Blogs

A Dolphins Barn Christmas. Written by Catherine Scuffil. Historian In Residence, Dublin South City. Image by Alison O'Donghue, Rialto

Libraries are places of inspiration, escape and shelter for many. Now, with coronavirus having affected the arts and culture sector deeply, it's more important than ever to support those libraries we do have, which, as well as helping to create book lovers, also often provide things like wifi and computer access and help with accessing local services, and act as a community hub.

Jimmy Davenport was a member of the orchestra and occasional performer at the Capitol and Theatre Royal theatres in Dublin in the 1930s and 40s. Judging by his autographed photo album which has just been digitised, Jimmy Davenport was a bit of a showbiz addict. He collected over a hundred signed portraits of visiting celebrities and photos of some set pieces from the Theatre Royal.

This gallery consists of images of shops, stalls, and markets from the Dublin City Council Photographic Collection. A few of these are still open for business but most have closed their doors.

Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

This gallery consists of images associated with the family merchant business Alex. Findlater and Company. The gallery highlights the life of Adam Findlater, 1855-1911, as he was not only the managing director of the business but he was also an extraordinary citizen of Dublin. Originally from Scotland, Alexander Findlater came to Dublin in 1823 to begin trading in Whiskey.

CITY ROUTES A Deep Mapping of Dublin’s Central Library is available to view in the Central Library, ILAC Centre, Henry Street, Dublin 1, until 12th November.

Building Healthy Homes, written by Joseph Brady and Ruth McManus, and published by Dublin City Council, is a commemoration and an analysis of the early schemes from the 1880s to the late 1920s.

Dublin UNESCO City of Literature announce a new virtual writers’ residency programme for 2021/2022, which will pay a grant of €5,000 to two writers working in the Irish language, one writing for adults, and one writing for children.

Set up by journalist and Ballymun resident Seamus Kelly, Ballymun Concrete News circulated from 1998 until 2006 telling the good news stories of Ballymun, a large suburb in Dublin which was undergoing enormous change at the time.  Seamus kindly donated copies of the newspaper to Dublin City Library and Archive several years ago and the staff created PDFs of the 87 editions and made them available online ensuring they can be read all over the world.