ALL around the State the June bank holiday will be marked by a variety of events including shows and festivals.
Cork city will host Guinness's Southern Soul and Disco Festival 1998, centred on the Metropole Festival Club in McCurtain Street, today and tomorrow. There will be a free pub trail in selected bars.
In Kilkenny the Murphy's Cat Laughs comedy festival is in full swing and continues until Monday at different venues. Among the many performers are Paul Merton, Dylan Moran, Kevin McAleer and Donna McPhail.
At Innishannon in Co Cork, over 50,000 people are expected to attend the Munster Steam and Vintage Rally. The event, which is in aid of the Irish Cancer Society, begins today at 11 a.m. with a steam engine road run from the Harbour Commissioner's office in Cork to the rally field in Innishannon.
At Baltimore, Co Cork, the historic sailing ketch The Ilen, built in the Baltimore Fisheries School in 1927 and delivered to the Falkland Islands by Conor O'Brien in 1927, is returning to its home port tomorrow.
It will sail from Glandore to arrive at Baltimore pier at 2 p.m.
The Sligo Arts Festival continues this weekend with exhibitions, a funfair, music, a drumming workshop in the Model Arts Centre and a street pageant on Sunday.
The Co Mayo-based Friends of the Michael Davitt Museum in Straide are participating in a sponsored cycle run to raise funds for the museum this weekend. The run, from Kilrush, Co Clare, to Straide via Galway, takes place on the 92nd anniversary of Davitt's death.
The Conamara Bog Week hosted by the Conamara Environmental Education Centre continues in Letterfrack, Co Galway, with a three-day walkabout led by archaeologist Erin Gibbons and birdwatcher and naturalist Gordon d'Arcy.
In Dublin's Temple Bar an outdoor garden market will open tomorrow and again every Sunday in June. On Curved Street, it will provide a range of plants, bedding plants, shrubs, gardening products and cut flowers. It will be open from noon to 6 p.m.
A cartooning weekend is being held at the Cartoon Inn, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow. Cartoonists including Terry Willers, Hunt Emerson and Guy Carter will exhibit their work and give advice over the three days starting today.
In An Mullach Ban, Co Armagh, the Michael J. Murphy Folklore School continues today and tomorrow at various venues.