I started this year with a big deep dive into David Lynch and I’ll likely end the year watching one of his least favourite films, Dune, to round off his filmography. ‘Dune’ is the story of a young man, Paul, who is burdened with “divine purpose” or so he would think. Spoiler to those on a 60 year old series: it is all manufactured. He is the driver of his own destiny and it takes almost 6 books ((I am a Frank Herbert purist)) to find that realisation for the rest of humanity.
This year, I have done something quite similar to Paul from Dune. If you’ve watched the films, you would know that Paul leaves Caladan to journey to Arrakis, an alien world to his own but one that is known to him through his “divine purpose”.
I have upped and moved myself home to Ireland. It’s been a year of transition. It’s been a year of big tests and big changes and big reflection, of digging through wardrobes and finding old hats that don’t exactly suit anymore. It will also mark 5 years ago exactly when I sat in on New Year’s Eve in the UK, freshly back in restrictions drinking a bottle of wine and listening to the Big Ben announce the officiating of Brexit while wearing that same hat.
This year I’ll be surrounded by family, but my heart will be with those who have helped me along this lil transition over the past while.
It’s been a good year. A scary year. I’ve left my job and home in London. I left friends, though these people will remain lodged in mind and soul. I’ve gained new friends and reconnected with a lil fluff who, as of writing, naps beside me with a little snore.
I have directed more, landing a lil gig at Dublin Fringe with more exciting projects to come in the New Year. I wish it were sexier, I wish it were flashier but I am happy. It is moving. Life is moving and I feel as though I am moving with it and not against it. London sped by whereas Ireland, the open land, it takes a leisurely stroll. It is nice.
So to 2026, the year of horse, which apparently leaps and bounds and gallops (as opposed to the year of the snake which was 2025 and about shedding?) I hope we can saddle up, trot along and work our way to cantering by.
Keep your eye on the donut not the hole
Slán agus beannacht, Dublin Fringe!!
After a seachtain dochreidte in Smock Alley Boys’ School, we’ve swept up the salt circle on Anonn’s run at DFF.
With sold-out shows and unbelievable support, we are totally ar bís and are so grateful to the teams at @dublinfringefest@smockalleytheatre for the chance to haunt Dublin last week! Míle míle buíochas to everyone who joined our spooky business, and if you didn’t catch us, we’ll see you in Galway as we take to the @lastafestival on October 4th!
This can’t be all there is. An bhfuil tú cinnte?
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📸 @fearghalomahoney
Performing Arts Alumnus, Graham Butler-Breen directs Annon | The Other Side debuting at Dublin Fringe Festival this September!
Anonn | The Other Side will be showing in Smock Alley Theatre, Boys’ School: 7 – 14 September.
LISTING:
Previews: Sunday 7 September / 6.30pm / €12
Opens: Monday 8 September / 9.00pm / €14-€16
Runs: Tuesday 9, Wednesday 10, Thursday 11 & Sunday 14 September (ISL Interpreted performance) / 9.00pm / €14-€16
Matinee: Saturday 13 September / 1.15pm / €14-€16
Tickets available:
DFF Box Office: Tel: 1800 374 643. /festival/whats-on/anonn-the-other-side
Smock Alley Box Office: Tel: 01 677 0014 / /ticketbooth/shows/873656710
Dur: 55 mins
Kildare playwright Cian Ó Náraigh makes his Dublin Fringe Festival debut with his and Scaoilte Theatre’s new one-man sharp theatre show that delves into a macabre spirit world. Anonn is a bilingual, gothic one-man show, following a fake-spirit medium who actually makes contact with the other side. The play, directed by Graham Butler-Breen, premieres at Smock Alley Theatre (Boys School) - and is the professional debut of Scaoilte Theatre, following earlier development of Seift, an Irish language play about political grifting and identity.
Developed at Dublin Fringe Festival Studios & at Scene+Heard 2025, Ó Náraigh’s humorous new play explores ideas of belief and grief, using the Irish language to expose the past and the realities of who we are. The work is vulnerable, funny, and horrifying all at once and explores themes of grief, loss, and the grisly, all from the safety of a salt circle. Seoirse, played by Elliot Nolan, has been pretending to be a spirit medium. But when he actually makes contact with the spirit world, he’s forced to confront what he has done.
Anonn first began as a project on Irish language folklore, before evolving into a work-in-progress at Scene & Heard in February 2025.
Supported by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council & Kildare County Council.
Check out for more information
Some loooovely behind the scene pics of Anonn | The Other Side the Dublin Fringe Lab last Friday. In a steady simmer right now and getting ready to serve 🫡🫡🫡
Can you believe we’re 5 days out from opening @dublinfringefest
It’s been busy since moving back - I don’t think I’ve had too much time to think since being here as my thoughts are preoccupied with this little world we’re crafting. It’s a joy.
Tickets are slowly but surely becoming scarcer and scarcer - so if you have plans on joining us, please please please do book in soon. I’d hate for you to miss out on this little journey we’re going on.
Anonn | The Other Side previews in @smockalleytheatre Boys School this Sunday 7th and opens September 8th until the 14th. I’ll have a link in my bio for you to have a lil gander at, to maybe buy a ticket and come support us. This work is GOOD. I feel GOOD. Come share in the goodness x
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Photos by the magic @fearghalomahoney
A chairde, we’re thrilled to announce that our show, Anonn | The Other Side, is part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2025! We’ll be performing back at @smockalleytheatre Boys’ School, 7th - 14th of September. The full programme is live now at fringefest.com, link in bio for tickets. @dublinfringefest #DublinFringe25
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Seoirse - Elliot Nolan
Writer/Producer - Cian Ó Náraigh
Director - Graham Butler Breen
Stage Manager - Martha Cosgrave
Lighting Designer - Conor McGowan
Art Design - Hollie Murphy
Marketing Consultant - Alison Eaton
Photography/Filmography - Fearghal O’Mahoney
Developed at Dublin Fringe Festival Studios & Scene+Heard, with in-kind support from ITI. Supported by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (@dlr_arts ) & Kildare County Council (@arts_in_co_kildare ). -
This can’t be all there is.
An bhfuil tú cinnte?
Seoirse has been pretending to be a spirit medium. But when he actually makes contact with the other side, he’s forced to confront what he has done. A one-man show tackling themes of grief, loss, and the macabre, all from the safety of a salt circle. Vulnerable, funny, and horrifying, this play asks: even if we could speak to the other side, would we be able to say anything at all?
Home is calling; and there is news.
Almost five years ago I upped and left to move to London - in the midst of a global pandemic and a world that was chaotic, tumultuous yet stagnant. I cried, family cried, friends cried.
I moved to London to follow a career - one that has been fruitful but one (as my fellow artists know) has become chaotic, tumultuous and stagnant, at least here in London.
I return five years later to embark on another journey, one that sees me make my moves back across the waters to Ireland. To home. To my family.
It’s incredibly scary.
It’s incredibly exciting.
It is scary to leave so many wonderful people I have met here - to leave a life I have curated by myself.
Yet it is incredibly exciting to follow this universal telling to return - to follow the trail and see what it is that is there - what it is that exists beyond the horizon.
It is only a short hop; a skip across a pond. But it feels significant enough to mark it, to mark it and say “this will be my life for a while”
But for a while.
So London, I look forward to our parting gifts and tissues at the terminal - and Ireland I look forward to receiving your serenity and peace amongst the brambles.
I leave early August - let us find time to spend a thought or two for each other
Or else I will see you across the pond, gazing out across the shoreline and hoping to sneak a peak into what comes across your horizon x
This can’t be all there is.
Seoirse has been pretending to be a spirit medium. When he actually makes contact with the other side, he’s forced to confront who he is and what he’s done.
We’re delighted to announce our new play Anonn, as part of Scene and Heard Festival, on the 22nd and 23rd of February at 3pm in Boys School. We’ll be sharing the slot with the gorgeous @son.of.a.witch_the.show . Tickets can be found in our bio or on @smockalleytheatre website.
Anonn is a multilingual play about grief, intervention, and the question: even if we could talk to some higher power, would we actually be able to say anything at all?
Míle buíochas to @sceneandheardfestivalofnewwork for programming us, and to @dlr_arts Mountains to Sea Creative Writing Bursary for the support in the development of the script.
Bígí Linn!
2025 already off to a roaring start…
I’ve the absolute privilege of being able to bring this gorgeous lot in to the @riverbankartscentreie in Newbridge on January 28th for a FREE sharing of new work…in Irish!!! ((We have subtitles, do not let that scare you))
SEIFT will be playing from 8pm on the 28th, a story on the weaponisation by far-right media outlets through the use of language, people, and identity, but, most importantly, on its role within the family unit.
Beyond excited to be back in the Arts Centre after almost 7 years ((my last show there being a production of Macbeth in 2018))
I’ve loved directing this. And I want to share it with as many people as possible. So come down. Get tickets. ITS FREE. What’s not to love?
Ticket links in bio x
Artwork by the fabulous @holliemostlypaints
Life as of late;
It’s coming to Christmas time, which means that everyone comes to a reflective point in their lives and looks back on what should and hopefully was a productive and worthwhile year. You got the promotion you wanted or you crossed a new threshold in your career; you found love or made serious steps in the right direction for it; you were good good good.
2024 has been a lot of things. 2024 has not been good good good in a lot of aspects. I sit here writing, reflecting; friends have moved away from home to news homes, there feels to be a stagnation in where I want to be, there have been physical, emotional and psychological disturbances that have shaken; I come out of 2024 changed.
Not in a way I expected to be.
I spoke a lot of the excitable energy in the air on the eve of the New Year, how 2024 felt like it should be a good year, that it should bring with it sparks of excitement and wonder and awe - this year, on the precipice, I feel no excitable, wonderful or awe-ful sparks. I feel the cold clamp of a callous hand from the year ongoing grip my shoulder. I feel the events of this year everlasting.
That is not to say that this year has not brought love and joy and happiness. My moments of happiness, I suppose, have been accentuated by moments of agony. These photos are just a glimpse into some moments of these; crystallised vignettes of life amongst the madness of it all
“With incredible highs, come incredible lows”
And that is the wave. One day, your hairdresser is happy to cut your hair for £50, the next, she’s moving back out of the country and you have to find someone new again. Or, you think you want round glasses when in actual fact you need just a regular old black frame. Or, lastly, you stop to see a train go by and look in its windows, not realising there’s a whole world being reflected in its passing.
To 2024, to love, to lows, to highs. To the ever going, lasting long still of life.
To you, if you’ve read this far. Thank you thank you thank you
Nothing can quite capture the past few weeks in as succinct a way as I can explain. Colour and dreams and wandering. Pain and terror and anxiousness.
These photos are reminders of what I came from; I attended a residency hosted by @edenscavecompany wherein I hoped to reconnect to a part of myself that has been malnourished for a while. It’s been a rough year creatively, so this was a souls journey into rediscovering that part of me, greeting it and running away with it. It will lead to exciting things - and I must tell myself that because the converse is much worse.
London missed me and wanted to tell me vigorously how much it did. Every action has an equal an opposite reaction - as seen by the violent welcome back I received. (Everything is safe and secure, I am, for the best part, in tact) Again, it serves as another reminder. Something to use and fuel the next few months.
These are just to mark and remind me that I can dream and wander into terrifying landscapes and return in tact. That I can heal. That I can use me as a catalyst to drive forward.
A big thank you as ever to @henrymcgrath_productions and also @hunterasintohunt for creating an environment to delve into securely. To the Earth Movement ensemble who held each other other safely. For creating a home away from home.
There will be more moments like this.
Photo Credit: PATRICK DODDS. ‘Earth Movement LAB’ with Eden’s Cave.
@patrickdodds
The Informant by @jacobkeesing
Some stills from a lovely little project I shot back in March. A lot of fun on this one; first big role in front of a camera which was held beautifully by all the production team and manned superbly well by both Jacob and @joe_walden01 and punctuated, supported and shared with the great @cullyjunior
Hopefully, will have some exciting news soon about screenings, but for now, just know, I have creeped all of my family out by this performance. I guess my type-cast really is psychotic man who will hold a grudge over you for all of time.
A big thank you to all @theinformantfilm team; legends
