out by Citizens Information (official state guide), is that St Brigid’s Day falls on the first Monday in February — except when 1 February itself is a Friday, in which case the holiday stays on 1 February.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (government department) describes St Brigid’s Day as observed on 1 February, marking the beginning of spring, while Discover Ireland (national tourism authority) flags the 2026 bank-holiday weekend as running from 31 January to 2 February.

How the 2026 date was set

• IrishCentral (Irish heritage outlet) notes that in 2026 St Brigid’s Day is observed on Monday 2 February because that is the first Monday after 1 February.
• The Office of Public Works (state works agency) celebrates Lá Fhéile Bríde at its locations nationwide on 1 February.
• Trips.ie (travel and culture site) lists the 2026 date as St Brigid’s Day (Imbolc), tying the holiday to the old spring festival.
• timeanddate (holiday calendar) likewise confirms 2 February 2026 as the national holiday date.

The catch for 2026 planners: the official day is the first Monday, not the saint’s feast date — so anyone circling 1 February on a calendar will be a day early.

What are the CIF holidays in Ireland in 2026?

What CIF holidays are

• CIF holidays are additional days off negotiated through the Construction Industry Federation for construction workers, stacking on top of the statutory public-holiday list.
• They commonly include Good Friday, Easter Tuesday, and sometimes a Christmas shutdown period; the exact mix varies by year and employer.
• None of these dates appear on the standard public-holiday calendar, which is why construction payroll can surprise people who plan around the 10 statutory days.

Typical days and the 2026 caveat

Typical extra days: 2–3 · Peak window: Easter week · 2026 status: Unconfirmed

If the recent pattern repeats, the extra days cluster around Easter and the Christmas shutdown — but nothing is fixed until the CIF publishes its 2026 list.

Good Friday sits two days before Easter Monday (6 April in 2026), so a site observing CIF days can effectively shut down from that Friday through Easter Tuesday.

The implication: the statutory 10-date calendar understates the real year on a construction site — the CIF list is where paid days off multiply, and it can catch out anyone who plans around the standard list alone.

What are the CIF pay rates for construction workers in 2026?

What’s known now

• The Construction Industry Federation publishes annual pay rates for construction workers in Ireland; rates vary by role, experience, and region.
• The 2026 rates are not confirmed in the publicly available sources reviewed here; the CIF’s annual agreement is the only authoritative reference.
• For planning purposes, the 2025 minimum hourly rate for a general labourer was approximately €15.00 — treat that as an estimate, not a 2026 figure.

Where to check when rates land

• The CIF’s official website and its annual wage agreement are the definitive sources for published rates.
• Site managers and estimators usually circulate the new rates as soon as the CIF agreement is signed.
• If a site operates under a union agreement, a union representative or regional CIF branch typically relays the schedule first.

Why it matters: the gap between the statutory calendar and the CIF calendar is where most December payroll questions start — and in 2026, with a Saturday St Stephen’s Day, that gap is wider than usual.

Timeline signal

The change took two years to land and is now permanent; the sequence explains why 2026 calendars look different from pre-2023 ones.

What to watch: if the CIF announcement slips into 2026, payroll teams will work from the 2025 agreement until the new one is signed — and December substitute days will be negotiated site by site.

Confirmed facts and what’s still unclear

The distinction matters because a construction rota built only on the 10 statutory dates will miss up to three additional paid shutdown days — and the December substitute days can add a further surprise.

The key voices

“St Brigid’s Day marks the beginning of spring in the Irish calendar.”

Department of Foreign Affairs (gov.ie (government department))

“The 2026 St Brigid’s Day bank-holiday weekend runs from 31 January to 2 February.”

Discover Ireland (national tourism authority)

Two voices set the tone for 2026: the state’s framing of St Brigid’s Day as the start of spring, and the tourism sector’s treatment of the February weekend as a real break.

The 2026 takeaway

For 2026, the only real calendar debate happens on construction sites, not around kitchen tables. The 10 statutory dates are settled, and St Brigid’s Day is a permanent part of them; the open questions are the CIF schedule and the pay rates that turn an extra day off into a payroll line. For employers running 2026 rosters, the choice is clear: lock in the statutory dates now, treat the CIF calendar as a second compulsory list — or risk paying holiday premium on days you never planned for.

Frequently asked questions

Employers planning 2026 rosters should lock in the statutory dates now and treat the CIF calendar as a second compulsory list — the December substitute window and the CIF schedule are the two details most likely to change a planned roster.