Events this weekend herald the inexorable approach of Christmas, even though some shops have been in full festive flight since long before Halloween.
While the main attraction for many will be tomorrow’s rugby clash between Connacht and Toulouse in Galway, there’s also plenty of non-sporting entertainment on offer around the country.
Connacht make their home debut in the Heineken Cup and their 100th European match at the Sportsground tomorrow.
President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny will attend the game, which is expected to attract a near-capacity crowd of about 9,000 people.
On the Christmas front, the Toy Show at the RDS Main Hall in Dublin opens until 8pm tonight, from 10am to 8pm tomorrow and from 10am to 6pm on Sunday.
The organisers promise entertainment for all ages, with magicians, clowns, face painters and stilt-walkers roaming the exhibition area.
Traffic is likely to be heavy in the Ballsbridge area, and also around main shopping areas at weekends between now and Christmas.
Tomorrow, Santa’s Playland opens at the Ambassador Theatre in Dublin and runs until Friday December 23rd.
The event gets underway at midday with a Christmas parade from Dame Street to the theatre on O’Connell Street.
In Kilkenny, the Play on Words Theatre company presents Tom Crean Artic Explorer, written and performed by the award-winning Aidan Dooley. The performance is at 8pm tonight and tomorrow night.
Christmas will also be in the air in Co Louth, with the annual Ardee Baroque festival of 17th and 18th century music taking place this weekend.
The event, running until Sunday, aims to “brighten the dark winter evenings and offer an escape from the prevailing economic doom and gloom”.
Performances of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Corelli and their contemporaries will be complemented by non-music events.
A theatre performance in Ardee Castle, art workshops for parents and children, a lecture on the Vikings of Annagassan, and an uilleann pipe-making demonstration are all on the weekend programme.
Actor David Heap brings his one-man play Love and Fury – the Passion of Jonathan Swift, to the castle tomorrow at 3pm for one performance only.
In Co Tipperary, the Bulmers Comedy Festival continues until Sunday in Clonmel.
International stars Nina Conti, Patrick Monahan and Adam Riches are all on the bill, along with the best of Irish talent in Ardal O’Hanlon, Andrew Maxwell, Colin Murphy and Karl Spain.
On the art front, Damien O'Reilly opens his exhibition entitled Is this happiness? at the Mad Art gallery on Gardiner Street, Dublin.
The work, according to the artist, is inspired by contemporary life and the evolution of casual communication. It runs until November 25th.
Met Éireann forecasts outbreaks of rain continuing tonight mainly over Munster, Connacht and west Ulster, with lowest temperatures of 9 to 12 degrees.
Tomorrow will start cloudy in many places with outbreaks of rain, but the rain will ease during the day. Sunday will be mostly dry and mostly cloudy in the east. The midlands and the rest of the country will be brighter with some sunny spells, according to Met Éireann.