photographic collections

This gallery consists of images of Dublin street furniture, sculptures, statues and other landmarks, many of which you might not even notice as you walk by. The photographs are from the Photographing Dublin Collection, a collection of circa 900 photographs all taken by Dublin City Public Libraries staff during 2006. The Collection is held in the Dublin City Library and Archive.

The "Dublin in the Detail" gallery was created by Stephanie Krall, a German intern from the University of Applied Sciences in Kehl, during her internship in Dublin City Council in spring 2013.

View Dublin in the Detail Image Gallery

View Gloucester Diamond Image Gallery

The Gloucester Diamond got its name from the diamond-shaped intersection at Gloucester Place and Sean Macdermott Street. Colloquially, ‘The Diamond’ refers not just to Gloucester Place, but the entire area surrounding it. It is recorded in Thomas Campbell’s map of 1811 which predates the first Ordnance Survey maps of the area (1829-41).

Sean Macdermott Street was then called Gloucester Street, and received its present name in 1933. The Diamond was located not only in the heart of the city but also in the heart of one of Dublin’s former red-light districts, the infamous 'Monto', which comprised the area enclosed by Summerhill in the north, Talbot Street in the South, Marlborough Street to the west and Buckingham Street/Portland Row to the east. Read more »

View Strumpet City Image Gallery

Strumpet City is one of the great Dublin novels. Focusing on the 1913 Lock-Out, its panoramic scope extends from the docks and slums of inner-city Dublin to the bourgeois domiciles of Kingstown. These images from the Dublin City Council Photographic Collection show the city as it was over fifty years later. Although the harrowing conditions Plunkett wrote about had largely vanished, the ‘glorified kip of a city’ he described remained recognisable throughout the twentieth century. Read more »

Dublin Digital Day Event, Grafton Street, Friday, 8th March.

Create a digital memory, using your old photographs, on Digital Dublin Day, Friday 8th March. 

Do you have some old photographs of Dublin or Dubliners lying around at home? Perhaps a snapshot of friends meeting under Clery's Clock? Or photographs that show Dublin shops, pubs or other buildings in the background? Read more »

View Freedom Of The City Gallery

The Freedom of the City of Dublin is the highest civic honour bestowed by Dublin City Council. It honours the contribution made by people to Dublin or important visitors to the city.

Since the creation of the honour, only seventy-six people have been awarded the Freedom of the City. These chosen few are drawn from various aspects of society including the arts, politics, and sport.

This image gallery depicts some of the Freedom of the City ceremonies dating from 1961 to 2012. Read more »

In honour of the late Dublin GAA legend Kevin Heffernan, who died on the 25th January, Dublin City Public Libraries have put the exhibition ‘The Jacks Are Back : The Dubs in the 1970s’ on display in the Dublin City Library and Archive, 138-144 Pearse, Dublin 2, until Thursday, 31st January. The exhibition celebrates the Dublin team that contested six All-Ireland Finals in a row between 1974 and 1979.

Right: Click image to view larger version.

Also worth noting is the accompanying online image gallery consisting of previously unseen photographs of the Dublin team at various Civic Receptions. These images were taken from the Dublin City Council Photographic Collection. Amongst them are a number of images (Image 005; Image 006; Image 024 and more) of Kevin Heffernan. ‘Heffo’s Army’, as the Dublin supporters became known, became famous nationwide for their passionate and vocal support of their team. Read more in the story accompanying the online image gallery and published here on our blog.

Freeman of Dublin...