Latest Blogs
Knocking Dublin
A period of panic in the 1960s following the collapse of some tenement buildings led to a process that saw the destruction of much of Dublin’s architectural heritage.
What had Gretta on?
The Conroys and the Blooms had something in common: a stranger, in one case a dead one, had wandered into their marriage. They also tended to wander into each other’s books.
Amor and Psyche
A German traveller’s account of a visit he made to Dublin in 1850 reveals much about the politics and economics of being pretty and the life of a poor girl in Victorian Dublin
Tallaght, before Babel
Fionn Mac Cumhaill was well remembered until quite recently for his many exploits not too far off the route of the 65b from Hawkins Street
The Prussians are impressed
The German historian Friedrich Von Raumer, visiting in 1835, had never seen beggars, or popular amusements, quite like Dublin’s.
A Dublin Poem
A no-man’s land twixt Norse and Brit, chained to the granite quays.
Hormones Will Out
Trinity College students in the early twentieth century were denied association with women, so their energies found other outlets.
Morning Glory Beyond Rathmines
A Dublin poem, of going and returning, from Gerard Smyth.
Weeping for the Workers
The supreme place given to the national question meant some Dublin politicians had to affect a deep concern for the poor they did not necessarily really feel.
The Lady in the Dodder
A stroll along the banks of the Dodder recalls a murder committed in 1900, and its reverberations in two of Joyce’s works.
Well Done Please
Like the famous literary character he created, Bram Stoker was a healthy feeder.
Supping with the Devil
Four generations ago Dublin had a vibrant and numerous working class Protestant community. For some of their middle class co-religionists they were too vibrant.