An Tóstal
Open-knowledge reference entry
An Tóstal (Irish pronunciation: [ənˠ ˈt̪ˠoːst̪ˠəl̪ˠ], meaning "The Gathering") was the name for a series of festivals held in Ireland in the 20th century. Inaugurated in 1953 as a celebration of Irish life, it continued on until 1958 when it died out in most centres except Drumshanbo, County Leitrim.
Establishment
After seeing the 1951 Festival of Britain, the President of Pan Am Airlines thought of the idea of an Irish version. The original purpose of the festival was a celebration of Irish culture, with an emphasis upon drawing tourists into the country during the Easter off-season. It was marked by a series of regional parades, arts and sporting events. Many towns began a clean-up plan, thus starting off the National Tidy Town Awards, which is running still in Ireland. In 1953, a set of commemorative stamps designed by Limerick artist Fergus O'Ryan, were issued by the Irish Post Office.
Competitions
Chess
Chess competitions were held as part of An Tóstal by the Irish Chess Union from 1953 to 1957, from 1954, 1955 and 1956 it included International Chess masters, the 1957 competitions included a FIDE Zonal tournament. The competition in 1953 was won by T. Kelly after a playoff, the 1954, 1955 and 1956 masters competitions were won by Belgian Grandmaster Albéric O'Kelly de Galway, and the 1957 competition was won by Czech Grandmaster Luděk Pachman.
Rugby
In rugby, the winners of the Munster schools cup hosted their Leinster counterparts at Thomond Park.
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This entry incorporates text from “An Tóstal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.