Dara McCluskey is an award-winning filmmaker based in Cooley and has a long association with Dundalk, having been Dundalk Arts Office’s artist in residence in 2005. For his 2021 residency with An Tain Arts Centre he will work on a number of screenplays he has been developing in recent years.

Dara has directed several acclaimed documentaries for RTÉ’s prestigious Arts Lives series, including one on Dundalk punk poet Jinx Lennon in 2007 and his documentary ‘Blood Relations’ about Clones novelist Pat McCabe (The Butcher Boy, Breakfast On Pluto) was shortlisted for an IFTA award and won the Celtic Media Festival Best Arts Award in 2009.

Dara has worked extensively with school and community groups and in many experimental forms involving visual artists, musicians, dancers, disabled and marginalised groups. His work has been exhibited in international festivals in Dublin, Cork, Cardiff, Monte Carlo, Milan and New York. Dara was in residence in An Táin Arts Centre during April, May and June 2021.