Heritage Hot Spots: What is it?The Little Museum of Dublin, which is housed in a fine Georgian building on St Stephen's Green, shows memorabilia from 20th-century Dublin.
Why visit?
Based on the concept of a people’s museum, it has an eclectic range of objects (right), all of them donated by the public, including Easter Rising postcards, a first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, a fragment of Nelson’s Pillar (blown up by the IRA in 1966), a seat from a Dublin tram, leather bingo cards, posters of U2’s first gigs and milk bottles commemorating Dublin’s Millennium, in 1988. Guided tours offer an offbeat tour through political and cultural Dublin from 1900 to 2000.
Why now?
The Darkest Dublin Collection, an exhibition of photographs of Dublin tenement life, has just opened. The photographs, on public display for the first time, were taken in 1913 by John Cooke of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and belong to the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Heart of the City 1972-1982, an exhibition of photographs of Dublin’s north inner city centre by Brendan Walsh, continues until February.
How do I get there?
The museum is at 15 St Stephen's Green North, near Grafton Street. It is open from Monday to Sunday, 9.30am to 5pm, with late opening on Thursday, until 8pm. Admission costs €5/€3, or €12 for families, with discounts if you buy online; under-10s and jobseekers get in free. There are free guided tours at 7pm on Thursdays; 01-6611000, littlemuseum.ie.
