Welcome to the home of the Irish Games Association and Gaelcon!

The IGA presents: Gaelcon 2024

The Irish Games Association hosts Ireland’s oldest independent gaming convention, Gaelcon. This year, it takes place from October 25-28th, at the Crowne Plaza, Northwood, Dublin 9.
Our program of events is available over here, and our RPG and LARP schedule here.

Tickets now on Sale!
Gaelcon Tickets

Membership and Con entry is €50 until online ticket sales end before the convention. Subject to availability, ticket prices at the door will be €55 for a weekend ticket, or €15 for a day ticket.

Note, concession memberships and under-18s tickets are also available.

Charity Auction: This year we are jointly supporting Autism Assistance Dogs Ireland and BeLongTo
Volunteers
Keeping the heart of the con beating, our Volunteer form is here.
Community Outreach
If you’re a community group and would like a shoutout in the brochure and IGA promotion for your events, form here

Special Events:

This isn’t D&D, this is ADHD&D!

Following a run of sell-out shows in Dublin the newest, nerdiest, neuro-diverse-iest live comedy show comes to Gaelcon!

Watch as three ADHD having stand up comedians (Brian, Allie, and Stephen) face down not only the dangers of dungeons and/ or dragons, but also, the real test… simple math and basic rules!

Battletech: BattleTech returns to Gaelcon for a full weekend of unique and exciting games and other events in the Gaelcon main hall. 

The Gaelcon Paint & Take returns after its popular debut last year.

This FREE activity offers a relaxed space for everyone to chill and paint miniatures.

Boardgames:

We are delighted to announce that GMT Games (https://www.gmtgames.com) has sponsored our boardgames events and raffle prizes all weekend.  Make sure to rent or prebook a boardgame over the weekend to be in with a chance to win.  Raffles will be held at 5pm Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  

We will also be demoing some of these fantastic games in the board game room over the weekend.

The Gaelcon Math trade is open

With support from Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall
Fingal County Council

Charity Auction:

Purchase Membership

Who are we?

The Irish Games Association CLG is dedicated to promoting gaming in Ireland, by running, supporting and publicising gaming events, while seeking to communicate and cooperate with others that do likewise.

The IGA engages in a number of activities designed to further its stated aim of promoting gaming in Ireland and has evolved substantially over its lifespan. Originally, the IGA was a group composed of different gaming interests from around the country who came together to organise an event known as Gaelcon. Since that time, a number of changes have taken place, and the IGA has expanded into other fields.

The goal of the IGA is to help the gaming community in whatever way possible, be it by organising events, providing information, or offering what assistance it can to others who are working on behalf of the gaming community in Ireland. If you are running an event and need some assistance or some friendly advice please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

News from the IGA

  • IGA AGM – Vacant Positions

    Hi there, This is an important update ahead of our (currently) busiest month of the year. The IGA AGM will, once again, be held on the Monday of Gaelcon, as tradition demands. As part of this, there are a number of positions that are open for election. The IGA has elected to maintain a board…

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  • Die of the year poll winners announced

    In the running, of course, was fan favourite d4, more lethal than Lego in the long-pile carpet, but utimately pretty unsatisfying in its arerobatics. This year it gets an honourable mention. Runner up is the d20; good balance of being readable and providing a range of numbers, which d10 ultimately has to pair up to…

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  • We’re ramping up for the Con

    The poster is out, and it’s awesome: see what you see here. It’s led to a particularly fetching T-shirt for the merch-hungry. The Urgent: Wanna run/demo/teach a boardgame at Gaelcon 36? Deadline for applications is fast approaching. This is of tremendous interest to that community and they’re super encouraging if you want to try something. Here’s the link.…

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What is Gaming?

The term ‘gaming’ when used in this context does not refer to gambling or any pastime that involves betting money. For us, “gaming” is a group of different hobbies which share some common links: it’s about having fun, it’s social and it’s a good break from the day-to-day of the real world. Outside of that, there is some contention over what counts as gaming and what doesn’t! The Irish Games Association is primarily involved in organising events involving non-electronic gaming: Boardgames, Collectible Card Games, Tabletop Roleplaying, Live Action Roleplaying and Wargaming.

Roleplaying is a social pastime, based on storytelling and imagining yourself as a character within the story. Wargaming is tactical competition; like a more complicated version of 3D Chess, and includes a wide variety of custom painted miniatures. Collectible Card Games consist of a wide variety, far too many to cover here. There’s a decent article about them on Wikipedia which is a very useful reference!

Ultimately, it’s all about people meeting up with their friends and having fun!

Who we are not

The IGA are not a representative body for the video games industry. For information on this please visit Imirt the Irish Game Makers Association website.

The IGA are not a representative body for the casino/slot machine gaming industry. For information on this please visit the Gaming and Leisure Association of Ireland website.