DUBLIN LORD Mayor Emer Costello said the city owed a "debt of gratitude" to the Old Dublin Society which has made local history "something for the common citizen".
Ms Costello was speaking at the launch of an exhibition to mark the society's 75th anniversary which will run at Dublin City Library until November. "I think the city of Dublin owes a major debt of gratitude to the Old Dublin Society for the work they have done in preserving the history of Dublin and making it available," she said.
President of the Old Dublin Society Rev Dudley Levistone Cooney said the society's role was to record the history of the city and to deal with conservation issues. He said it was the society's amateur base and its interest in the city which lay at its heart.
"We are a society of amateurs. There are some professional historians among us but not that many and the amateurs provide a slant on the ordinary life of Dublin, the life of John Citizen if you like, that the professional doesn't always have time to do."
The society was founded in 1934 and has 330 members. Last night's event followed a civic reception in Dublin City Hall last month to mark its 75th anniversary.