What's on - music, theatre, cinema | Droichead Arts Centre | Drogheda, Co. Louth
DRAWDA | Drogheda Urban Art and Audio Trail
1st Jan 2025 - 31st Dec 2025
Drogheda Urban Art Trail – Embracing our mythological past
DRAWDA - a curated multidisciplinary public arts programme, launched in Drogheda between November 2021, and April 2022, culminating in an Urban Art Trail throughout Drogheda that focuses on key figures and moments from our mythological past.
Seven murals that focus on key figures and moments from mythology, with an Audio
Trail! Pick up your printed map from Droichead Arts Centre, Love Drogheda BIDS or local business’ or view it digitally online below. Then, take a stroll throughout Drogheda following the trail, and use your smart device to scan the code and listen to the mythological stories behind the murals!
Film Club Spring/Summer 2025
14 JAN – 20 MAY | 8pm | 8 films for €48 | Droichead Arts Centre
Website
Film Club is back for Spring 2025. Droichead Arts Centre in partnership with Access Cinema, are delighted to welcome back our Film Club members, with a season of eight engaging and beautiful films from around the world, once again curated by Sinead Brassil and Niall O'Brien of LMFM's film review segment 'Reel Reviews'. Each film is introduced by the curators and followed by a short post screening discussion.
Once again you can expect the wild and wonderful, the best and most breath taking independent cinema from around the world with 8 amazing films for only €48!
And we are again delighted to partner with the film makers of DKiT to present one short film by the graduating class before four of the screenings.
DIDI (2024) | Dir Sean Wang | Comedy/Drama | USA | Tue 14 Jan
CROSSING (2024) | Dir Levan Akin | Drama | Turkey | Tue 21 Jan
TOUCH (2024) | Dir Baltasar Kormákur | Romance/Drama | Iceland | Tue 28 Jan
KATHLEEN IS HERE (2024) | Dir Eva Birthistle | Drama | Ireland | Tue 18 Feb
IT’S RAINING MEN (2023) | Dir Caroline Vignal | Comedy | France | Tue 4 Mar
BIRD (2024) | Dir Andrea Arnold | Drama | UK | Tue 29 Apr
ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL (2024) | Dir Rungano Nyoni | Comedy/Drama | Ireland, UK, Zambia | Tue 13 May
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (2024) | Dir Payal Kapadia | Drama | France | Tue 20 May
Drogheda Zine Fair 2025
18 JAN | 11AM
Cost: Free Events, Booking Required.
Drogheda Zine Fair is a local celebration of DIY publishing and counter culture collaboratively run with thirtythree-45 in association with Droichead Arts Centre. This annual event is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of traditional publishing, building DIY community connections and promoting underground, punk and grassroots zinemaking practices. Situated in the main gallery of Droichead Arts Centre, visitors will have the chance to browse stalls, connect with zinemakers, and purchase zines in a welcoming and inclusive space. Drogheda Zine Fair is free for both participants and attendees.
Strength Thru Xerox: An Exhibition by Boz Mugabe Friday 17 January, 6.00pm at The Kiosk Project Art Space. Open Sat 18 Jan 11-5pm
A pop-up exhibition of zines, drawings, gig flyers, posters and other printed materials by artist and zinemaker Boz Mugabe. This body of work reflects on DIY techniques, visual styles and influences of zinemaking in Boz's early artistic practice and presents more than a decade of underground publishing in Ireland.
The Kiosk is a new pop-up gallery and project space run by thrity-three 45 in association with Droichead Arts Centre.
Boz Mugabe is a visual artist living and working in Dublin city. His work is born out of scrawling habits of a lifetime and a background in underground publishing. He has exhibited extensively around the bohereens and drumlins of his native country. In November 2014, DIVINE TURBULENCE, his first major anthology of work, was published.
Crawl Space: A Zinemaking Workshop with Kathryn McGrane | Free but booking essential | Saturday 18 January, 12:00pm-1:30pm | Droichead Arts Centre
This workshop invites participants to create a zine about DIY music and art spaces in our communities. Facilitated by Kathryn McGrane, participants will brainstorm, collaborate and make their own zine from scratch using drawing and collage materials provided. Crawl Space welcomes participants of all ages and skill levels. If you've never made a zine before, don't worry - you are more than welcome to join us!
Kathryn McGrane is an artist from Northern Ireland, based in Belfast. Specialising in comics and zines about her interest in folklore and Neolithic sites. She co-runs the Belfast Comic Jam, a monthly collaborative comic making evening with fellow artist Andrew Pope.
In Conversation and Catalogue launch with Jackie Hudson Lalor
22 JAN | 6.30PM
Cost: Free Event, Booking Required
As we come to the close of the exhibition, Droichead Arts Centre are delighted to host an in conversation with the artist, Jackie Hudson Lalor, facilitated by our Curator in Residence , Dorothy Smith. This occasion will also mark the launch of the catalogue for the exhibition, designed by the artist.
Hudson Lalor’s work utilises imagery from mythology and biography to explore themes around feminism, womens’ experience negotiating our world and absence of representation. Her painting, drawing, sculpture and print demonstrate her considerable skill, powerful use of imagery and psychological insight.
Absinthe and Absence seeks to make visible that which we typically seek to hide from; the effects of trauma, the ignored pain of women, and the prejudice against ageing. Jackie Hudson Lalor dedicates this work to the multiplicity of Irish women, their complexities, their triumphs and their beauty.
The exhibition will travel to Hamilton Gallery, Sligo and to Strule Arts Centre, Omagh, in 2025.
Our gallery is open daily from Tues – Sat, 11am – 4pm, and the exhibition runs from 16th Nov 2024 – 25th Jan 2025
Slow Sessions with Brendan McCreanor
25 JAN - 29 MAR | 12PM
Cost: €5
For players of any instrument and at any level. A selection of easy and well known session tunes will all be played slowly so that people in the early stages of their playing or those coming back to playing music can have an opportunity to play together in a friendly, supportive and informal setting. More experienced players who wish to refine their techniques at a slower pace are also very welcome. We also welcome listeners and singers.
The Nanci Griffith Songbook
25 JAN | 8PM
Cost: €25
The Nanci Griffith Songbook is an evening of songs and stories dedicated to the late Nanci Griffith, one of America’s greatest musical treasures. A Grammy award winning recording artist whose career spanned nearly four decades, Nanci Griffith’s unique blend of country, folk and pop music made her one of the most respected, popular and loved singer songwriters of her generation.
Raised in Austin, Texas, Nanci Griffith had a special connection with Ireland, where she built a devoted following. Much admired for her distinctive voice and guitar style, Nanci’s beautifully crafted songs told stories of life and love which resonated deeply with Irish audiences and were covered by Irish artists such as Mary Black (‘Once in a Very Blue Moon’) and Maura O’Connell (‘Trouble in the Fields’).
Join Gillian Tuite and The Blue Moon Band for this unmissable show, as they perform the greatest hits of Nanci Griffith and celebrate her musical legacy.
The Playboy of the Western World | Livin' Dred
7TH FEB & 8TH FEB | 8PM
Cost: €22/20
“Now, by the grace of God, herself will be safe this night, with a man killed his father holding danger from the door…!”
Livin’ Dred Theatre present a riotous new production of J.M. Synge’s masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World, in a staging that crackles with wit, heroism, humor, and a touch of the absurd.
When the shy, poetic Christy Mahon stumbles into a rural tavern claiming to have killed his father, he sets off a frenzy of fascination that turns the countryside upside down - transforming him into an unlikely hero - and capturing the affections of the feisty and beguiling Pegeen Mike.
But as the young lovers dangerously flirt with an unexpected romance, the emergence of a mysterious figure suddenly casts Christy’s bold and ever-growing story into wicked doubt, until the lines between notorious truth and outrageous fantasy become hilariously blurred…
“Isn’t there the light of seven heavens in your heart alone…?”
Award-winning Aaron Monaghan directs a stunning cast of some of Ireland’s best-loved actors, in a wild, insightful new production, teeming with Synge’s rich lyrical language, biting satire and sensational characters.
Experience the comedy, chaos, and controversy of one of Ireland’s most beloved plays.
Image © Estate of Jack B. Yeats, DACS London / IVARO Dublin, 2024
An Evening with Manish Pringle
20 FEB | 8PM
Cost: €10
Manish Pringle is one of the few leading Indian slide guitar players of India. He has performed in many prestigious music festivals in India, and also showcased his talent in Europe, Australia, England, Middle East and South East Asia. Manish has also collaborated on fusion projects with International Music Maestros like Saxophone legend George Brooks, Blues musician, Michael Messer, French Music composer Hector Zazou, and African Kora player Lamine Cissokho.
Manish has been awarded with the title ‘Surmani’ by Surshringar Samsad Mumbai, and is the the recipient of MUSIC EXCELLENCE award by Camroon Creations Goa.
Theatre Club Spring/Summer 2025
7 FEB – 28 JUN | 8pm | 7 plays for €95 | Droichead Arts Centre
Website
Droichead are thrilled to announce our THEATRE CLUB for Spring/Summer 2025. This season we have a programme of seven incredible shows, including a trip off-site to the Abbey Theatre.
The season will kick off with the return of Livin' Dred (Tarry Flynn, Super Bogger) with a classic, The Playboy of the Western World directed by Aaron Monaghan; followed by Frankie McCafferty’s Lisdoon-Nirvana based on the last music festival in 1983 in Lisdoonvarna; there is ground breaking story telling from Mary Kate O' Flanagan in Making A Show of Myself, the hilarious Chicken by Eva O Connor and Hildegard Ryan, and the story of Nora Joyce in A Rare Journey by Paula Greevy-Lee, as well as that trip to the Abbey Theatre to see Youth’s The Season - ? as part of the Gregory Project, (ticket and bus included). Finally as a treat for 2025, (celebrating our 35th year) we are throwing in Chapterhouse’s Pride and Prejudice at Oldbridge. So seven great plays, all for €95…(and there will be a work in progress or two as well!)
Set up in 2017, and heading into its 14th season, Droichead Theatre Club brings audiences together to see a play, and like a book club, our audiences can share their views, thoughts and impressions informally post show with the cast and creatives. If this is your first or your 50th play, it doesn't matter, come along, and be part of the drama at Droichead.
Seven great plays for €95 including ticket & return bus trip from Drogheda to the Abbey Theatre, and outdoor theatre at Oldbridge.
PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD | FRI 7 FEB | 8PM | By JM Synge, directed by Aaron Monaghan | Livin Dred
LISDOON-NIRVANA | THU 6 MAR | 8PM | Written and performed by Frankie McCafferty, directed by Charlie Bonner |An Grianán productions
MAKING A SHOW OF MYSELF | FRI 21 MAR | 8PM | By Mary Kate O' Flanagan
CHICKEN | THU 3 APRIL | 8PM | By Eva O'Connor & Hildegard Ryan
YOUTH'S THE SEASON - ? | THU 10 APR | 7.30PM | The Abbey Theatre | By Mary Manning, directed by Sarah Jane Scaife
A RARE JOURNEY | FRI 16 MAY | 8PM | Written and performed by Paula Greevy-Lee, directed by Gerard Lee
OUTDOOR THEATRE AT OLDBRIDGE: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE | SAT 28 JUN | 6.30PM | OLDBRIDGE HOUSE | By Jane Austen | Chapterhouse Theatre
Stockwell Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth.
