THE SÉAMUS ENNIS ARTS CENTRE

CREATIVE FINGAL:

THE SÉAMUS ENNIS ARTS CENTRE

Opened in October 2012, SEAC was originally conceived to commemorate the work and life of the late Séamus Ennis, master Uilleann Piper, raconteur, folklore collector, singer and storyteller. Throughout the years, SEAC has undergone extensive development to become a unique venue to showcase performances from local, national, and international artists across a wide range of arts including, music concerts & festivals, traditional arts, theatre, comedy, cinema and creative workshops.

The Easter Snow Gallery, housed in the thatched cottage, exhibits work from Irish artists and The SEAC School of Music teaches a range of traditional Irish instruments. The Cottage Pantry, based in our thatched cottage is a lovely rustic style café, providing a warm and welcoming atmosphere and delicious menu, for visitors and locals alike.

In recent years, The Piper’s Garden, a covered outdoor performance space, has been developed (500 capacity) and has played host to the annual SEAC ‘Garden Party’, welcoming acts including Moving Hearts, Rodney Crowell, Horslips, Hudson Taylor and Damien Dempsey, comedy acts including Ardal O’Hanlon, Barry Murphy, Gearóid Farrelly, as well as outdoor family cinema events, dance bands, craft and food fairs and community events.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, SEAC, unable to provide concerts for a live audience, pivoted and curated an ambitious online programme of livestreamed concerts. The production of such a largescale programme of online events was two-fold.

Director Deirdre Roche “we felt it was essential to ‘keep the show on the road’ and provide our patrons with a consistent, high-quality programme of live-streamed events, throughout what was a very difficult time during lockdown. We were keen to continue to support artists, whose livelihoods were devastated by the pandemic. Our production of live-streamed concerts, with live Zoom audiences tuning in from around the world, helped to bridge the creative gap during the pandemic, and provided much needed work for artists and technical crew in an industry that had very much ground to a halt overnight. Our national and international audience grew exponentially, with traditional music enthusiasts tuning into our programme from all over the globe, including South Korea, Sierra Leone and Chile. What was, at times a challenge for our small team in pulling these online events together, paid dividends in terms of reaching a global audience and the promotion of traditional Irish music.”

The recent lifting of restrictions and the return to full capacity concerts has given great hope for 2022. The Spring Programme is already proving very popular with patrons and the return to normality brings with it exciting plans for TSEAC’s Garden Party 2022.

The Séamus Ennis Arts Centre is funded by Fingal County Council, with additional funding from The Arts Council, the generous support of SEAC Friends and patrons and Rural Leader.

To see our programme of events and for further information visit tseac.ie