Servants and enslavers; merchants and governors; educators and journalists – the history of the Irish in the Caribbean is complex and multifaceted. This talk will survey Irish migration to the region from the 17th century, telling the stories of a diverse range of people who set out to make new lives for themselves in places...

Historian Liam O'Meara will reveal that it was at Inchicore that the Grand Canal’s first lock was located; here that the old mail coaches would pass down Chapel Road to the turnpike at the Cow and Calf en route to Kildare; and of course, here that the Great Southern & Western Railway company set up...

The strained relationship between the Irish Free State and Dublin Corporation is central to Aodh Quinlavan’s recent absorbing study which captures the mood in the capital during a period of turmoil. After the Civil War the Corporation continued to irritate the central Government with its activities. In these politically sensitive years, there was a determination...

**Booked out** Professor Davis Coakley (1946-2022) was an outstanding physician, historian, and leader of reform in medical services and education. This inaugural Davis Coakley Memorial Lecture explores the position of the physician-historian in medical historiography, discusses Coakley’s extensive historical work (especially his many books about the history of medicine), and concludes with comments about one...

Presented by the Dublin City Council Archaeology and Heritage sections, in association with the Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland. This lecture will focus on the industrial heritage of the south-eastern area of Dublin City. This area has a rich industrial history including mining and quarrying, watermills, windmills, breweries, distilleries and factories, power stations and gas...

The Custom House is an iconic 18th century masterpiece in the heart of Dublin City. For over 200 years it has stood sentinel over the River Liffey, overlooking the changing of a city. It is known not only for its turbulent history but also its architectural beauty. The Custom House Visitor Centre and the Casino...

A lecture on the remembrance of WW1 in Ireland 1919 and present day. Including the highs and lows of remembrance during the war of independence and civil war and the challenges the fledgling Irish Government faced with remembrance services in the 1920s and 30s. Who were the ex-service men and what challenges did they face?...

Join us for a talk on the the events of this momentous year in Rathfarnham, where we will be sketching out the background of the owners of Rathfarnham Castle at the time and their involvement, before placing the events in the locality within the Dublin and Leinster context. Booking: Call (01) 493 9462 or email...

**Booked out** Lindie Naughton’s forthcoming engaging and accessible overview of the history of public housing in Dublin has at its centre the remarkable achievement of Herbert Simms. During his time as city architect from 1932 to 1948, Simms was responsible for delivering 17,000 dwellings, thereby doubling the rate of delivery of his predecessors in the...

**Booked out** Robert Ballagh is one of Ireland's most celebrated contemporary artists. His work can be found in collections across the city of Dublin, including the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Trinity College Dublin. As a painter and designer, his work is strongly influenced by Irish cultural and political history....

Unlike his more famous older brother, 1916 leader Thomas MacDonagh, the story of Alderman Joseph MacDonagh, TD has been largely forgotten. At different junctures in the Irish revolutionary period, he was a Sinn Féin activist, councillor, including for Rathmines Town Council, TD, and a political prisoner who went on hunger strike three times. His revolutionary...

**Booked out** Harry Clarke was one of Ireland's most unique twentieth century artists. Internationally acclaimed as a stained-glass artist and illustrator, he was recently honoured in his native city with the naming of a bridge in his honour over the Cabra Road. This talk, presented by Dublin City Council Historian in Residence, Dr James Curry,...

Captain Hermann Goertz parachuted into Ireland during the summer of 1940 with his mission to act as a liaison officer with the IRA and to enlist their assistance during a potential German invasion of Britain. During his period in Ireland, until his arrest in November 1941, he stayed in a number of safe houses including...

At the end of the 19th century there were around 8,000 horses and 4,000 pigs living in Dublin city while nearly 200,000 cattle and 300,000 sheep passed through each year. In 1901, 803 Dubliners worked as cattle dealers, drovers, farriers, vets. Over the course of the 20th century most of these animals, and most of...

Dublin City Council presents this illustrated talk by Dr Ruth McManus which traces the development of Killester from the Anglo-Norman manor of "Quillestre" to the landed estate of Killester Demesne, associated with the Gleadowe Newcomen family, ending with the burning of the house in May 1920. Ruth's research is part of a Dublin Through the...

Creating textiles has always been at the heart of Irish culture. Weaving goes back to ancient times and Ireland enjoyed a thriving wool trade up until the late 17th century, from the 19th century onwards lacemaking, weaving and the Aran knit threw a lifeline to struggling rural communities. Today, the heritage continues to inspire. Using...

**Booked out** Intrepid traveller and intimate of kings, emperors and despots, the range and diversity of Lord Sligo’s life is breathtaking. From a youth of hedonistic self-indulgence in Regency England to a reforming, responsible legislator and landlord, Sligo became enshrined in the history of Jamaica as ‘Emancipator of the Slaves’ and in Ireland as ‘The...

The Irish Architectural Archive will host a lunchtime lecture by Vincent Delany entitled 'Knocksinna, an unusual road for unusual people’. Vincent will take you on an architectural journey through the International Style houses of Fahanmura, Glencroe and Ardveen amongst others on Knocksinna Road in Foxrock, Co.Dublin. No booking required.

Professor Frank Barry will reveal that Dublin was still an industrial city when Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973 with almost half of the largest manufacturing establishments in the state. The Guinness brewery at St James’s Gate employed 3,500. Jacob’s biscuit factory employed around 1,500 and was predominantly female. Twenty-five or so of...

Bilingual poet, essayist and third generation Dubliner, Dr Declan Collinge discusses his recently published literary anthology of Dublin which features literary extracts through the centuries, up to the present day. From Fenian Cycle poems to Swift and Stoker, from Joyce to Keyes and Howard, it also includes such famous Dublin characters as Billy in the...

June 2023 marked the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's visit to Ireland. The trip was a personal defining moment for him, in a summer of defining moments for his presidency. The talk by U.S. historian Cecelia Hartsell will discuss President Kennedy's trip to Ireland that summer and will feature the video of the...

Ireland has the remains of about 400 army barracks built between 1690 and 1921. While a few remain in military use in the twenty-first century in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, the story of this built heritage is largely unknown or at times simply avoided because of its association with British rule. These sites...

**Booked out** Donaghmede library is delighted to present 'Being Behan' as part of The Dublin Festival of History. Join award winning poet Dave Lordan to mark 100 years since the birth of Brendan Behan. Dave will discuss Behan's life and work as well as his politics and the social context which influenced his work. Dave...

Apologies, this event has been postponed.  Dublin City Council presents this illustrated talk by Professor Joseph Brady, who will look at the provision of housing for ex-servicemen in Dublin and how the Killester garden suburb influenced the work of the Irish Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Land Trust after 1926. Joe’s research is part of a Dublin...

Apologies, this event is fully booked. Talk by Dr Ruth McManus, Associate Professor in Geography and Associate Dean for Teaching & Learning at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, DCU. Her most recent books are the second edition of 'Dublin 1910-1940, Shaping the city and suburbs' (2021), and 'Building Healthy Homes, Dublin Corporation’s first...

Join us as we proudly celebrate the unveiling of Dublin City Council Commemorative Plaque, marking the original Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts building on Lower Abbey Street. Note: Event will be available for viewing online at a later date. No booking required.

**Booked out** The Royal Irish Academy Library is delighted to present a lunchtime lecture by Dr Damian Bracken, University College Cork, exploring the representations of imperial Rome by writers in early Ireland, a land that was never part of the empire and that gave the lie to imperial Rome’s claims to universal domination. This talk...

Dublin Port is delighted to host a lecture by PhD José M. Pagés Sánchez, Director of Agenda AIVP 2030. Delve into the intricate relationship between port cities in Europe. Throughout history, this dynamic connection has responded to socioeconomic shifts and challenges. The transformation of waterfronts reflects the delicate balance between segregation and integration. Explore sustainable...

When James Mitchell travelled from his home in east Belfast to Dublin on Easter Weekend of 1916 his main objective was to enlist in the British Army for service in the Great War. Having become a soldier of the King on Easter Sunday he enjoyed a winning streak at Fairyhouse races on Easter Monday where...

This talk by Dr Declan F. Brady, examines political life in Fingal in the aftermath of the Civil War and the challenges of the 1920s. As the government sought to consolidate the Irish Free State, local politicians in Fingal dealt with continuing divisions, problems of poverty, unemployment, and agrarian unrest. Note: This event will be...

More than 600 female political prisoners were interned by the Free State government over the course of the Irish Civil War. To mark the centenary of this event, a special symposium in Kilmainham Gaol will explore the ways in which these women sought to memorialise their role in the conflict, through memoirs, diaries, autograph books...

A talk by broadcaster and author Dr David McCullagh. De Valera began 1922 as President of the Irish Free State. By early 1923 he was a hunted man, in danger of execution if caught by Free State forces, politically side-lined among republicans and powerless to end the Civil War. But in those darkest of days,...

The Irish Manuscripts Commission, established in 1928 after the burning of the Four Courts, publishes primary sources for Irish history. IMC’s publications show history through the eyes of the people who were there. Ernie O’Malley was one such person. His notebooks are transcripts of interviews with 451 anti-Treaty veterans of the Irish Revolution (1913–23). Recorded...

Join Dr Charles Ivar McGrath and Dr Suzanne Forbes for this talk exploring the ‘Our Shared Built Military Heritage’ project, a HEA funded North-South Research Programme project mapping and inventorying Army Barracks built around Ireland from 1690–1921. No booking required.

Flor MacCarthy will discuss her best-selling book, The Presidents’ Letters, which was shortlisted for Best Irish-Published Book 2021. Eighty-five years of signatures are contained in the huge leather-bound Visitors' Books, revealing how Ireland has changed since the 1930s. To book, please click here.

John O’Brien, author of Securing the Irish State: A century of policing 1922 – 2022, outlines the evolution of An Garda Síochána and how this new and unarmed police force was established in the midst of a bloody civil war. Note: This event will also be available online post-festival. To book, please click here.

**Booked out** Kathryn Milligan, author of ‘Painting Dublin, 1886-1949: Visualising a Changing City’, will discuss the work of artist Harry Kernoff. Born in London on 9 January 1900, Harry Aaron Kernoff was a prolific figure in twentieth century Irish art. Well regarded for his portraiture and landscape painting, Kernoff often focused on the depiction of...

**Event CANCELLED due to unforseen circumstances** In 2013, ANU Productions presented 'Living the Lockout' at 14 Henrietta Street. For many, this was a first engagement with the museum space. Since then, ANU Productions have been a central force in the Decade of Centenaries in Dublin. Louise Lowe from ANU will discuss all of this with...

**Booked out** Lecture by Dr Charles E. Nelson (Associate Editor, Archives of Natural History): ‘Irish gardening books, 1700–2000’. This is the Brendan Prendiville Memorial Lecture. Note: Limited spaces, please book a seat. Booking: Email info@edwardworthlibrary.ie.

**Waitlist only** An exploration of attitudes and responses to poverty in eighteenth-century Dublin by Francis Thackaberry. The citizens of prosperous Georgian Dublin associated poverty with idleness, disease and moral decay and sought ways to prevent ‘foreign’ vagrants from ‘infesting’ the city. One response was to found Dublin’s first tax-funded workhouse in James's Street in 1703....

As founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), Marcus Garvey built one of the largest pan-Africanist organisations in history. The Jamaican-born activist mobilised millions in arguing for the establishment of an independent Black nation – a call that gained global traction after World War I. Like anti-colonial nationalists in Asia and Africa, Garvey took...

It takes time to build a literary tradition. In Dublin: A Writer’s City, author Chris Morash sets out to produce a literary map of the city, area by area, looking at the ways in which knowing the literary heritage of our own neighbourhoods enriches our experience of living in the city. In this talk, he’ll...

The RDS Library & Archives will host this event in the RDS Library. The RDS Drawing Schools were founded in 1749 and would eventually go on to become the National College of Art and Design. This event will consist of an illustrated talk from the RDS Archivist and Curator that will explore the history of...

The League of Ireland is commonly seen as a development league, one whose best players are signed at an early age, usually by larger, wealthier clubs from Britain, following a pattern established more than a century ago. But in this set of four case studies from the 1920s through to the twenty-first century another narrative...

A lecture by Dr Michael O’Neill FSA (Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries) author of ‘An Architectural History of the Church of Ireland’ (Church of Ireland Publishing 2023). No booking required.

Joe Brady and Paul Ferguson will reveal that maps are huge repositories of information and tell much about the times in which they were created. This lecture explores some lesser-known maps of Dublin selected from a larger project tracing the history of the city in maps. Included will be that produced for the funeral of...

Dublin City Council and Four Courts Press present Spectral Mansions, an illustrated talk by Dr Timothy Murtagh which charts the transformation of Henrietta Street and the surrounding area from an elite residential district into one renowned for its deprivation and overcrowded slums between the years 1800 and c.1914. The talk investigates the nature and origins...

**Waitlist only** 2023 marks the centenary of the birth of the writer Brendan Behan. Raised in Dublin’s north inner city and with strong connections to Dublin’s tenements, Behan is regarded as one of the greatest Irish writers and poets of all time. In 2000, Peter Sheridan directed Borstal Boy, inspired by Brendan's 1958 memoir. Sheridan...

June 2023 marked the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's visit to Ireland. The trip was a personal defining moment for him, in a summer of defining moments for his presidency. The talk by U.S. historian Cecelia Hartsell will discuss President Kennedy's trip to Ireland that summer and will feature the video of the...

A historic or antique map is an object of beauty, nostalgia, and importance. It can help to create links between the physical and conceptual places in which we live, both those of the past and today. The maps reflect the extent of knowledge at a certain time and exhibit the overall development of a country...

**Booked out** On 31 October 1973 a hijacked helicopter landed in the prison yard at Mountjoy. It stayed there very briefly and when it took off again, it had three Provisional IRA prisoners on board: Seamus Twomey, Kevin Mallon and J.B. O'Hagan. Dublin City Council Historian in Residence, Dr Mary Muldowney will talk about the...

Join History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, for a lively and interactive discussion on how the Irish Civil War was depicted on film, both at the time in newsreels, and subsequently in the films Michael Collins and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and how this has affected our understanding of the period. This event is...

Join us for an insightful lecture by the Port Heritage Director on “The Military Defences of Dublin Port: 1790 to 1945.” Explore the fascinating history of Dublin Port’s military fortifications and their role in safeguarding the city throughout the centuries. From the strategic positioning of coastal batteries to the impact of world wars, delve into...

As well as safeguarding the city’s civic records, Dublin City Archive houses hundreds of private collections that provide colour and context to any study of Dublin’s development. Among these are archives of numerous Dublin businesses, including Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, Findlater & Co Merchants, and Edward Lee & Co drapers. Join Fionnuala Parfrey, archivist with Dublin...

Roger Doyle, together with Olwen Fouéré, was at the heart of Operating Theatre. More than an experimental theatre group, music was a key dimension of the project, now thankfully available to hear again from All City Records and their Allchival imprint. In The Irish Times, “his name is revered in the realm of theatre”. In...

This paper will examine the first attempts to promote women’s soccer in Dublin, beginning with failed efforts in the late nineteenth century and in the 1920s. It was not until the 1970s that the game took off in earnest with the organisation of league and cup competitions central to this. Despite this, gaining support remained...

**Booked out** How did the area which now forms the Navan Road parish evolve? In this talk, local resident and historian Enda Finnan examines the transformation of the rural community and landscapes of the townlands of Greater Cabragh, Ashtown and Pelletstown from the 1920s to the 1960s. As Dublin’s population migrated from the tenement-dominated city...

This event will showcase some of the most exciting historical scholarship in Ireland today. Researchers supported by the Irish Research Council, will share insights on their projects and discuss working-class life in Dublin across the twentieth century. Contributors will reflect on the social, cultural, and political history and legacies of Dublin’s working-class communities. This event...

Richmond Barracks is delighted to welcome Liz Gillis, co-author (with Mary McAuliffe) of Richmond Barracks, 1916 “We were there” – 77 women of the Easter Rising’. A landmark text published in 2016, it shone a light on a previously overlooked aspect of the revolutionary period. In the words of John Banville, “This book goes a...

In this talk, Dr Peter Rigney will speak on conflict on the Irish railway network throughout the 1916 to 1923 period, including industrial relations disputes involving railway workers, the labour movement, and the employers. Inchicore railway works played a key role throughout this revolutionary period. Peter is editor of Saothar: Journal of the Irish Labour...

Michael Healy was raised in a Dublin tenement and through a combination of innate talent, hard work and lucky breaks he pulled himself out of grinding poverty. Ahead of Harry Clarke, Wilhelmina Geddes and Evie Hone, he established the bar for artistic and technical excellence in the exacting craft of stained glass and worked at...