The Little Museum of Dublin

The Little Museum of Dublin opened in October 2011. The museum is spaced out on 2 floors of a Georgian house. It recalls what Dublin was all about during the 20th century and our exhibition has been widely praised in the international media.

The Little Museum of Dublin tells the story of Dublin city from 1900 up to 2000 and showcases the remarkable transformation that the city went through in the last century. Visitors to the museum will witness the violent birth of the Irish nation, the conservative years that followed the false economic hope of the 1960s and the Celtic Tiger boom of the 1990s. Photographs, art and newspapers are some of the artefacts that tell the story of the city along with the influence of politics and power.

The exhibition begins with a photograph of Queen Victoria arriving in Dun Laoghaire in 1900. Some of the various artefacts that we display include a gas mask from the Emergency in 1939, the lectern that John F. Kennedy stood at during his speech to the Dáil in 1963 and the first issue of Nouveau magazine from 1999. This was a magazine aimed at the rich during the Celtic Tiger years. It closed shortly after publishing its first issue. Our temporary exhibitions cover subjects as varied as the early days of U2 and the problems of tenement housing in 1913.

We run free guided tours on the hour and private tours can also be arranged, as well as free civics classes for Irish school-children. Our new cafe, Hatch & Sons, was described by the Irish Times as celebrating “all that is good about Irish ingredients and confident cooking.”