Shifting Tide’s Culture Night in Warrenpoint in September brought together a vibrant community to celebrate the heritage, and creativity of the people and Carlingford Lough. Through a diverse array of art forms, the event honored the unique marine ecosystem and the many stories it holds. The immersive experience began with a shoreline foraging session, allowing participants to connect directly with the environment. From there, guests moved through an inspiring art and photography exhibition, featuring images of the Lough’s past alongside recordings of oral histories, connecting visitors with voices from the area’s history.
The evening included captivating performances, with contemporary dance and vocalizations, readings from local writers, and a film that echoed the movement and mystery of the water. Underwater sounds and photography captured the hidden world beneath the surface, while documentary photography celebrated local environmentalists and divers who work to protect the Lough. As local tastes of the Lough were showcased, attendees held engaging conversations around a shared appreciation for Carlingford’s unique culture and ecology. Later in the evening, We Built This City on Rock and Coal brought humor and insight with improv, blending science and art. True to its vision, the night offered a multi-sensory journey into the heart of Carlingford’s creativity, cultural heritage and environmental richness. As one participant said, “there really was something for everyone” and another commented that while they appreciated the beauty of the Lough they had lived beside all their life, they were very happy to see so many people learning about it and appreciating it in new ways.
There were many elements to the exhibition that were the results of Shifting Tides summer activity with arts and marine science. Local participants’ work from various workshops such as the results of a Cyanotype photography by Aindreas Scholz, created with seawater and materials gathered from the shore revealed natural textures and ecology in beautiful shapes and cerulean tones. Anne Marie Savage’s microphotography-inspired multimedia works by her workshop participants invited guests to look closer, revealing the intricate details of marine life and shoreline elements.
Further exploring the connections between people, nature, and communities across the Lough, earlier in the summer, sculptor Steve Lally hosted workshops that engaged participants from both Omeath and Warrenpoint. Together, they transformed driftwood and shoreline debris into imaginative sculptures of boats, creatures, and abstract forms. As a professional storyteller, Steve used these creations as a backdrop to his performance, sharing tales of the Lough’s history and folklore, including stories of smuggling and folk tales.
A central tenant of Shifting Tide’s Culture Night was honoring the Lough’s stories and the people who have lived along its shores for generations. In addition to Steve Lally’s stories, which spanned the potential for positive cross-the-lough cultural impact of the new bridge between Warrenpoint and Omeath, Declan Mallon of Upstate Theatre curated a series of oral history recordings. Accompanied by images from the Carlingford Heritage Centre and Warrenpoint Historical Society, and of Colum Sands these recordings offered an intimate connection to the voices, faces, and experiences that define life by the Lough.
Photographs by local divers Phil Scott, Paddy Lambe, and Frances Lambe gave a rare glimpse of the underwater world, revealing the hidden beauty and complexity beneath the surface. Jenny Barker’s documentary portraits celebrated the local environmentalists, creatives, swimmers, and divers who deeply appreciate this fragile ecosystem through their experiences diving, emersion in the water, educating, carrying out citizen science, underwater or shoreline cleanups or inspiring their art and activism.
Attendees enjoyed local fare prepared by Rayme’s Seafood, sampling dishes created with ingredients from local suppliers and from the Lough’s bounty. Their chef shared his passion for offering a way to engage with local flavors and the livelihoods the support sparking conversations that flowed as attendees continued to explore the exhibition.
The evening continued with readings from local writers inspired by their day out on the Lough. This was followed by showing the new short film ‘Body of Water’, created for Shifting Tides by Anna Konieczna. The film celebrates the essential connection between the health of the Lough and human health through the experience of a group of local swimmers. The film features serene, slow-motion footage of these local women swimming in Carlingford Lough, capturing the fluidity and the life-giving qualities of water. The film’s poetic voiceovers by the swimmers highlight their deep respect and love for the Lough, and the benefit of emersion and care for themselves and the connection to care for their local environment. The eight paintings by Cliodhna Doherty started during filming were also on display, inspired by the female forms in water as a further artist’s exploration of this connection. Cliodhna’s work portrayed the purity and serenity of water and the body as one.
A solo dance performance by Danae Wollen brought an expressive, immersive moment after the film credits rolled, adding a powerful live dimension to the theme of connection with the Lough. Known by some attendees from her role in Where Seaweed Dances, performed in Carlingford Heritage Centre earlier this year, Wollen offered an excerpt tailored for Culture Night. Her silhouette appeared in a shadow play, moving in sync with an underwater soundscape by composer Karen Power, recorded in Carlingford Lough this summer. Wearing a living seaweed headdress, Wollen crept down from the stage, moving playfully and gracefully through the exhibition space and among the audience. She ultimately sank to rest among the shore debris sculptures, as Ali Warner’s evocative vocalizations echoed through the room, creating an innovative contemporary expression that united art and marine ecology.
We Built This City on Rock and Coal, an improv theatre group, brought both laughter and reflection to the night. Their performance creatively blended climate and environmental anxieties with appreciation of nature and humor. Through unscripted often hilarious dialogue and at times farcical scenarios inspired by the audience