The exhibition draws on items from the National Library of Ireland’s Yeats Collection, the largest collections of books, manuscripts and personal items relating to WB Yeats in the world.

Explore Yeats’ many interests – Ireland, literature, folklore, theatre, politics, mysticism and the occult. Exhibition highlights include manuscripts of many of Yeats’ most beloved poems including “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” and “Easter, 1916”, his Nobel Prize medal, personal artefacts from Yeats’ school reports to a cherished carved piece of lapis lazuli, remarkable photographs of Yeats and his family and friends, and much more.

Helen Hooker O'Malley gifted over 1,200 of her photographic works to the National Library of Ireland in 1992, the year before her death. Almost all of these works date from the 1970s.

An American by birth, Ireland became Helen’s home following her marriage in 1935 to the Irish writer and revolutionary, Ernie O’Malley. Though their marriage ended in 1952, her love for Ireland remained constant throughout her life.

Clarke, a medical doctor from Co. Monaghan, took the images while he was a student in Dublin between 1897 and 1904. His approach is remarkable as an early example of a modern photojournalistic style, focused on the people of Dublin rather than the city’s architecture.

This exhibition reveals his vivid record of Dubliners at the turn of the twentieth century.

Dublin was the focal point of the activity in the Easter 1916 rebellion against British rule in Ireland, but counties Galway, Meath and Wexford also experienced pockets of fierce fighting. Maps, photographs, prints, and manuscripts reveal the stories of the people and places involved in the Rising across Ireland.

On Easter Monday 1916, at a time when Ireland was an integral part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, seven Irishmen proclaimed the establishment of the Irish Republic, nominating themselves as its provisional government. Together with 1,600 poorly armed followers, they occupied prominent buildings in Dublin. Discover what happened next and the impact it would have on the Irish revolution.

Hogan, a Dublin-based commercial photographer, captured events of the War of Independence and the Civil War. The images document diverse aspects of military activity, the devastation that war brought to our built environment, and the people who lived through the troubled period, featuring both famous figures and ordinary civilians. 

Ireland's “Big Houses” were the large country homes of local landlords. The images reveal much about the architecture, gardens, families and staff of the landed estates, across the island of Ireland, before the political revolution in the early twentieth century changed their role in Irish society.

In Ireland, many supported the cause and joined up or travelled to serve in nursing and auxiliary services. Others objected to the war on moral, social or political grounds. By the time the conflict ended in 1918, its impact had been felt through the length and breadth of the country.

The exhibition draws on the National Library of Ireland’s collections of letters, diaries, recruiting posters, newspaper reports, cartoons, and handbills from 1914-1918.