Fingal County Council EU Presidency Programme
- Thinning the Veil
Web: Art Exhibition 'Thinning the Veil' - Malahide Castle and Gardens
Something new for Malahide Castle as six contemporary artists join together in an exhibition within the environs of the medieval castle.
This exhibition reckons with how contemporary Ireland views monuments as sites of memory, histories and past lives.
The art of six contemporary Fingal artists can be found through the halls of Malahide Castle this autumn. Sculptures on vacant surfaces, installations in ante rooms, audio pieces in empty turrets and graphic illustrations invoking messages in forgotten corners. Their work interrogates the transition of Malahide Castle from a private family home to a public attraction fifty years ago.
The show, curated by Eamonn Maxwell, responds to the space and reflects on the veil as a permeable threshold between past and present, interior and exterior, monument and fragment. Each artist engages with Malahide Castle as a site of layered histories, colonial entanglements, domestic memory, botanical transformation, and embodied inheritance. The works move across domestic rooms, transitional spaces, a sound-led chamber, and a ruined church creating a sequence that moves from the atmospheric to the political, textual, devotional, temporal and sculptural. The works deal with the visible and obscured, the incidental and the deliberate, the sacred and profane.
An exhibition of artworks by six contemporary Fingal artists on display throughout Malahide Castle. To view the exhibition please join us on a guided tour of the castle or book here for one of the free events scheduled throughout the exhibition.
This exhibition is funded by Fingal County Council, Culture Ireland and the Department of Culture, Communication and Sport to celebrate Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union and to mark fifty years of Malahide Castle being open to the public.
Artists:
· Susan Buttner
· Ann Ensor
· Elaine Grainger
· Michelle Hall
· Deborah Hewson
· Laura Skehan
Curated by:
Eamonn Maxwell
Event Details:
Free Late-Night Events & Special Programs
Join us on selected Tuesdays (and Culture Night) for a series of exclusive late-night performances, artist talks, and guided tours.
Please note: Admission to late-night events is free, but advance digital booking is required due to limited room capacity.
Location: Malahide Castle & Gardens
Date: From 29th August to 22nd November 2026
Age Suitability: 14+
Accessibility: Please be advised that one artwork in this show contains rapid flashing images. Please speak to a member of staff if you require further information. Large Text format leaflets are available from the Castle Reception Desk.
2. The Language Hub: Poetry and Translation
As part of the country-wide cultural programme celebrating Ireland’s EU presidency, poet Christodoulos Makris has curated a series of poetry sessions that centre connectivity through language.
Centred on language as a means of connection and cultural exchange, the programme will explore how poetry can foster dialogue across borders and traditions. Poets, writers and translators visiting from across Europe and within Ireland will present their work - in English, Latvian, Italian, Dutch and Irish - and discuss their creative and translational practices in an informal and participatory setting.
Poets and translators visiting from across Europe will present their work - in English, Latvian, Italian, Dutch and Irish - for discussion in an informal setting that welcomes audience participation. Featuring Ligija Purinaša, Kimberly Campanello, Nicoletta Asciuto, Ciara Ní É and Sophie Collins.
Locations: The Chapel, Swords Castle
Date: Saturday, 3rd October
Time: 11:00am - 4:00pm
Further Information: fingal-autumn-winter-brochure-2026.pdf
3. Fingal Festival of History Talks: ‘History at the Library’
This year sees Fingal’s tenth annual Festival of History, which will run from Saturday 26th September to Sunday 11th October 2026. History at the Library Day takes place on Saturday 3rd October in The Carnegie on North Street, Swords with a number of the talks that day covering our links with Europe and the EU, while Ireland holds the Presidency of the European Community.
For more information on all, please see: Fingal Festival of history talks: ‘History at the library’ Brochure 2026
Talk 1:
A Very Long Courtship: Fingal and Europe before the EU
Fingal has a long history of relations with Britain and Continental Europe from the evidence of Roman trading at Drumanagh, near Loughshinny, in the first century AD, through Viking and Norman settlement to its later trading links and travels of its diaspora. Today Dublin Airport, at the heart of Fingal, is a key transport link between Europe and North America.
This talk, by Dr Declan Brady, will highlight some of these economic, social, cultural and political connections from the first century in Fingal to Ireland’s EU membership at the end of the twentieth century. Dr Declan Brady is a research historian, educator, and professional genealogist. He is currently working on a history of politics and local government in North County Dublin for Fingal Local Studies and Archives.
Date: 3rd October
Time: 10:00Am
Location: The Carnegie library, swords
Talk 2:
50 Years: Ireland and the EU
With Ireland over halfway through its presidency of the European Union, Dr David McCullagh presents this timely talk. He covers Ireland’s relations with the EU, the United Kingdom and how the last 50 years of EU membership has changed over time.
Well-known broadcaster Dr David McCullagh has a PhD in politics from University College Dublin and is the author of a number of books on Irish history. He is best known for his formidable two volume reassessment of Eamon de Valera, the single most consequential Irish figure of the twentieth century – as a leader of the Easter Rising, figurehead of the anti-treaty rebels during the Civil War and later, founder of Fianna Fail and President of Ireland.
Date: 3rd October 2026
Time: 11:30am
Location: The Carnegie Library, Swords
Talk 3:
The La Mancha Murders: A Centenary Review
On 31st March 1926, a fire at La Mancha on the Swords Road led to the discovery of six bodies of the McDonnell siblings and two staff members. The McDonnells had come from Galway just a few years before but were already planning to move away from Malahide. Their gardener, Henry McCabe, was ultimately arrested, tried and hanged for the murders. 100 years on, Malahide still doesn’t talk about this terrible crime. In this lecture Claire Bradley will sensitively remember the victims and consider the long-term impact on the town.
Claire Bradley is a local professional genealogist who specialises in Irish family history. She studied History at Trinity and from her research in the repositories of Dublin she gravitated towards a career in genealogical research. Claire completed a Certificate in Family History from UCD and graduated with a Masters in the History of the Family from the University of Limerick in 2021. She is on the Register of Qualified Genealogists.
Date: 3rd October 2026
Time: 2:00pm
Location: The Carnegie Library, Swords
4. Legacy in Conversation: Celebrating 25 Years of the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre, they host an intimate reception for up to 60 invited guests drawn from the arts and government sectors. The evening will bring together three of Ireland's most celebrated figures in traditional music, Dónal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, and Pádraig Keane for a conversation and musical performance reflecting on the enduring legacy of Séamus Ennis and the Centre's own quarter-century of work in Traditional Arts.
Beyond the live event, the evening will be professionally filmed and edited into content for online distribution, forming a centrepiece of the 25th Anniversary programme and extending its reach far beyond the room.
Séamus Ennis remains one of the most significant figures in the history of Irish traditional music, and the Centre that bears his name has spent 25 years building on that legacy, supporting musicians, audiences, and communities.
This event is designed to: mark a significant institutional milestone in a way that honours its namesake; bring together leading voices in traditional music to document living memory and expertise before it is lost; strengthen relationships between the Centre and key arts and government stakeholders; create a lasting digital record with value well beyond the night itself