Making Dust is a powerful portrait of the demolition in 2021 of the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas, once the second-largest Catholic Church in Ireland. The film is structured around a fascinating and deeply insightful essay by architectural historian Ellen Rowley which considers some of the ways in which the building has both influenced and been influenced by the community it was built to serve. Featuring oral interviews with Finglas locals recorded at the site and in a nearby hairdresser’s, the film reflects on the life cycles of buildings and materials to offer a profound reckoning with an epoch of Irish history that is only now just beginning to come into focus.

Followed by a conversation, moderated by Emmett Scanlon (Director, Irish Architecture Foundation), with Fiona Hallinan, Ellen Rowley, and poet Paula Meehan who came of age in Finglas.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn.