A Burning Tide

As part of Fingal County Council’s Commemorations programme 2018-2023:
Fingal County Council’s Arts Office, in association with The Irish Writers Centre, is delighted to present – A Burning Tide – A New Commissioned Writing & Film Commission, to be presented as part of Culture Night 2021 on 17th of September 2021, at Loughshinny Boathouse from 7pm – 9pm.

At the stroke of midnight on 18th June 1921, six Coast Guard stations on the North Dublin coast were silently approached by groups of IRA men ready to undertake a simultaneous attack. The reason for these attacks was to secure a landing place for a shipment of arms which were being smuggled from the U.S. aboard the freighter East Side. It had been meticulously planned – the raiding parties lay in wait, having cut the telephone wires to ensure no one could raise the alarm. When zero hour arrived, they rushed into stations up and down the coast, taking the Coast Guards by surprise. The Guards and their families, who lived onsite, were told to leave immediately and the stations were set alight. As dawn broke the following morning, flames were still licking what was left of the stations at Skerries, Loughshinny, Rush, Rogerstown, Portrane and Robswall.

Fingal County Council’s Arts Office, in association with the Irish Writers Centre, has commissioned six pieces of new writing, including monologues, short stories, poetry and prose. These pieces which include work by Irish Writers Centre Ambassadors Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and Ciara Ni É, as well as Dermot Bolger, Enda Coyle- Greene, Kit de Waal & Stephen Walsh, have reimagined personal interpretations of the events that took place on the night of June 18, 1921 when the IRA burned the 6 Coastguard Stations of North County Dublin to prepare for a consignment of arms due to arrive from New York to Loughshinny Harbour. This special commission, titled A Burning Tide sees these prolific Irish writers present a series of fictional narratives that connect and expand this lesser known historic event for modern audiences. These new pieces of writing have been performed and brought to life through an exciting new film by Arcade Film. Shot on location at Loughshinny Harbour and its surrounding landscape, the film features stellar performances by Ian Lloyd Anderson, Joe Duffy, Kate Gilmore, Pat Kinevane, Niamh McCann, Marion O’Dwyer and includes contributions by writers Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Ciara Ni É and Enda Coyle-Greene.

The film tells the story of the burning of the Coast Guard stations through six pieces of new writing, which are woven into a series of vignettes. The stories unfold through characters, real and imagined, who bring us back to the events surrounding this historic night in Ireland. These characters include Kit de Waal’s piano teacher in The Piano, Stephen Walsh’s lost soldier in The Fire Just Laughed and faded memories recalled with age in Men as Old as the Century by Dermot Bolger. We are catapulted into the present through a popular radio show with Éilís Ní Dhuibhne where callers from the past have found themselves speaking through the airwaves to the emotive and evocative poetry that captures something of national collective feeling of Ireland as it stood on the edge of its freedom as written by Enda Coyle-Greene and Ciara Ni É.

The film A Burning Tide will be screened outdoors at Loughshinny Boathouse for Culture Night where audiences will be immersed in this key location in the physical sense and transported to the events that took place there 100 years ago through the wonderful portal of literature and the arts.

A Burning Tide will be screened at Loughshinny Harbour/Boathouse as part of Culture Night 2021 from 7pm – 9pm, no booking necessary, All Welcome. Film will be on loop during the period, dress for weather, parking limited.

For more details on the full Fingal Culture Night Programme Please visit www.fingalarts.ie/news

For further Information Please Contact: Caroline Cowley: Public Art Co-ordinator,Fingal County Council’s Arts Office, Email:caroline.cowley@fingal.ie ph: 01 870 8449