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What was it like to be a peasant, a potter or a poet in Medieval Dublin? Find out about these and others who made their living as miller, mason, man-of-law and more! What challenges and conflicts did they face? These interesting talks show how new research can help illuminate the lives of early Dubliners and allow us gain an insight into their lives. These talks are part of Tales of Medieval Dublin: A series of monthly lunchtime lectures which took place in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 at the Wood Quay Venue, Civic Offices, Wood Quay. The series was presented by the Friends of Medieval Dublin and Dublin City Council.You may also be interested in reading the Medieval Dublin Series, edited by Sean Duffy, produced by the Friends of Medieval Dublin and published by Four Courts Press. Full list of videos from this series:Milestones of Medieval Dublin 2013December 2013Silken Thomas and the Siege of Dublin by Steven EllisNovember 2013The Coronation of Lambert Simnel by Sparky BookerOctober 2013The Black Death by Gillian KennySeptember 2013The Bruce Invasion by Seymour PhillipsAugust 2013The Construction of Dublin Castle by Con ManningJuly 2013Dublin's First Coinage by Andy WoodsJune 2013Dublin's First Viking? by Linzi SimpsonTales of Medieval Dublin 2012December 2012The Poet's Tale by Katharine SimmsNovember 2012The Potter's Tale by Clare McCutcheonSeptember 2012The Crusader's Tale by Edward ColemanAugust 2012The Slave's Tale by Poul HolmJuly 2012The Duibh Linn(ers') Tale by Edmond O'DonovanJune 2012The Miller's Tale by Claire WalshTales of Medieval Dublin 2011December 2011The Notary's Tale by Caoimhe WhelanNovember 2011The Mason's Tale by Michael O'NeillNovember 2011The Archdeacon's Tale by Margaret MurphyAugust 2011The Peasant's Tale by Cherie PetersJuly 2011The Mother's Tale by Howard ClarkeJune 2011The Viking's Tale by Stephen HarrisonJanuary 2011The Knight's Tale: Sir Christopher St. Lawrence (died 1589 AD) by Sparky BookerTales of Medieval Dublin 2010November 2010The Heretic's Tale: Adam Duff O'Toole (died 1327 AD) by Bernadette WilliamsOctober 2010The Outlaw’s Tale: Henry Tyrel (fl. 1308 AD) by Áine FoleyAugust 2010The Merchant’s Tale: Roger Cordwainer (fl. 1200 AD) by Grace O'KeefeJuly 2010The Skeleton’s Tale: An Anonymous Viking Warrior (died c. 830 AD) by Linzi Simpson    

John Thomas Gilbert, born in Dublin on the 23rd January 1829, was the author of the influential three-volume 'History of the City of Dublin', published from 1854-59. He was a firm advocate of documenting the history of his native city using primary sources.

This gallery is a tribute to an animal which has been a friend to Dubliners through the centuries. Whether as a working horse, a military high-stepper, a means of transport or simply a beloved companion, these images show the important role Dublin horses played in daily life throughout the last century, from those pulling the Lord Mayor’s Coach to those feeding from an old car in Labre Park.

Crying cockles and mussels! Alive Alive O! Cabbages on Moore Street, lilies on Grafton Street, Christmas decorations on Thomas Street. The photographs here tell the story of the changes to the markets during the late 20th and early 21st century - the demise of the Iveagh clothes market, the re-invention of the Smithfield Horse Fair and the huge changes undergone by the street traders in Moore Street during the redevelopment of the area from the 1970s onwards.

The Lockout 1913 inspired many poems, ballads, songs and rhymes. Many of which were published in The Irish Worker. These poems and ballads provide a vivid portrait of the conditions faced by Dubliners during the Lockout, the battle between the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and the Dublin Employers’ Federation and the key personalities of the time.As part of the City Hall Springtime Lectures Francis Devine and Fergus Russell performed ballads and songs of the 1913 Lockout. Songs include 'Freedom's Pioneers' by James Connolly and 'The Red Hand Badge' by AP Wilson.Right: Image from A Capital in Conflict, Dublin City and the 1913 Lockout. Copyright: Dublin City Library & ArchiveFrancis Devine's accompanying historical commentary gives the background of the Lockout and the songs featured here. He discusses The Irish Worker newspaper, women and the Lockout, Bloody Sunday, victims of the Lockout and figures such as Jim Larkin, William Marting Murphy, Divisional Magistrate E.G. Swifte (aka "forty bob") and Rosie Hackett after whom the newest bridge over the River Liffey was recently named.Listen to songs and poems of the 1913 Lockout with historical commentary by Francis Devine.Read the transcript.Recorded by Dublin Community Television on Tuesday 2nd April 2013 as part of the Spring series of City Hall lectures. The City Hall Lectures are organised by Dublin City Archives.Further ResourcesDublin Commemorations 1913-1916 Sources available at Dublin City Archives.The Reading Room, Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street holds a wealth of material on the history of Dublin, including books, pamphlets, journals, street directories, and almanacs.Browse books on the 1913 Lockout in the Library Catalogue. Dictionary of Irish Biography: Over 9,000 signed biographical articles. Includes many figures from 1913 Lockout mentioned in this talk such as James Larkin, William Martin Murphy, James Connolly, Delia Larkin, Countess Markievicz, Helena Moloney, WP Partridge.The following online resources can be accessed free of charge at your local library (access links via our NetVibes portal). Ask library staff for information and assistance.Dictionary of Irish Biography: A comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary for IrelandIrish Times Digital Archive: This online archive service gives access to contemporary editions of the Irish Times from the mid-nineteenth century until the present.Irish Newspaper Archive: This online archive service gives access to contemporary editions of the Irish Independent and a range of other newspapers.The Ireland-JSTOR Collection: This online archive of academic articles can also be accessed free of charge at your local library.

Parnell Square is the oldest of the Georgian Squares of Dublin, and the only one on the north side of the city to escape the tenementisation of the later 19th and early 20th century. Built as the homes of the great and the good of the late eighteenth century, including the Gardiner and Charlemont families, during the 19th century its buildings became more commercial in nature, with large numbers of solicitors, doctors and auctioneers locating their offices there.

Monday, 26th August, marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the strike in Dublin of 700 tramway-men belonging to James Larkin’s Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (IT&GWU), a strike that developed into a general lockout of union members.

Where has the romance gone? There was a time when it was a great adventure to fly, it was very glamorous, you dressed the part, and your luggage did not cause major grief. The role of air hostess was a top job for attractive young women. The Flying Boat Museum at Foynes, Co. Limerick, the excitement of the early days of passenger flight. Right: Dublin Airport (view larger image)Aer Lingus, the Irish national airline, started life in a very small way back in 1936, with one small biplane, flying out of the military air base at Baldonnel, Co. Dublin (see images below). The following year construction work began on a new purpose built airport at Collinstown, north of the city. The new Dublin airport opened in January 1940, with a modern terminal building and runways. This postcard gives a sense of the exclusiveness of the flying experience.During World War II Aer Lingus operated just one route, Dublin to Liverpool. In November 1945 the direct service to London was reopened. Aer Lingus recruited the first three air hostesses in December 1945. By August 1951 the airline had carried its one millionth passenger.The Dublin and Irish Collections at Dublin City Library & Archives holds a collection of ephemera, which can be viewed in the Reading Room. This Aer Lingus timetable for the summer of 1951 is very evocative. We can see that a new night service, called ‘Starflights’, was inaugurated between Dublin and London. The fares were expensive, costing £5 one way, or £10 return: a large investment in 1951.Read all about the history of aviation in Ireland and about Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports.Below: Report in the Irish Independent, 28th May 1936. (click to view larger image)Below: Five seater de Havilland Dragon DH84 about to depart Baldonnel Airport. (click to view larger image)The above screenshots are of the Irish Independent newspaper, 28 May 1936. You can access the Irish Independent and many more newspapers online and free of charge at Dublin City branch libraries courtesy of our subscription to the Irish Newspaper Archives. This subscription allows you to search, retrieve and view newspapers from 1700s to the present. More about our online subscriptions.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way …Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two CitiesThis Gallery contains a selection of images of Dublin from the period around the Lock-Out of 1913.

View the Art of Architecture GalleryBefore photography was widely available or popular, printmaking preserved the landmarks of the Irish landscape. The usual method of printing for many of the images in this gallery is through engraving, a process by which marks are made into a plate, and the recessed areas are filled with ink to produce the print. An artist would be hired to make a drawing, and then an engraver would engrave the drawing onto a plate. The prints could be sold cheaply and were, essentially, the precursors to postcards. Artists chose locations much the same way photographers today choose locations for postcards, choosing a locally famous landmark or something that was meant to represent Ireland and Irishness. Medieval castles were an extremely popular choice among print artists because they satisfied both criteria.Ireland is heavily associated with the many castles that dot its landscape. Irish castles date from anywhere from medieval Anglo-Norman castles constructed in the 12th century to grand estates of largely Protestant gentry in the 19th century, and even the oldest castles have been reconstructed or additions have been made throughout the centuries. These castles represent some fantasy to the families that purchased them or modelled their homes on them, but to the Irish, they represent English power and are symbols of oppression and tyranny. Hence, castles were featured in many prints of 18th and 19th centuries including the ones featured in this image gallery, but during the Irish War for Independence (1919-1921), a significant number were burned or knocked down and are no longer standing or lie in ruins. A few castles have been converted into hotels or are maintained as national monuments because, since there are so many in Ireland, they continue to capture the imagination and have been incorporated into the image Ireland projects to the world.The castles in this image gallery are all medieval castles or began as such, but three in castles in particular are perhaps more widely known than the others, Blarney Castle in County Cork, Kilkenny Castle in County Kilkenny, and Malahide Castle in County Dublin.Blarney Castle is arguably the most famous castle in Ireland, thanks largely to the legend of the Blarney Stone, which attracts numerous visitors every year. Blarney Castle was constructed in stone on the site of earlier wooden fortifications in the 13th century, but its current keep was built in the mid-15th century by an Irish chieftain named Cormac MacCarthy.  The castle briefly was captured by Parliamentary forces during the Wars of Three Kingdoms, but was restored to the MacCarthy family after the Restoration of the English monarchy. After the Williamite Wars in the late 17th century, the castle was confiscated from Donough McCarthy, 4th Earl of Clancarty, who had supported King James II of England and lost, and eventually sold to Sir James St. John Jefferyes. The Jefferyes, married into the Colthurst family in the 19th century, built a mansion in 1874 on the grounds, replacing an earlier one destroyed by fire, which they still own and continue to live in.Kilkenny Castle was built by William Marshal, 4th Earl of Pembroke around the turn of the 13th century.  Marshal was distantly connected to Richard de Clare, otherwise known as Strongbow, who had led the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1170. James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond, purchased the estate near the close of the 14th century and the Butler family continued to own the castle for nearly 600 years until James Arthur Norman Butler, 6th Marquess of Ormonde, gave the castle to the people of Kilkenny for a payment of £50 in 1967. The grounds are now maintained by the Office of Public Works and the castle is open to the public.Malahide Castle was originally constructed in the 12th century by Richard Talbot, a knight serving Henry I in Ireland. The Talbot family proceeded to own and reside in the castle until 1976, when, after the death of Milo John Reginald Talbot, 4th Baron Talbot de Malahide, his sister Rose sold the castle and grounds to Dublin County Council, with a short exception in the 17th century during the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The estate survived through the bloody Battle of the Boyne in the late 17th century and the Penal Laws directed against Catholics, which the Talbot family remained until the late 18th century. The castle is maintained and operated cooperatively between Fingal County Council and Dublin Tourism. Since 2007, Malahide also has concert venue, which has hosted the likes of the Arctic Monkeys, Pink, Radiohead, and Prince.This gallery has been created by Francesca La Brecque, Undergraduate at University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA; Class of 2015, majoring in History and German. Francesca came to Ireland under the European Study Abroad (EUSA) Program.These and many other Topographical Engravings can be seen at the Reading Room in DCLA.See MoreLibraries and Archives Digital Repository: Digital records relating to Dublin, including photographs, postcards, letters, maps and ephemeral material. Highlights of the collection include the Fáilte Ireland Photographic Collection, Wide Street Commission Map Collection (1757-1851), the Irish Theatre Archive and the Birth of the Republic Collection, which comprises material from the period of the foundation of the Irish state.