Mary from Dungloe

The tradition & historical record

The Mary From Dungloe International Festival is an Irish music festival held annually, usually at the end of July in the small town of Dungloe, County Donegal. The festival is centred on a pageant to find out which contestant has the spirit of the festival, who is then crowned "Mary From Dungloe". The winner of the contest holds this title for a year and acts as an ambassador for the festival. Irish emigrant communities from around the world, as well as some Irish counties and towns, participate by nominating a young woman, endearingly titled a "Mary", to represent their community at the contest. The festival has grown in popularity over the years and now regularly attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the area. The festival is inspired by the song "Mary from Dungloe" as the Rose of Tralee festival is by "The Rose of Tralee". In 2019, the festival celebrated its 52nd anniversary, with Roisin Maher from New York becoming Mary From Dungloe 2019. ¹

Many communities around the world with links to County Donegal have their own local contests to pick their community's "Mary" who subsequently is nominated to travel to Dungloe to compete in the Mary From Dungloe contest. Irish communities who have entered contestants include: ¹

There are a number of traditional events which are run every year as part of the festival. Here are just a few examples: ¹

The 2026 'Marys' for the festival were: ¹

Katie McClafferty – Connacht Rhiana Wasson – Donegal Caoimhe Bermingham – Dublin Shauna McDonagh – Dungloe Cara Molloy – Edinburgh Jamie-Mai Nic Giolla Easbuic – Gaeltacht Maria Neely – Glasgow Maria Boner – Liverpool Eva O’Sullivan – London Clodagh Doughty – Midlands Nellie Fitzpatrick – New York Molly Russell – North East England Kylie Brogan – Philadelphia Katie Sweeney – Ulster Gracie Trimble – Wild Atlantic Way Eva O'Sullivan, the London Mary, was crowned the 2026 Mary from Dungloe on 2 August 2025. ¹

Below is a complete list of contest winners from 1968 to 2024. ¹

Many Irish and international acts have performed at the festival over the years. The traditional annual crowd puller, however, continues to be internationally renowned folk singer Daniel O'Donnell, who made his festival debut in 1985. ¹

Daniel O'Donnell, Boyzone, Brian Kennedy, Donal Lunny, Altan, The Hothouse Flowers, Goats Don't Shave, Nathan Carter, Christy Moore, The Sawdoctors, Paul Brady, Shane McGowan. Barry Sinclair, Jimmy Buckley, Hugo Duncan, Mad Dog Macrea, Louise DaCosta, Riverdance, Jake Carter and many more. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Mary from Dungloe (festival)”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Mary from Dungloe is Irish music festival in Dungloe, County Donegal, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²