Birr Theatre and Arts Centre
About
The Oxmantown Hall, built in 1888 after a group of townspeople decided in 1887 that Birr needed a hall that would do for everything from a Sunday school to a social tea party, and opened on the night of 15 January 1889 to a crowded house that turned people away at the door. It carried the social life of the town until the 1980s, then lay idle. Birr was designated a heritage town in 1993, a committee bought the building, Birr Stage Guild took a 105-year lease at a pound a year, and after a restoration costing around 711,000 euro the theatre reopened in July 2000 with a concert by the fiddle player Liz Carroll. It seats 220 with retractable seating, so it works as an exhibition space too. It is now the hub of the Birr Festivals Collective and hosts OFFline Film Festival, Hullabaloo, Birr Festival of Music and Scripts, along with touring theatre, a film club and a youth theatre. Box office 057 912 2911.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓Victorian hall of 1888, opened 15 January 1889
- ✓Restored by the town and reopened July 2000
- ✓220 seats with retractable seating
- ✓Home of the Birr Festivals Collective
- ✓Weekly arthouse film screenings
Tips
- →Check the What's On page before a visit; the programme is busiest from September through spring.
- →It is directly across Oxmantown Mall from The Stables tea rooms, which makes a pre-show plan easy.
- →Box office 057 912 2911.
Best Season
More Attraction Activities
Birr Castle Demesne
120 acres of parkland, gardens, rivers and a working science site behind the wall on Rosse Row. The demesne is the visitor offer; the castle is a private home.
Ireland's Historic Science Centre
Seven galleries on the Parsons family's telescopes, early photography and engineering, including the oldest intact darkroom in the world.
The Great Telescope, the Leviathan of Parsonstown
The 72-inch reflector the Third Earl of Rosse finished in 1845, the largest telescope in the world until the 100-inch Hooker went up at Mount Wilson in 1917.