Your Visit – An Táin Arts Centre, Dundalk

Welcome to An Táin Arts Centre

Opening hours

An Táin Arts Centre’s building is currently closed due to Government Level 5 Guidelines.Our off-site programme and box office phone line are operating as normal.

We are open Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 to 13.00 and 13.30 to 16.00 and 15 minutes before the commencement of out of hours events.

Due to Covid-19 Government guidelines, An Táin Arts Centre’s bar will remain closed until further notice.

Booking

In Person: The Box Office is open Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 to 13.00 and 13.30 to 16.00.

Face coverings are now mandatory in galleries, theatres and retail spaces. Please wear your face covering when visiting An Táin Arts Centre. Please note that we are currently only accepting card payment. If you cannot pay by card, please contact us in advance of your visit and we will work with you to make other arrangements.

Phone Booking: +353 (0)42 9332332 Phone Booking is available Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 to 13.00 and 13.30 to 16.00.

Online Booking: www.antain.ie Tickets may be purchased online up to an hour before the event.

Booking Fees: From September 1st 2019, all tickets incur a booking fee of €1.50 per ticket.

Ticket Collection: We are currently operating a paper-free booking system. Your booking will be recorded at time of purchase and entry to the event will be managed through a customer list.

Tickets for all events must be pre-booked, and will not be available to purchase at the time of the event. Please note that all seated events are currently being transitioned to an unallocated seating model to allow us to best manage current social distancing requirements.

Accessibility

The ground floor of An Táin Arts Centre is fully accessible, with lift access to the Basement Gallery, both workshop spaces and a wheelchair accessible toilet. Unfortunately, balcony seating in the main theatre and the balcony foyer are not serviced by a lift and therefore are not wheelchair accessible. Please let us know when booking if you have any special accommodation requirements (e.g. wheelchair access, medical needs, hearing or sight impairment).

There are limited wheelchair spaces in the main theatre (in front of row A) and in the studio theatre (in the front row, and back row) and these can be booked through our box office. Passes for wheelchair spaces are complimentary.

In the main theatre, our box office reserves several seats in row A for patrons who have mobility issues. These seats can be booked through our box office, as they are not put on general sale until the week of the event. If you haven’t been here before, please feel free to ask us for advice on choosing a seat to suit your needs.

An Táin Arts Centre has a limited number of personal hearing aids. Please contact our box office in advance of booking to check compatibility and availability for your chosen event.

If you or a guest has a condition that you feel might affect your experience here (e.g. photosensitive epilepsy, diabetes, autism, hearing or sight impairment) our staff will be glad to assist you and to ensure you are happy and safe during your visit. Please feel free to ask questions in advance of your arrival, or speak to a member of our front of house staff who can assist you if necessary. All trained assistance dogs are welcome in An Táin Arts Centre.

We are working to make An Táin Arts Centre as welcoming as possible to everyone, if there’s something we can do to make your visit more comfortable – please let us know, our front of house staff will be more than happy to help.

Covid-19 Information

An Táin Arts Centre is committed to the well-being of our audience, artists and employees. To assist our community in preventing the spread of Covid-19, we are adhering to Government recommendations and implementing enhanced health and safety protocols across our venue. Health and safety measures will be updated as new guidelines are released, with full details available here

We are doing all we can to promote a healthy environment, and rely on you to adhere to public health recommendations for your safety and the safety of others.

Face coverings are now mandatory in galleries, theatres and retail spaces. Please wear your face covering when visiting us. If you have a medical reason for not wearing a face covering, please contact us so we can make arrangements for your visit.

If you or a member of your party has a temperature or is feeling unwell, please visit us another time. Our front of house team is here to assist you in a safe visit to An Táin Arts Centre; please don’t hesitate to talk to us if you need any help. If you have any concerns in advance of your visit, please contact our Covid-19 Compliance Officer, CEO Paul Hayes, on paul@antain.ie

Concession policy

Concessions are available to children, full-time students, senior citizens (65 years and older) and the unwaged on certain events. Please check with the Box Office at time of booking and bring appropriate photo ID with you.

Children policy

Children must be supervised by an adult at all times. For ticketed events, children must have a valid ticket and must be accompanied by a ticket holding adult. If you are attending a ticketed event with your small baby, please note that we have baby passes for children under two years of age and these can be booked through our box office. Baby passes are complimentary. Please note that baby passes do not apply to ticketed events created specifically for children of this age. Breastfeeding is welcome in all our spaces.

Refund, exchange and cancellation policy

Once purchased, tickets and gift vouchers cannot be exchanged or refunded unless an event is cancelled by An Táin Arts Centre. Customers should note that the right to cancel (cooling off period) provided by the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 does not apply to the sale of event tickets. All sales are final.

Latecomer policy

We encourage all of our patrons to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the commencement of events. Latecomers and those who leave the auditorium may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance or until the interval. Admission cannot always be guaranteed. If you arrive late and admittance is possible, we cannot guarantee the seat that you purchased. Patrons should note that visiting companies will have differing policies in this regard. An Táin Arts Centre reserves the right to refuse admission.

Data protection policy

Once you have booked tickets with An Táin Arts Centre, your contact details will be held on our ticketing system Ticketsolve and will be used to contact you in relation to your booking. If a personal customer has not engaged with us for six years, we will automatically delete their identifiable information from our database. If you choose to join our emailing list at the time of your booking, we will send you regular information about An Táin Arts Centre and its programme of events using a secure email marketing system called MailChimp. If at any stage in the future you would like to opt out from receiving this information, please click unsubscribe at the bottom of any of the emails. An Táin Arts Centre will not pass on your details to third parties.

Conditions of sale

Management reserves the right to refuse admission and to cancel or make any essential changes to performances. Prices and information relating to a show can be subject to change. Smoking, vaping, photography and audio or visual recordings are strictly forbidden.

How to find us

View Map

By Foot / Bicycle

By Bus

By Train

By Car

An Táin Arts Centre is based in the Town Hall on Crowe Street in the heart of Dundalk, Co. Louth. The Town Hall is a large sandstone building next to Dundalk Court House on Market Square. If you are travelling by bicycle, there are several bicycle racks available for use in front of the Town Hall.

Dundalk is accessible by several bus services operating between Dublin and Belfast, with other minor routes also stopping in Dundalk. See links below for timetables and routes. Bus Eireann Matthews Bus

The Enterprise train service serving Dublin/Belfast always stops in Dundalk, and the journey takes as little as 50 minutes to either city. Other commuter trains operate in between the Enterprise journeys, stopping at minor stations along the way. Dundalk Train Station is located 1km from An Táin Arts Centre and is about a fifteen minute walk. There is also a free-phone taxi service operating from the station. See links below for timetables and routes. Irish Rail

Dundalk is easily accessible via the Dublin-Belfast M1 motorway and is within an hour’s drive of both cities. From Dublin: Take the M1 Motorway (northbound). Pass through the toll bridge at Drogheda heading north. Take exit 16 sign-posted Dundalk South, and then follow the sign posts for Dundalk town centre. For more detailed directions, please see our map facility. From Belfast: Take the M1 / A1 Motorway southbound towards Newry. On entering Newry take the A1 (Newry Bypass) and then continue forward onto the M1 and exit at junction sign-posted Dundalk North, R173, Carlingford/Greenore, and then follow the sign posts for Dundalk town centre. For more detailed directions, please see our map facility. On street pay parking is available near An Táin Arts Centre on Clanbrassil Street, Defenders Row, Market Street and Francis Street. There are also several car parks in Dundalk town centre, including those at The Long Walk and Marshes Shopping Centre. Sometimes, during evening events, there is free car parking available for patrons of An Táin Arts Centre in the Town Council car park on Market Street directly behind the Town Hall. This car park will close 30 minutes after the end of any event.

Local Amenities

Dundalk town centre plays host to a great range of bars and restaurants, and our staff will be more than happy to make suggestions for your pre-theatre dinner and drinks.

If you are looking for accommodation, there are several guest houses and hotels in the area. The Louth Holidays website offers some great suggestions.

Situated along Ireland’s Ancient East, the wider Dundalk area has a wealth of cultural attractions to offer, including the County Museum, the Oriel Centre at Dundalk Gaol, Spirit Store Venue, The Patrick Kavanagh Centre, Slieve Gullion, and the Cooley Peninsula. Dundalk is often associated with the famous mythological warrior Cúchulainn from Táin Bó Cúailnge or the Cattle raid of Cooley; there are signs of this all over the surrounding countryside. In Knockbridge, just outside Dundalk, there is a Standing Stone – Cúchulainn’s Stone – to which, according to legend, the fatally wounded Cúchulainn tied himself so that he could stay upright and face the opposing army. Every year, in nearby Cooley, twelve of the top GAA hurlers compete in the All Ireland Poc Fada where they take the same route Cúchulainn took as a boy across the Cooley mountains to ask the high kings if he could become a warrior. To this day, you can traverse The Táin Way, the site of the epic saga where Queen Meadbh of Connacht and her armies battled Cúchulainn for the Brown Bull of Cooley.

For further information on any of these attractions and to find out more about what you can see and do in the Louth area, please visit the Ireland’s Ancient East website. Dundalk Tourist office, situated in Market Square, will also be happy to help plan your visit: they are open Monday to Friday 09.30 to 17.30, providing an accommodation booking service, itinerary and route planning, and local and national information.