Lighting new fires from old traditions - "Teach Allais" opens at An Chéad Tine

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us on Friday evening for the opening of Teach Allais at An Chéad Tine. We’re deeply grateful to Heritage Officer Regina Fitzpatrick for her thoughtful words in opening the event, and to Darren Francis Caffrey for an evocative performance that stirred something ancestral in the space. Thanks also to the exhibiting artists, supporters, and everyone who came to share in this gathering of fire, story and memory — your presence made it all the more special.

The exhibition Teach Allais invites viewers into a space of ritual, reflection and transformation. Each artwork in the show responds to the ancient Irish sweathouse — that mossy, low-slung stone dome of heat and healing, still found tucked into the folds of our landscape. Through painting, sculpture, performance, sound, and installation, twenty artists explore ideas of cleansing, the body, the land, and the mystical resonance of place. The work navigates layers of time, responding not only to folklore and history, but also to a contemporary longing for connection, rootedness, and ritual.

A Teach Allais

The Irish teach allais (house of sweat) is a traditional dry-stone sauna structure, often built into hillsides and shrouded in lichen and moss. With more than 300 known examples across the country, these structures were once used for healing, purification and recovery — places where turf fires were lit, heat absorbed by the stone, and the body left to sweat out illness or grief. Their origins are still debated — some trace them to early Christian missionaries or Norse saunas, others believe they stretch back to our Bronze Age ancestors. They sit at a liminal place between world and underworld, architecture and myth, fire and water.

For this exhibition, artists were invited to respond to the Teach Allais in any medium — from sculpture, installation and oil painting, to land art, sound, spoken word or performance. The open call encouraged works that explored the textures and themes of the sweathouse — moss, stone, fire, cleansing, ritual, and rebirth. It also welcomed engagement with Ireland’s spiritual landscape, its folklore and its ancestral echoes. Over 20 artists were selected by curator Mary Doyle Burke to take part.

Teach Allais runs from 11th July to 2nd August at An Chéad Tine Art Gallery, located on the mezzanine floor of Dunnes Stores, St. Kieran Street, Kilkenny. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 11am to 5pm. All are welcome to visit and experience this uniquely rooted and resonant exhibition.

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Thank you all again for your support.

Have You Stories of a Teach Allais? We’d Love to Hear Them

Have you ever come across a Teach Allais - or maybe even sat in one yourself? These ancient Irish sweat houses were once dotted all across the country, from tucked-away glens in Donegal to the foothills of the Galtees. Now, we’re reaching out to all of you—local historians, folklore enthusiasts, or anyone with even a scrap of family memory—to help us piece together the living story of the Teach Allais.

Whether you’ve tales handed down through the generations, sketches or photos, or just a memory of someone mentioning one years ago, we’d be delighted if you’d share them with us in the comments below or reach out to us by email at an.chead.tine@gmail.com