Welcome to the Home of the Irish Games Association and Gaelcon
The IGA presents Gaelcon 2023
The Irish Games Association host Ireland’s oldest independent gaming convention, Gaelcon. It is happening from the 27th to the 30th of October 2023 at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport.
Click the logo for more information.
Purchase Membership
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IGA Membership€5.00
Who are we?
The Irish Games Association 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 Convention: 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
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Autumn Update 2022
Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Whatever it is in your timezone, world or game setting As we move into the autumn, I wanted to offer an update on where the IGA is and what is happening. Plans for Gaelcon (https://gaelcon.com/) are obviously well advanced, and being shared on the Gaelcon website and on social media. Schedules are nearly final,…
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GaelCon33 Update
Gaelcon 33 is falling nicely into place for the October weekend. We’re taking on the feedback from last year with the goal of making the convention run smoother, but a lot of the core team will be the same. (It being fairly difficult to do the traditional recruitment tactic of cornering people in the pub…
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Gaelcon 33 will be online this year.
Our hopes for Gaelcon 33 changed as the news changed from week to week, but we have decided that we must have an online event. Various things influenced our decision: The news about the pandemic and the vaccination rollout changes from week to week We don’t know when we might have certainty about the numbers…
Who we are not
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.
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.
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.
What Gaming is NOT
There have been many misconceptions about gaming in the past, ranging from accusations of devil-worshipping or black magic to people thinking of it in terms of sexual roleplay. While we’ve no objection to the latter, it’s not something we allow at our family-friendly events… and the former couldn’t be further from the truth. Roleplaying is simply 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 Chess. Collectible Card Games are… a bit more complicated to explain. There’s a decent article about them on Wikipedia. None of these things has any dark, sorcerous or malevolent undertones – it’s all about people meeting up with their friends and having fun.