About Kids Patch

Kids Patch is a free directory of children’s classes, camps and activities in Ireland. It exists because finding a Tuesday swimming class for a four-year-old near you meant opening a dozen tabs, three Facebook groups and a PDF timetable from 2023.

What is actually here

3,041 listings across all 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland, grouped into 34 categories — sports, dance, music, drama, STEM, swimming, parent-and-toddler groups, camps and more. Every county with at least three listings has its own page, and most categories also have a page per county.

A further 211 listings sit outside those 26 counties — Northern Ireland venues, and listings with an address we couldn’t match to a county. They are in the directory and turn up in search, they just don’t appear on a county page.

Alongside the classes there is a guide to public playgrounds, county by county, and a small blog.

Where the listings come from

Three routes, in roughly descending order of volume:

• Research. Most listings started as publicly published information — a provider’s own website, a community centre timetable, a club’s enrolment page — compiled county by county and written up in our own words.
• Providers adding themselves. Anyone running a children’s class can add a listing free of charge.
• Providers claiming an existing listing. If we listed you before you found us, you can claim the page and edit it yourself from Manage your listing.

What “Verified” means on a listing

A Verified badge means the person running that business has claimed the listing and proved they are connected to it, so the details on the page come from them rather than from our research. They can edit the page themselves at any time from Manage your listing.

It is not an endorsement, a safety check, or a vetting of the provider. We do not inspect venues, verify Garda vetting or insurance, or assess quality. A listing without the badge is not suspect; it simply has not been claimed yet, and most listings have not. Always confirm the details that matter to you directly with the provider.

How the pages stay current

Every listing, category and county page on this site is rebuilt from the live database each day, so counts, schedules and prices reflect what we hold at that point. Landing pages carry the date they were last rebuilt; a listing page carries a Last updated date, which is the last time that listing’s own details actually changed — whether the owner edited them or we did. Routine background checks, such as testing that a website link still works, do not move that date.

What Kids Patch does not do

• We do not take bookings. You book with the provider. Enquiries sent from a listing go straight to that provider’s inbox, not to us.
• We do not charge for listings or bookings. No fee for parents, no listing fee for providers, no commission on a booking. Some seasonal organisers, such as Santa experiences and Halloween events, pay for a sponsored slot: those cards are always labelled Sponsored and sit in their own block above the main list, or first among the suggestions under “More … nearby” on a listing within 30 km. The order of the main list is not for sale.
• We do not rank or rate providers. There are no Kids Patch star ratings, and we do not host reviews.
• We do not require an account to search, filter or contact a provider. Shortlists are stored in your own browser.

Corrections

If a listing is wrong, out of date, or should not be here at all, tell us and we will fix or remove it — you do not need to own the business to report a problem. Email info@kidspatch.ie or use the contact form. Providers who want to correct their own page can claim it and edit it directly.

Contact

Kids Patch is an independent Irish site, not part of any provider, franchise or publishing group. Email info@kidspatch.ie, or use the contact form.