The An Táin Arts Centre is based at the Town Hall
The new independent arts centre in the heart of Dundalk will hold its official launch on Friday August 29th at 7pm.
The An Táin Arts Centre at the Town Hall will be run by Paul Hayes, who hopes to reawaken the sleeping giant that is the hub of Dundalk arts, theatre and culture.
On the night Ciaran O’Sullivan’s new exhibition will also be open in the Basement Gallery while the autumn/winter programme of events will be announced.
Some of Freda Hearty’s Dance Kids who will be entertaining all those who attend Jingle All The Way on December 29th and 30th
Freda Hearty and the Dance Kids are back once more with their Christmas show ‘Jingle All The Way’ which takes place on the 29th and 30th of December in An Tàin Theatre.
‘Jingle All The Way’ is jam packed full of all your Christmas favourites as well as a wonderful excerpt of ‘Annie’, which is sure to tug at your heartstrings. The talented dancers will also be performing to many favourites such as Jessie J, One Direction and Queen to name just a few that are guaranteed to have audiences of every age dancing and singing along in their seats.
“The Dance Kids have been busier than Santa’s elves rehearsing for ‘Jingle All The Way’,” said Freda Hearty, founder, Dance Kids Stage School.
“Tickets for ‘Jingle All The Way’ make great stocking fillers and with our earlier show time of 6:30pm it promises to be a perfect night out for all the family.”
Freda Hearty and the Dance Kids are renowned for raising money for needy charities both locally and abroad and over the past number of years have raised an amazing €150,000 for charity. This year proceeds from ‘Jingle All The Way’ will be donated to local charities.
‘Jingle All The Way’ takes place in An Tàin Theatre on the 29th and 30th of December at the earlier starting time of 6:30pm. It is the perfect festive event for all the family to enjoy during the Christmas period. The Dance Kids are well known for putting on a fantastic show, and ‘Jingle All The Way’ will be no exception. Book your tickets today at An Tàin Theatre’s box office on 042 9392919.
The Ceol Oirghialla Section of Music Master Class Series continues this Thursday at 2.30pm in the Mac Anna Theatre of Dundalk IT with a master class given by renowned flautist, William Dowdall.
The master class is in conjunction with the Association of Irish Composers’ Concert Series ‘The Irish Canon’ and will feature works by a wide range of contemporary Irish composers for the flute.
The master class will include a performance by Dowdall who, as well as forging a successful solo career, has been principal flute of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed professor of flute at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 2004.
The tenth anniversary of the Ardee Baroque will take place this week from Thursday to Sunday.
The event will feature the finest of music in the most atmospheric of venues with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and special guests performing throughout the four days of the festival.
Amongst others set to perform include Irish Youth Opera, Conal Duffy and Michael O’Neill, Kids Classics, Larry Ward and the Gregory Walkers.
Full details can be found at www.createlouth.ie/ardee-baroque-2013
A new seven screen cinema is being planned for Dundalk Retail Park.
David Carson, the receiver and manager over Finnabair Estates Limited (who are in receivership), has applied to Dundalk Town Council to convert three units at the retail park into a cinema.
The units in question – 2, 3 and 4 – were all formerly occupied by Harvey Norman, who closed its doors in Dundalk at the start of summer.
The application, if successful, would see a seven screen cinema built at the retail park including an entrance foyer with ticket kiosk, food and beverage stalls, a coffee shop, service and ciculation areas and toilets.
A new main entrance would also be created at unit 2, closing off the entrances to units 3 and 4. There are also proposals for new emergency exits and for the construction of an internal wall between units 4 and 5 to facilitate unit 5 to operate as a standalone retail warehouse unit.
A decision matter is set to be made by November 5th.
Movies @ had previously been granted planning permission for a new cinema at Finnabair Estate but despite plans to open it in 2010, it never got off the ground.
That cinema was to accommodate 1,800 movie fans at any given time and would have cost in the region of €12 million.
The new operators of the planned cinema have not been revealed but, if successful, they would go head to head with IMC in Carroll Village, who have been operating the cinema in Dundalk since 1999.
The Dundalk Youth Arts Festival gets underway in Dundalk today and will run until Saturday.
The event is a multi-disciplinary arts festival to promote and develop high quality arts and cultural events for young people.
A large number of events are lined up over the course of the weekend, including a Battle of the Bands night in the Spirit Store tomorrow, with full details available over on their Facebook page.
Thanks to local digital artist Paul Connolly for sharing this sneaky shot of the new look Bellingham Castle, which was scheduled to open in June but has been delayed slightly.
The Castlebellingham-based castle was bought last year by the Corscadden family, who are best known in this area for running Cabra Castle in Kingscourt. Their hope is to transform Bellingham into an equally as impressive wedding venue and extensive renovation work has been going on for some time to transform the historic property into a 22 bedroom, 4 star boutique style castle, with exclusive wedding hire.
It might be a while yet until it opens but it’s certainly looking the part based on Paul’s picture.
For all enquiries relating to Bellingham Castle please tel: 042 9679930.
Nathan Carter and his band performing in Dundalk yesterday
Country music sensation Nathan Carter drew a large crowd to the Market Square yesterday for the Táin Summer Music Festival.
The weather couldn’t have been better for his performance, with support on the day coming from the likes of Who’s Eddie? and ex Eurovision entrants Donna and Joe McCaul.
You can check out a video of Nathan performing his hit song “Wagon Wheel’ on our Facebook page here.
It’s Friday afternoon and that means that preparations are already underway for the weekend.
As far as Dundalk is concerned though, there’s only one place to be this Sunday and that’s in the Market Square for the Táin Summer Festival.
Nathan Carter will be headlining an event that also includes local favourites Who’s Eddie and former Eurovision entrants Donna and Joe McCaul. There will also be a range of children’s events, a pig on a spit and much more.
Tickets are on sale now with the festivities getting underway from 2pm on the day.
Local art group the Artisans will launch their art exhibition tonight in the Louth County Museum, Roden Place, Dundalk at 8pm.
The Artisans are a small group of amateur artists from Dundalk who specialise in watercolour paintings. They have 50 paintings on display for the next two weeks, the majority of which are watercolour but they also have the odd oil painting and sketch thrown in.
The exhibition will be launched by Lt Col Maureen O’Brien from Aiken Barracks, Dundalk and all are invited to attend the opening tonight at 8pm. The exhibition will run until June 7th.
Talk of the Town 