Dublin City / Liberties and Historic Quarter

Until decriminalisation of anti-gay legislation in 1993, the social opportunities for Ireland’s LGBTQ minorities were limited and accessing them presented numerous difficulties and dangers. Often refused service in bars and subject to persistent harassment on the city’s streets, Irish queers eventually sought out sympathetic landlords, creating ‘safe spaces and literally build their own dancefloors. Queer spaces were hugely important in allowing LGBT people negotiate desire and intimacy, normalising what was once illegal, taboo and transgressive.
Over time, these social spaces became the glue that bound countless friendships, allowing the development of a vibrant community self-aware and ready to take its rightful place at the centre of Irish society.

START POINT: Trinity College Entrance, Nassau Street, Dublin 2

Five Lamps Arts Festival presents an exciting walking tour around the Docklands that will guide you through the area of the North Wall Campshires, which goes from Custom House down the Liffey to Dublin Port. Prepare yourself to be amazed by the rich history and culture in Dublin’s inner city!

This guided walking tour will get our ‘North Wall Campshires’ collectable illustrated booklet.

START POINT: Connolly Station, North Dock, Dublin 1 (Amiens Street entrance)

Tickets for Culture Night Dublin supported tours will go live on Friday, 2 September at 9am. 

Join us on an adventure across Dublin city hearing the myths and the legends that stalk our streets. We have a culture of storytelling in Ireland and our oldest stories are of the banshees, the fairies and the things that keep you up at night. Delve into Irish culture and hear our oldest tales. Embrace the supernatural and come along on a ghostly adventure.

START POINT: 82 Merrion Square South,  D02 WD98 (Maude Gonne’s house)

Tickets for Culture Night Dublin supported tours will go live on Friday, 2 September at 9am.

Dublin streets are steeped in history. In a city that dates back to the Vikings, it is a wonderful mix of old and new. Watch out for some incredible street art and if we are lucky, we may even meet a busker along the way. Join us as we wander through the Creative Quarter, cross the most famous river in Dublin and end up outside the most iconic building still standing in the city today.

START POINT: Dublin Castle Yard, Dame Street, Dublin 2

The tour will bring to the fore the vibrant, heroic and tragic revolutionary history of Dublin’s north-west inner-city, from the 1790s to the 1920s, exploring both famous and lesser known characters and events.Join Liam to explore the rebel history of the area between Capel Street and Collins Barracks. The tour will cover the United Irishmen, including Robert Emmet and the Brothers Sheares, the Irish National Invincibles, the 1916 Rising and the North King Street Massacre, Kevin Barry and the 1919-21 war, and the civil war in its centenary year.

START POINT: Green Street Courthouse, 1 Green Street, D07 X6NR

Plunge yourself into the lively coffee houses of Georgian Dublin. 1700s Dublin was a hot bed of culture and literature and as information was suppressed the quidnuncs of the day gleaned all in the Coffee Houses.
Walk Dublin is delighted to be partnering with the House of Read for a unique tour and experience. We will have a one hour walking tour to understand the rich coffee culture of Georgian Dublin then we will retire to a beautiful Georgian room where we will taste what coffee was like. As coffee was an expensive commodity it was often bulked out with cheaper ingredients. So once we have toured the landmarks we will test our taste buds to discover which is coffee and which is a substitute!

START POINT: City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2

Let’s talk shite (and wastewater management)! Don’t be shy. It is one of the main things everyone has in common. In general though, what happens when the loo is flushed is rarely considered. Out of sight, out of mind, right? It is, however, a very recent and privileged mindset to have when it comes to our excreta. In fact, one only have to look to the last few centuries to recognise the vast (and lifesaving) improvements in Dublin City sanitation. From putrid open cesspools and disease epidemics to modern day waste management and sewage related litter, travel through time and waste with Think Before You Flush, a campaign operated by Clean Coasts in partnership with Irish Water, to explore Dublin’s sanitation history.

START POINT: St. Audoen’s Park (High Street Entrance), Dublin 8

Tickets for Culture Night Dublin supported tours will go live on Friday, 2 September at 9am. 

Discover the music and sounds of Dublin on a guided tour through the city centre. Your guide will bring you to over 10 locations across Dublin and give you an insight into the Dublin music scene and its history. Hear the stories of the very best Irish musicians and see some historical musical spaces.

START POINT: The Icon Factory, 3 Aston Place, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Did you know that the statue of Oscar Wilde is not painted but created from 5 different types of stone? The group also includes a statue of Oscar’s pregnant wife Constance and the torso of Dionysus. There are 14 statues and sculptures in Merrion Square. People pass by them every day without giving them a second thought. They cover all aspects of Irish culture from the arts to war and rebellion. This revealing tour will tell the stories behind each of the works and reveal the hidden symbolism created by the artist.

START POINT: Oscar Wilde Statue, Merrion Square Park, Dublin 2

Tickets for Culture Night Dublin supported tours will go live on Friday, 2 September at 9am.

Have you ever heard about the gay brothel in Rathmines that threatened to topple the British Monarchy? Did you know there was a lesbian couple on Belgrave Road who fought for women’s suffrage, ran field hospitals during the 1916 Rising and later founded an infants hospital? Or about the trade unionist who founded Ireland’s first feminist publishing house? And what about the quiet leafy park that was one of the busiest gay cruising spots in Dublin? – Oh, the scandals these streets could tell. Join artist and archivist Han Tiernan on a walking tour of Ranelagh and Rathmines to learn about the hidden histories of the queer characters and spaces that spanned a century to make the area the colourful place it is today.

START POINT: The Triangle, Ranelagh, D06 NT39

Explore the North Inner City Docklands through the statues and monuments, from the Home monument at the junction of Killarney Street, Buckingham Street and Sean McDermott Street to the Luke Kelly Statue designed by Vera Klute on Guild Street on tour by The Five Lamps Arts Festival and Fire Station Artist Studios for Culture Night Dublin 2022.

The Five Lamps Arts Festival CLG is a community-based arts festival rooted in the north inner city of Dublin, established to benefit the community and advance education in the arts through the running of an annual arts festival in Dublin 1, as well as arts events, workshops and guided walking tours in the area.

In Northeast inner city Dublin, Fire Station Artists’ Studios was established in 1993 to support professional visual artists. Fire Station Artists’ Studios (FSAS) provides subsidised combined living and working studios for Irish and international artists, large scale sculpture workshop facilities and training opportunities for artists.

START POINT: The Five Lamps, Amiens Street, North Dock, Dublin 1

Did you know that in the nineteenth century, Dublin city centre was packed with women running their own businesses? This short walking tour will give you a glimpse of the city as it once was, and an introduction to some of the women’s businesses which operated in the capital’s commercial streets. Starting and finishing at O’Connell Bridge, you’ll visit the sites of some of these businesses, while Dr Antonia Hart tells you the stories of the ordinary yet extraordinary women who ran them. You’ll hear about the women behind a boarding house, a pawnbroker’s shop, a tobacconist’s, a spirit grocer, a ladies’ tailor, and a medical hall.

START POINT: O’Connell Bridge, Dublin 1

In recent years, Ireland has become home to immigrants from all around the world who have brought their beautiful cultures while celebrating the unique Irish culture in this beautiful city. Cantonese in Ireland has organised a walking tour to show our vibrant Dublin city in a new way. You will be introduced to the Cantonese related arts in the National Gallery of Ireland and Chester Beatty and try some tasty Cantonese snacks!

START POINT: National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square West, D02 K303 (Merrion Square entrance)

Tickets for Culture Night Dublin supported tours will go live on Friday, 2 September at 9am. 

Come on a walk and discover some of the amazing women in Irish history, and how they contributed to our society and culture. The tour explores some of the most iconic women in Irish history and the roles they played. Learn about politics, art, culture and some of the forgotten icons of the past.

START POINT: Abbey Theatre, 26/27 Abbey Street Lower, D01 K0F1.

Tickets for Culture Night Dublin supported tours will go live on Friday, 2 September at 9am. 

Kevin leads this friendly stroll, where you can chat as you go, and enjoy Dublin’s forgotten history to incorporate his own memories of Dublin, where he was born. Remembering the old times and the changes as they occurred, the people, the industry and the transformations. 

START POINT: Fishamble Street Entrance to Christ Church Cathedral, D02 FC83

Tickets for Culture Night Dublin supported tours will go live on Friday, 2 September at 9am. 

What have Lemon’s sweets, Brown Thomas and Davy Byrne’s got in common? They all are stops along the route – traced by pavement plaques – marking the lunchtime journey taken by Leopold Bloom through the Dublin of 1904 in James Joyce’s Ulysses. There are 14 brass plaques on the pavements between Middle Abbey Street and Kildare Street – put in place in 1988 as part of the Millenium Celebrations. They mark the journey made by Leopold Bloom in Chapter 8 of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses… It’s lunchtime, he’s hungry and the sights and smells of food tempt him at every stage as he makes his journey, decides where to eat and muses on Dublin buildings, businesses and people real and imagined in 1904. While the streets remain more or less the same, many of the businesses and buildings have changed.

START POINT:  The Spire, O’ Connell Street, Dublin 1

Tickets for Culture Night Dublin supported tours will go live on Friday, 2 September at 9am.

On a night to celebrate culture we gather as a procession marking the trail of cultural death within the lovely aul’ Liberties. Ranked 15th coolest in the world by non-residents, come along and meet some locals who can tell you from the horse’s mouth just what it’s like to survive within this aspirational development area. Focusing on Dublin 8’s new “blandmarks” the tour will guide you through the vibrant locations sacrificed to the hotel gods for new destination in the heart of Dublin that finds the balance between luxury, comfort and convenience… Walking a casual loop through the Liberties we’ll highlight the creativity that still survives through entertainment, art and more along the way!

START POINT: Tivoli StayCity Aparthotels, 135 Francis Street, D08 P5N2

The environment created on the tour is intended to be an opportunity towards realisation of desires in relation to the City. The guide has equipped themselves to facilitate discussion, about the city’s future and the willingness to act on those desires.

The three locations have been chosen specifically due to their socio-political histories, touching on themes of ownership and construction of the city. The locations are Dubh Linn on the grounds of Dublin Castle, the viking settlement marked out in stone beside The Dublin City Council and the old City Wall on Oliver Bond Street leading to St Audoen’s Park.

The aim of this transitionary experience is to move away from the standardised format of mediated tours, and towards an open discussion of one of the largest infrastructures around us, the city of Dublin itself.

The tour will be led by Anthony Cullen, an artist who is interested in testing and exploring the structures and systems around us with the aim of understanding ourselves by our responses to these structures.