Otaku: dedicated fanatics of everything Japanese, especially anime and manga
Eirtaku: the Irish otaku
Eirtakon: the home of the Eirtaku

What is Eirtakon?

Eirtakon is the largest and longest-running anime and manga convention in Ireland, held every year in Dublin City University by a dedicated committee put in place by the DCU Anime & Manga Society.

How did Eirtakon come to be?

Eirtakon has its roots back in 2004, when its founders John Doyle and Ross Duggan came upon the idea of starting up an anime convention in Ireland. Although there had been anime conventions run in Northern Ireland before, the only known incident of one in the Republic alledegely sank without trace after it clashed with Gaelcon (a long-running gaming convention).

Being students, they quickly realised that the best way to host any kind of event with almost no startup costs was to run it through a college society. Dublin City University at the time had no anime society (indeed no college in Ireland had previously hosted a dedicated anime & manga society) and so over the summer of 2004, John and Ross worked to create just that, calling it the Anime & Manga Society (AMS). They gathered the required number of minimum signups, organised all the paperwork and set up shop so that by the start of the 2004/05 college year, AMS was in business.

The aim of the society is clear from its charter, where point 2.3 reads: to hold an annual convention for anime enthusiasts to be held in DCU.

With access to a venue (Eirtakon's previous home of five years, The Hub), some funding from the students union and an idea of a date (November 2005), work began on the first Eirtakon. The name was derived from the phrase eirtaku, which stands for Irish otaku (or Irish fans of all things Japanese and eccentric), stapled onto 'kon' (as in convention). John and Ross attended Silicon in 2004 and were inspired by their giving away of free t-shirts to every attendee, a tradition that has continued with Eirtakon ever since. Our mascot, Lori, was designed by our friend Swissy, who is still very much at the artwork reigns every year.

History of Eirtakon

The first Eirtakon in 2005 drew roughly 200 people and, despite a lot of it coming together in the final few weeks, ran quite successfully. Eirtakon 2006 was unfortunately less successful, and in fact only took place in February 2007 (holding true to the society's required charter of running a convention every year), again with about 200 people attending. Eirtakon 2007 took place nine months later that November and drew over 400 people, thanks to a new committee and a renewed drive to bring Eirtakon to national and international attention.

Eirtakon 2008 saw the committee step up another level and brought famous voice actor Vic Mignogna over from America, which resulted in the highest attendance yet of nearly 800 people.

In 2009, Irish-American voice actor (and all-round lovely guy!) Kevin M. Connolly flew over from America and helped steer the convention to a record of over 1,000 attendees, with The Hub positively bursting at the seams.

2010 was a record year for Eirtakon and indeed anime as a whole in Ireland - over 1,200 attendees packed into our new home of The Helix, making it the biggest and most successful anime convention ever held in Ireland. Our guest of honour was frickin' genius Spike Spencer, who regaled us with his insightful and entertaining panels.

2011 became the biggest year yet with 1,550 anime fans attending! The Helix was packed throughout the weekend with the widest variety of events the convention has ever had, including hugely popular new additions such as Fair-takon and Cosplay Blind Date impressing the crowds. Special guests included voice actor Liam O'Brien, and artist DestinyBlue.

2012 is shaping up to be a monumental year with a new committee and lots of new ideas!