Avalard Productions

12/08/2025

First Drams is back on 28 October at McConnell’s Distillery.
Tickets on sale now!

This time we're looking for your creepy/spooky/chilling/macabre stories for the Halloween season.

Full submission criteria is at https://avalardproductions.com/first-drams - get in touch with your stories!!

09/08/2025

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for the inaugural First Drams on Wednesday night.

To all our readers (in no particular order) - Caitlin Bowden, Victoria Dunn, Marcus Keeley, Madeleine Bridgman, Robyn Clare Scott, Carolyn Boyd, Barry Armatrong, Una Martin, Mada McCrea, and Rhonda Glasgow.

And of course our hosts Ciarán McAlinden and Robert J.E. Simpson.

A special thanks to the staff at McConnell’s Distillery () who helped make this happen, and for all your support (and damn fine whisky)!

And to our lovely audience - all the friends, family and strangers who came out to support the arts last night. We very much hope this is the beginning of something special.

We'll be back for another round on 28 October with a Halloween event, tickets on sale now! If you'd like to submit a story for inclusion, send us a DM or email [email protected]

In the meantime, here's some pics of our readers last night - if you took any images yourself do tag us!

www.acalardproductions.com

07/08/2025

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for the inaugural First Drams last night.

To all our readers (in no particular order) - Caitlin Bowden, Victoria Dunn, Marcus Keeley, Madeleine Bridgman, Robyn Clare Scott, Carolyn Boyd, Barry Armatrong, Una Martin, Mada McCrea, and Rhonda Glasgow.

And of course our hosts Ciarán McAlinden and Robert J.E. Simpson.

A special thanks to the staff at McConnell’s Distillery who helped make this happen, and for all your support (and damn fine whisky)!

And to our lovely audience - all the friends, family and strangers who came out to support the arts last night. We very much hope this is the beginning of something special.

We'll be back for another round on 28 October with a Halloween event, tickets on sale now! If you'd like to submit a story for inclusion, send us a DM or email [email protected]

In the meantime, here's some pics of our readers last night - if you took any images yourself do tag us!

05/08/2025

Do you like stories? or Arts events in unusual places?

We're launching a new evening at McConnell’s Distillery at the old on Wed 6 August 2025, hosted by Ciarán McAlinden and Robert J.E. Simpson.

We'd love to see you there - an evening of stories and whisky and celebration of the arts in and .

This is an Avalard Productions event in association with McConnell's Distillery.

Let us know if you're attending or would like to go to something like this in the future!

04/08/2025

We are back at Downpatrick and County Down Railway for our third set together of interactive family-friendly Halloween shows this 1 and 2 November.

Tickets are on sale NOW! So get booking.

Dare you board the Phantom Flyer? All aboard for a spooky experience with witches, vampires and vampire-hunters and face painting for the kids.

03/08/2025

Who's coming to First Drams : Tales in the Crum on Wednesday ? We can't wait to see you at McConnell’s Distillery !

If you haven't booked your tickets, please do so!

We're hoping this might become a regular event, and purchasing your ticket in advance helps us enormously with planning and staging.

Also, if you're a writer and were hoping to submit, you're now too late for our first edition. However, anything we receive is put forward for the next event - details about our rolling submissions will be posted later this week.

Tickets get you a free drink on arrival, and a voucher for a discount off any bottle of McConnell's and off a future distillery tour. Your support also helps with the running of our event and creating more opportunities for local creatives.

There's a late bar too, and free secure parking on site.

31/07/2025

First Drams Tales in the Crum is new event running in on Wednesday 6th August 2025 at McConnell’s Distillery on Crumlin Road Gaol, in association with Avalard Productions. The event lets new and up-and-coming writers read out a chapter of their work in front of an audience. Ticket includes a free drink on arrival, free parking and 25% off distillery tours. Subs still open - email: [email protected]. Big thanks to Ciaran Mcalinden for the heads up about this event.

31/07/2025

Join us at Crumlin Road Gaol on Wednesday 6 August for a brand new storytelling evening - FIRST DRAMS: TAKES IN THE CRUM.

Your hosts and will be joined by an array of new and exciting storytellers in the stunning surroundings of the McConnells Distillery.

Tickets are £12, which includes a complimentary drink, and a voucher for a discounted tour of the Distillery.

There's a late bar, and free secure overnight parking on site.

Help make this a success and we'll put on another one!

Link for tickets in bio.

FIRST DRAMS is an Avalard Production.

29/07/2025

Join us for a night of stories at McConnell’s Distillery on 6th August...

Get your tickets now!!

First Drams : Tales in the Crum

31/12/2024

• OCTOBER PT. 2 •

A year to the day since our last public trains, we finally got back up and running at the end of October. It took a mountain of effort, both on the grounds and behind the scenes, but it was well worth it to be running trains once again. Our first public trains of 2024 saw the return of the Phantom Flyer, run in conjunction with our good friends at Avalard Productions. And what a return to service it was! As we're sure you'll agree, the event looked fantastic, and whilst there may have been a little bit of rain it certainly wasn't as bad as last year! In further Halloween fun, the station was the first stop on the town's Trick or Treat Trail, and Shadow Hunters NI returned to find even more things that go bump in the night around the railway.

30/10/2024

A huge thanks to everyone who attended our Phantom Flyer shows at over the weekend. We hope you enjoyed!

Thanks also to the superb cast and crew that made it happen including our actors and , our in-character photographer (who took this pic!) and all of the DCDR volunteers who ran the trains, dressed the set and were generally the best to work with.

We'll share more pics soon, but we had such a good time!

Our next events will be announced soon, and meanwhile if you're interested in hosting an event or would like us to partner up or perform for you, get in touch!

Thanks again!
Robert