In line with the national move to Level 5 Dublin City branch libraries are closed as and from Thursday December 24th until further notice. We continue to operate our home delivery and online services.
The bombing of Dublin's North Strand by Nazi aircraft on 31st May 1941 was an assault on Ireland's neutrality. The casualties were many: 28 dead and 90 injured, with 300 houses damaged or destroyed. The North Strand Bombing and the Emergency in Ireland seminar featured talks about various aspects of the bombing including censorship, compensation, and the role of the emergency services. This full day seminar to commemorate the tragedy was held at Dublin City Library & Archive on Saturday 29th May 2010.Volume 2 of the North Strand Bombings Oral History Project was also launched at the seminar. Initiated in 2009, the North Strand Bombing Oral History Project aims to collect eyewitness accounts of that fateful night and its aftermath. Search and browse the North Strand Bombing Oral History Project online.Dublin City Archives hold a collection of 57 photographs illustrating the aftermath of the North Strand Bombing, May 1941. Search and browse the North Strand Bombing Photographs online. The photographs were commissioned by Dublin Corporation as evidence for the assessment of insurance claims. Read more about North Strand Bombing, 1941.The Other German Bombings of Ireland: German bombings of Ireland 1940-41 by Eoin BairéadOther German Bombings Transcript.In 'The other bombings: German bombings of Ireland, August 1940 to July 1941', Eoin Bairéad discusses the causes and consequences of the German bombings of Ireland during the period 1940 to 1941, including the bombings in Campile, Co. Wexford; Donore in Dublin and Belfast. Eoin Bairéad has an M.A. in Local History from NUI Maynooth where his main thesis concerned the bombing of Donore Terrace, South Circular Road, Dublin in January 1941. The work is published as The bombing of Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin, 1941 in the Maynooth Studies in Local History series, 2010.Audio only: The Transformation of the Irish Army during the Emergency by Colonel Donal O’CarrollIrish Army during the Emergency Transcript The Effects of War-Time Censorship on Historical Sources regarding the North Strand Bombing 1941 by Kevin O’ConnorEffects of War-Time Censorship TranscriptAudio only: ‘Hostile aircraft approaching Irish coast’ –The air defence of Dublin and the North Strand Bombing by Michael KennedyHostile Aircraft Transcript.Dr Michael Kennedy is the Executive Editor of the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series – volume VII (1941-45) of which will be published later this year and will cover the North Strand bombing. He has published widely on Irish political, diplomatic and military history. His ‘Guarding Neutral Ireland’ (published in 2008) was the first book to examine the North Strand bombing from a military perspective. Michael Kennedy and Victor Laing’s publication The Irish defence forces 1940-1949, the Chief of Staff’s reports is available for consultation in the Reading Room, Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2.
Drumcondra Branch Library re-opened after extensive refurbishment on Monday May 24th!Following the completion of improvement works, Dublin City Public Libraries are pleased to announce new and improved services at Drumcondra Library – providing welcome ease of access for all.Improvements include:New access rampAutomatic doorsImproved signagePublic toiletsUpgraded lighting and heatingFull repaint with new furnitureCall in and see what's on offer! View the Image Gallery.
Youth Zones are now active in Cabra, Ballymun and Coolock libraries. The facilities are popular with all users who appreciate the comfortable seating, the extra study space and the new stock of books, magazines, music CDs and DVDs.Each Youth Zone has a Playstation 3 games console. The PCs in the Youth Zones encourage young people to explore aspects of information technology other than just Google or YouTube. We guide them to sites specifically selected by library staff and sites where they can listen to music for free and make their own playlists and share them with others. They are also loaded with two pieces of software that they might find useful and fun.Comic Life is a program that allows you to make comic strips, using any images you have on your PC - or on your memory stick. That’s the fun part, but the software allows you to insert images in a page of text. It is basically a desktop publishing program, and allows students to put their project together more easily and with greater style.Sony Vegas is a program for editing video on your PC. It is very simple to use, and with the camcorder that we have to share between the Youth Zones, can be used to produce short videos, which can be played on the large screen.
Dog Trust VisitThere was a hushed air of anticipation in Pembroke Library during one of our 'All In' summer events when Jillian Saunders with her dog Coco from the Dogs Trust visited. The children had never seen a dog in the library before and they gathered round not knowing what to expect and whether this kind of thing was allowed. After a few initial barks, Coco settled in and the children watched closely to see what part he would play in the event.Jillian subsequently gave a marvellous and realistic presentation on how to care for a pet dog. She talked about the time, money and responsibilities involved. She gave the children ample opportunities to take part in exercises – like scooping a poop, grooming, and scanning the dog for an owner's microchip.The children were very keen and willing to answer questions and share their stories with Jillian. Coco stole the show of course and he displayed model behaviour for the time he was here. He wore a little yellow scarf with the Dogs Trust logo on it and lay quietly on his mat while Jillian delivered her talk.Afterwards the children were invited to come up and pat him as long as they abided by the three golden rules: i) ask if you can pat the dog, ii) let the dog sniff you, iii) pet gently downwards.Some of them got a friendly lick back. As for the parents, some were amazed that there was such a thing as chicken flavoured doggy toothpaste!
Listen to a talk by Jerusha McCormack on John Gray and celebrity culture. The lecture was held at Dublin City Library & Archive on 26 April 2010 as part of Dublin: One City, One Book 2010.John Gray was an ordinary working-class man who, as the alleged model for the “Dorian” of Oscar Wilde’s novel, became a household name. How did this happen? Did Wilde in fact invent John Gray? What forces colluded to help manufacture this new kind of fame –known to us now as “celebrity culture” – and what was its price? By retelling the story of the man who became Dorian Gray, Jerusha McCormack seeks to throw new light on the power of Wilde’s novel: to create as well as to destroy those around him – and finally to conscript the very life of the author himself.Listen to the talk [play time: 58:38 minutes]: TranscriptJerusha McCormack is a leading scholar of Oscar Wilde and his circle, Jerusha McCormack has written the definitive biography of John Gray, the young working-class lad rumoured to be the model for The Picture of Dorian Gray. After 30 years as a lecturer in the School of English at University College, Dublin, Dr McCormack now works as a Visiting Professor at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, where she helped set up the first (and so far, the only, comprehensive Irish Studies Centre in China). Her current work is dedicated to unravelling the many ties between China and Ireland: most recently in a piece on the impact of the thinking of Zhuangzi, a Daoist sage from the 4th century BC, on Wilde’s life and writings.
Opening of the Public Libraries. The Freeman’s Journal, Thursday, October 2, 1884."Yesterday, at four o’clock, escorted by mounted police and the mace and sword-bearer, with the insignia of their office, the Right Hon. The Lord Mayor M.P, opened at 100 Capel Street the first public library and reading room, under the Public Libraries Act of 1855, which has been built in Dublin ...At a quarter to five o’clock his lordship, accompanied by his private staff and the civic officers, and escorted as before, arrived at 23 Thomas Street, where the second free library [was] situated ..In declaring it also open ...he hoped that all would be found sitting side by side, furnishing storing their minds with that knowledge, the possession of which ensured success."The beginnings of Dublin’s public libraries can be traced to the Public Libraries (Ireland) Act of 1855 which empowered councils of municipal boroughs and towns with populations in excess of 5,000 or more, to establish free public libraries and also museums or schools of science and, or art.Significantly, the legislation was ‘enabling’, its implementation requiring the agreement of at least two thirds of the burgesses present at a public meeting called by the council. Something amazing happened in Dublin on the 19th March 1877. A large and prestigious gathering comprising the burgesses of the city came together in the Mansion House. They listened to the arguments put by Councillor Edmund Dwyer Grey in moving a motion that “The burgesses should resolve to tax themselves if they desired to have the Act put into operation.” and they agreed to do so.So began a lengthy process leading towards the opening of Dublin’s first free municipal libraries at Capel Street and Thomas Street in October 1884.Heralding a city council policy of social inclusion and intention to support learning for all, both fundamental to the philosophy underpinning the public library movement, the day of opening saw Lord Mayor, William Meagher, emphasising his enthusiasm for the establishment of the free libraries. They were to be for “every class” and the only test for admission should be in “a decent exterior and becoming conduct”.The scene was set for a public library system in Dublin which has developed in 2009 from those small, ‘book only’ beginnings in converted tenement houses, to a network of city-wide service points equipped with modern technologies and to a virtual service environment which could not have been imagined in the Dublin of 1884.The story of evolution has had many chapters including those related to buildings, to collections and people, to be detailed elsewhere. But critically, the most significant chapter is that ever re-occurring one in which Dublin’s library service has continued to develop its services in accordance with the needs of its citizens of all ages, educational levels and social status, for learning opportunity.Through books and modern media, through extending access to the global knowledge base and through complementary programming, it continues to make a difference in the lives of Dublin’s citizens. In noting that in 2009, the year of its 125th anniversary, it attracted over two million citizens to its services, it is appropriate to record our thanks to those burgesses of 1877 Dublin who had the vision to set in motion the evolution of what Thomas Davis described, as our public “university of the people”.Deirdre Ellis-King
Old and modern books in Irish held in the collections of Dublin City Library and Archive.Leabhair Gaeilge idir sean agus nua i Leabharlann agus Cartlann Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath.SEE Dublin and Irish Collections.You can also view the following images on flickrVisit:Dublin City Library and Archive138 -144 Pearse Street,Dublin 2,Ireland.email: [email protected]
'Rediscovering Emmet's Dublin through the Collections of Dublin City Libraries' by Dr Máire Kennedy, Divisional Librarian with Dublin City Public Libraries in charge of Special Collections. Introduction by Aidan O'Hara, Emmet and Devlin Committee. The 8th Annual Emmet Spring Lecture hosted by the Emmet and Devlin Committee and Dublin City Public Libraries, was recorded at Dublin City Library & Archive, Pearse Street on 15 March 2010.TranscriptListen to the talk while following the presentation:Audio only (with introduction by Aidan O'Hara, Emmet and Devlin Committee):Thank-you for listening! To hear more, please subscribe to the Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive podcast on iTunes or SoundCloud.
Best loved classics donated to Central Library World Books CollectionThe Bulgarian Ambassador Mr. Emil Yalnazov donated a selection of Bulgarian masterpieces of literature to the Lord Mayor of Dublin at a ceremony at the Central Library in February 2010.These works were voted as Bulgaria’s favourite books in the Big Read Bulgaria nationwide poll participated in by over one third of the population that was organized by Bulgarian National Television in association with the BBC. Voting took place online, by text, telephone and traditional post.The books are part of the World Books collection of the Central Library for the use of all the friends of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian community in Ireland. The books as voted in descending order are:Under the Yoke by Ivan VazovConsidered the most influential and most prolific Bulgarian author Ivan Vazov is called the patriarch of Bulgarian literature. This depiction of the revival of national consciousness under Ottoman rule and the preparations for the April Uprising in 1876 is widely considered to be the greatest Bulgarian novel of all time.Vreme Razdelno (Time of Violence) by Anton DonchevThe novel dwells on the forceful conversion of Bulgarian Christians to Islam in the Rhodope Mountains during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is a tragic poetic fable raising questions about faith, values, identity and the impact on humanity when we have to choose between honour, obedience and survival.Osadeni Dushi (Doomed Souls) by Dimitar DimovOne of the most popular Bulgarian novels to appear in translation this work explores how a clash of religions and cultures can lay the foundation for self-destruction. The story is focused on a Spanish Jesuit and an English aristocrat in a passionate but doomed relationship set against the background of the Spanish Civil War.Tyutyun (Tobacco) Volumes 1 and 2 by Dimitar DimovThis two-volume novel depicts the social and political antagonisms between different social groups in Bulgaria from the early nineteen thirties to the end of the Second World War. It is told from the point of view of a tobacco factory owner's trophy wife who struggles to relate to her husband and the society in which his interests are based.Zheleznia svetilnik (Metal Candlestick) by Dimitar TalevThe first part of a 4-volume series, this is a novel depicting the life of a typical Bulgarian family in a complex period of history in the late 19th century, when traditional moral values and family relations clash with the new social dynamics of capitalist society.For more informationCentral library, Ilac Centre, Henry Street, Dublin 1Telephone: + 353 1 8734333 or Email: [email protected]
On 21 January 2010 the thirteenth annual Sir John T. Gilbert Commemorative Lecture, 'Commodious temples: Catholic church building in nineteenth-century Dublin' was held at Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street. The lecture was given by Brendan Grimes, Dublin School of Architecture, D.I.T. Bolton Street. Brendan Grimes' lecture, Commodious temples: Catholic church building in nineteenth-century Dublin, brought the audience on a fascinating tour of Dublin churches such as Saint Nicholas of Myra's, Saint Audeon's and Saint Francis Xavier's.This lecture was published by Dublin City Public Libraries in 2011. More information on Commodious Temples publication.TranscriptListen to the talk while following the presentation:Audio only:Thank-you for listening! To hear more, please subscribe to the Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive podcast on iTunes or SoundCloud.
