The break in the summer's good weather will continue at least until tomorrow, with below-average temperatures for this time of year.
Met Éireann says dull, damp weather will linger until this evening. The northwest should be brighter and this will eventually spread to the rest of the country.
By tomorrow and on Monday, the situation should have considerably improved and the entire country should enjoy sunny spells. Temperatures, however, will remain below average - 17 to 18 degrees today and 19 to 20 degrees tomorrow and Monday.
In Mayo, up to 20,000 people are expected to climb Croagh Patrick tomorrow. The event marks the centenary of the church built at the top of the 765m (2,510ft) mountain.
The Galway Races continue today and tomorrow at Ballybrit racecourse and will severely hamper traffic on all main routes to Galway.
In Dublin, a Latin music weekend is taking place at Wolfe Tone Park. Today, Dublin-based band Mangeria play a mix of Latin music along with Dr Rumba, the man credited with bringing salsa to Ireland. Tomorrow, Cachimbo bring together Cuban, Brazilian and African sounds in folkloric percussion style.
The Bulmers world music festival in Cork looks set to draw the biggest crowds. It climaxes tomorrow with a finale gig in the Half Moon theatre that features New Zealand band Black Seeds.
A mini-festival for music lovers is taking place in Leitrim. Leechrum Fest, 12 miles from Leitrim town, features more than 100 acts, varying from techno to hip-hop to regga. The annual Clonmel country festival takes place tomorrow and Monday outside the Co Tipperary town.
Dr Peter Kavanagh, brother of poet, Patrick, will speak this afternoon at the Raglan Road Festival in Iniskeen, Monaghan. The 89-year-old retired English professor is to deliver a talk on Peter Kavanagh: his family and neighbours at the Kavanagh Centre. The event is the highlight of a weekend of mainly musical activities celebrating the Monaghan poet's work. The Kavanagh centre opened in 1994 in Iniskeen's former Catholic church, which had been vacant for two decades. But Dr Kavanagh, who has lived for many years in New York, has never visited the centre. It is believed his reluctance to do so was indirectly related to a long-running dispute over copyright to his brother's material.
Last year he told a Dublin audience that his books about Patrick had been banned in Ireland by court order since 1996. This followed an epic legal battle begun in the mid-1970s by Catherine Kavanagh, the poet's wife, and continued after her death by five appointed trustees, in whom all rights to the work are now vested.
Whale Watch Ireland has organised events for the public hoping to spot whales and dolphins. They take place tomorrow from 2pm until 5pm at various vantage points including Cork lighthouse, Wexford Hook lighthouse and Vico Road in Killiney, Co Dublin.