At the end of a year when the arts provided a shining light and solace in the most difficult of times, An Tain Arts Centre staged an innovative project which reached out to townspeople with a walking tour and an art installation in the windows of the Town Hall.
Taking the title Ghost Light, it echoed the long-standing theatre tradition that has become particularly poignant this year, explains An Tain s director Paul Hayes. By leaving a single bulb burning on stage whenever a theatre is dark, we light the way for friendly spirits, keeping them happy and contented. The light is also a symbol of our intention to soon return to the stage. For us, the light represents creativity, collaboration, and community; an energy that can never be dimmed.
For many years now, fiddler Gerry O Connor s concert is as much part of the Christmas festivities as turkey and ham, Christmas crackers and
As he gathered together family, friends and local musicians who have returned home for Christmas for an evening of exhilarating traditional music and song.
In recent years, the concert took place in An Tain Arts Centre having moved there from the Spirit Store.
It has become such a tradition that December 28 is pencilled in the diary every year, says An Táin s director Paul Hayes. Gerry has been doing the concert here for so many years, some years in the main auditorium, other years in The Space, depending on how many musicians he had joining him, explains Paul. That date is reserved for Gerry so this year we had to find a way of making the concert happen.
Two very different but equally enjoyable evenings of music are lined up as pre-Christmas treats that can be enjoyed from the comfort of your home.
First up is Glas Quartet who are presenting Ceol by Candlelight , an evening of Christmas songs and traditional Irish favourites this Tuesday evening at 7pm.
The Quartet, comprising flautist Vourneen Ryan, violinist Ailbhe Kirkan, violist Annemarie McGahon and cellist Aoife Dennedy, are inviting audiences to relax, cosy up and enjoy the music.
Having got together earlier this year when the pandemic restrictions brought an end to their regular national and international engagements, the four have been busy making music together.
Did you hear about the time Whitney Houston popped into Modern Fashions for a pair of tights? That was one of the fascinating snippets of Dundalk lore with came to light during the first Pop Cultural walking tour of Dundalk.
Supported by An Tain Arts Centre as part of its OFFSITE programme, the tour was the brainchild of Mark Corcoran of Culture Club and Marcel Kruegar of thecorridor.
As numbers were limited to 15, the tour sold out in no time and was a huge success, according to Paul Hayes, director An Tain Arts Centre. We could have sold it six or seven times and will repeat it in the New Year when the weather is warmer.
While An Tain Arts Centre can t invite audiences inside for live performances, director Paul Hayes is working hard to ensure that they are reaching out to audiences of all ages, providing entertainment through the darkest days of winter.
He has enlisted the well known Dundalk actor Paudie Breen, who would normally be busy with panto rehearsals this time of year, to perform stories from the collection of the National Folklore Archive.
Paudie is reading these stories live on An Tain Arts Centre s Facebook page at 7pm every evening until Saturday, December 19.
The stories are linked to the visual arts project Ghost Light: Scéalta ón Lú Trí Sholas (stories of Louth through light) which runs from Sunday December 20 to Sunday January 10.