School holidays in Ireland 2027: breaks and bank holidays
| Break | Primary schools | Post-primary schools | School year |
|---|---|---|---|
| February mid-term break | to inclusive, 2 days Or, with three discretionary days, the full week from to (5 days). | to inclusive, 5 days | 2026/27 |
| Easter holidays | Last day of termSchools re-open | 2026/27 | |
| October mid-term break | to inclusive, 5 days | 2027/28 | |
| Christmas holidays | Last day of termSchools re-open | 2027/28 | |
Christmas and Easter show the two printed days only; the February week at primary level is a choice each school makes. The summer holidays are not standardised.
School dates here follow the Department of Education and Youth's circulars for the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland schools follow a different calendar from their own Department of Education, which this site does not cover.
At a glance
- Standardised breaks beginning in 2027
- four breaks in chronological order: February mid-term break, Easter holidays, October mid-term break and Christmas holidays
- School years covered
- 2026/27 through spring and summer, then 2027/28 from autumn
- Weekdays off for mid-term, Calculated
- ten weekdays for post-primary schools; seven weekdays for primary schools, or ten weekdays with three discretionary days for the full February week. The full February week may be shortened to make up for unforeseen closures, but all schools must still close on Thursday and Friday; check your school's calendar.
- Public holiday breakdown, Calculated
- ten public holidays, including six on Monday
- Long weekends, Calculated
- seven long weekends, each combining a weekend with one or more public holidays to make at least three days in a row
Figures marked Calculated are worked out from the dates in the circular or the Commission's list, or from dates established by the Act and the regulations. The sources do not give these figures directly.
Add to your calendar (.ics) The file includes only the dates shown in this table, with a note explaining the source or rule for each. No extra dates are added.
Easter Monday falls in March in 2027, while Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day both fall at the weekend. The school table covers February mid-term and Easter in 2026/27, followed by October mid-term and Christmas in 2027/28, with primary and post-primary dates side by side. All ten public holidays are listed below. Their dates are worked out from the Act and the regulations; the Workplace Relations Commission's list did not cover this year when checked. Follow the school-year links for the circular's wording.
Bank holidays 2027
The public holidays for 2027 are listed below. The bank holiday page for that year explains the dates and sources in detail. Bank holidays 2027 in full.
Dates calculated from the legal rules
The Workplace Relations Commission list does not cover this year yet. These dates are worked out from the Act and the statutory instrument, with Easter Monday taken from the date of Easter, and will be checked against the official list once it covers the year.
| Weekday | Date | Public holiday | In the law |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | New Year's Day, from the rule | the 1st day of January | |
| Monday | St Brigid's Day (February bank holiday), from the rule | the first Monday in February, or 1 February when it falls on a Friday (S.I. No. 50/2022) | |
| Wednesday | St Patrick's Day, from the rule | St. Patrick's Day | |
| Monday | Easter Monday, from the rule | Easter Monday | |
| Monday | May bank holiday, from the rule | the first Monday in May | |
| Monday | June bank holiday, from the rule | the first Monday in June | |
| Monday | August bank holiday, from the rule | the first Monday in August | |
| Monday | October bank holiday, from the rule | the last Monday in October | |
| Saturday, at the weekend | Christmas Day, from the rule | Christmas Day | |
| Sunday, at the weekend | St Stephen's Day, from the rule | St. Stephen's Day |
How school breaks and bank holidays fit together in 2027
February begins on Monday in 2027, so the St Brigid's Day bank holiday falls on the first of the month. Post-primary mid-term follows in February's third week. Primary pupils have Thursday and Friday off, or the whole week where their school uses three discretionary days. The February and Easter breaks fall within the 2026/27 school year. St Patrick's Day falls on Wednesday during term, shortly before the Friday last day of term ahead of Easter. Schools re-open on the first Monday in April. Good Friday and Easter Monday fall between the printed dates, with Easter Monday still in March. Good Friday is not a public holiday. The May bank holiday is followed by the June bank holiday, which falls as late as the first-Monday rule allows. The preceding Friday is the last permitted day of post-primary tuition before the State examinations; it does not set a summer closing date for every school.
The longest gap between public holidays in 2027 runs from the August bank holiday to the October bank holiday. The school year 2027/28 begins during this interval. Its expected starting week contains the first of September, but the circular does not set a shared opening date. October mid-term begins on the bank holiday, giving primary and post-primary schools the same Monday-to-Friday break. Before Christmas, the circular gives Wednesday as the last day of term, with the January re-opening date listed separately. Christmas Day falls on Saturday and St Stephen's Day on Sunday. The public holiday table shows those dates without moving them to weekdays. The Commission's guidance explains employees' public holiday entitlements when a holiday falls at the weekend.
The two school years
School holidays 2026/27 (Circular 0018/2026) · School holidays 2027/28 (Circular 0018/2026). Where primary and post-primary differ.
Questions parents ask
What are the school holiday dates for 2027?
Post-primary February mid-term lasts from Monday 15 February 2027 to Friday 19 February 2027, primary mid-term from Thursday 18 February 2027 to Friday 19 February 2027, and the shared October break from Monday 25 October 2027 to Friday 29 October 2027. Easter's final school day is Friday 19 March 2027, with schools re-opening on Monday 5 April 2027; Christmas's final school day is Wednesday 22 December 2027, followed by re-opening on Thursday 6 January 2028. Individual schools determine their summer arrangements.
How are the bank holiday dates for 2027 worked out?
The dates of the ten public holidays in 2027 follow the rules in the Act and the regulations for the St Brigid's Day bank holiday. The Workplace Relations Commission's list did not cover 2027 when the site's dates were checked.
Does 2027 belong to a single school year?
No. The calendar year spans parts of both 2026/27 and 2027/28.
Official documents
- Department of Education and Youth: Circular 0018/2026 Standardisation of the school year ... 2026/27, 2027/28 and 2028/29 (PDF, February 2026) (first read on 26 October 2026; checked again on 2 November 2026, unchanged)
- Irish Statute Book: Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, Second Schedule (as enacted) (first read on 26 October 2026; checked again on 2 November 2026, unchanged)
- Irish Statute Book: S.I. No. 50/2022 Organisation of Working Time (Covid-19 Commemoration) Regulations 2022 (HTML) (first read on 26 October 2026; checked again on 2 November 2026, unchanged)
Every date on this page was checked against these documents on . If anything here differs from the circular or the Act, the official text applies. How the dates are checked.