Seven short documentaries turn their cameras on the rituals – sacred and everyday – that hold Irish communities together: a hilltop blessing above Belfast to a bowling road in West Cork, a Dublin estate pigeon hunt to a Kerry community welcoming spring, an atmospheric watch over Galway Bay swimmers to a tentative West Clare reunion between old friends, and a Belfast women’s group staging their own lives. Across faith, friendship, and tradition, each film finds something universal in the small and specific.

Selected from the Galway Film Fleadh Programme 2026, curated by Declan McSteen:

Relic – Sam Howard, 13 mins, Northern Ireland 2025
The Biddy – The Kerry Collective, 17 mins, Ireland 2026
Bowling Roads –  Laura Mahler, 11 mins, Ireland 2026
Blackrock – Normagh Heaney & Jessie Green,15 mins, Ireland 2025
I Didn’t Want To Be Here –  Fionnuala McCormack,  13 mins, Northern Ireland 2026
My Friend, Kev – Colin Peppard, 18 mins, Ireland 2026
Pigeon Catcher – Yifan Wen, 19 mins, Ireland 2026

An audience prize, supported by Screen Scene, will be awarded for best film in this programme.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn

This event is part of the IFI Documentary Festival 2026.