The Hawk Against the Dove
A Powerful Exhibition Confronting Addiction in Small-town Ireland
Exhibition Launch at Art House Athy, 19 July at 3.30PM with acclaimed Athy photographer John Minihan. Athy, Co. Kildare
The Hawk Against the Dove, a profoundly moving collaboration between Antoinette Foley and James Mahon, premieres this month in Art House. Athy, 42A Leinster Street.
This powerful collaborative photography exhibition offers an
unflinching portrait of addiction, resilience, and redemption in rural Ireland.
Once associated primarily with urban centres, drug addiction has increasingly taken root in small towns and rural communities.
The Hawk Against the Dove traces this shift through the lived experience of Antoinette Foley, whose personal journey lays bare
the often-invisible cost of substance abuse in towns like Athy.
Born into a Traveller family, Antoinette’s life spirals following teenage love, heartbreak, and the trauma of family separation. Her descent into addiction is chronicled with raw honesty, from the streets of Athy to the banks of the River Barrow. Yet, at the heart of this story is not only pain, but a fragile, persistent hope – the memory of the girl she once was, and the future she still dares to imagine.
Blending documentary insight with poetic reflection, The Hawk Against the Dove is both a personal and political statement. It confronts the weight of judgment placed on women, Travellers, and addicts, while affirming the power of storytelling as a path to
healing and change.
This timely and resonant work invites audiences to bear witness – not only to struggle, but to survive.
For media enquiries, interviews, press images or further information, please contact:
Anthony Haughey, Director of Art House Athy:
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James Mahon, Photographer and Author:
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Instagram & Facebook: art.house.athy.2025
Also check out other Exhibitions in Kildare, Arts events in Kildare, Literary Art events in Kildare.
