Enniskillen celebrates the first  WildeDay – Saturday October 17th 2026

Presented by Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Enniskillen is set to become a major destination for Oscar Wilde lovers. The Northern Ireland border town where Wilde spent his schooldays and which inspired his most famous short story, The Happy Prince, will emerge as a long-term literary heritage location in celebration of the greatest Irish wit through the help of an award from The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Innovation Fund. 

The island town of Enniskillen – to be dubbed Wilde Island Town (WIT): Home of the Happy Prince sees the Fermanagh community co-create new annual Wilde Day on Saturday 17 October, a Northern Ireland answer to Dublin’s Bloomsday.  Join in the fun on 17 October with an action packed programme throughout the town, all free to attend for everyone.

Celebrating literary heritage in Enniskillen and Co Fermanagh

Across the world, even in the shadow of the Troubles, Northern Ireland’s reputation is intertwined with that of its great writers and wordsmiths, its poets, lyricists, and playwrights. The history, the landscape and the culture of the region are inextricably linked with the written and the spoken word.

For the past fifteen years, Happy Days Enniskillen, through its programme of public art, festivals, installations and educational projects has tapped into this rich literary heritage and laid roots for the region’s future as an international place of culture, great literature and new conversations.

Putting literary icons Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde front and central of our work has allowed the town, the county and the community to  embrace and highlight the powerful connections between the past and the future of this place and its people, the region’s cultural traditions and literary heritage whilst connecting to the wider world.

Nobody fifteen years ago would have foretold that Enniskillen would feature on the global literary map for its association with literary giants Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde brought to life through imagined and meaningful reconnections to the town for the benefit of its citizens to celebrate today, all amidst an extraordinary setting. This would not have been realised without the endless commitment, welcoming nature and incredible skillset of our community of volunteers. 

Seán Doran, Creative Director, Happy Days Enniskillen (EIBF)

Happy Days Stories is a celebration of the hundreds of volunteers, community groups and businesses who have given their free time to the successful realisations of our renowned literary heritage programme so uniquely knitted into the civic, topographical and social landscape of Enniskillen and Fermanagh.

As part of the Festival Tales project, Happy Days Stories has used storytelling techniques, research and workshops to catalogue the important role volunteers play in shaping their literary heritage.

Photograph courtesy of Matthew Andrews