Around 40 blacksmiths have come together to take part in a series of forging challenges, as part of an effort to highlight the old craft.
The event which took place in Banagher, Co Offaly today saw blacksmiths from all over Ireland take part.
James O'Connor is a blacksmith from Co Limerick. He has organised today's challenge, the first time the event has taken place as part of the 'That Beats Banagher' festival.
"The idea is to promote to the traditional craft of the blacksmith. We've lots of competitions going on here today. We've a series of challenges today to put to them to the test," he said.
"The interest is huge. From the young to the old, everyone is getting into here today," he added.
Despite the relatively small size of the blacksmith community, the craft is not dying out, say organisers.
There is huge interest from younger people in particular.
"There's more blacksmiths now that there have been in the last 30 years. A lot of people don't know blacksmiths are still alive and well but there's a blacksmith in every county in Ireland," Mr O'Connor said.
Amongst those taking part is Jack Murphy from Co Roscommon, who is now a full-time blacksmith.
"I got into blacksmithing when I was about 13. I was trying to make tools and I had a little business on the side. I left school then and went to England where I trained and qualified and I'm a full-time blacksmith now," he explains.
"All you have to do is look around, there are 30 or 40 blacksmiths here and half of them are under 30. There are some areas of Ireland staved of blacksmith education but it's not dying at all," he said.
For centuries, this traditional craft has been part of Irish life, despite economic and technological changes, interest in keeping it alive remains.
Jeremey Stanley, a farrier from Glasson in Co Westmeath, believes this event is very important.
"Every crossroad had a blacksmith, everywhere there was a blacksmith, so everyone knows their work. Some of the work is very unique to Ireland and to be able to come to an event like this you can talk to others about ways of doing things," Mr Stanley said.
"You can argue that they're doing it correctly or not doing it correctly and why it was done in one parish one way and in another parish another way, but we can revive the craft and keep it alive."
