Culture Night
Initially started in Dublin in 2005, Culture Night has become one of the biggest, best and most varied cultural events in the calendar. From 5pm onwards on Culture Night museums, galleries, historic buildings, artist’s studios and other cultural venues all over Ireland remain open, offering free tours, exhibitions, readings, performances and films.
Culture Night 2024
Friday 20th September, 2024
The Irish Architectural Archive will be open for tours. Join them for a tour of the largest terraced house on Merrion Square and learn about the work of the Irish Architectural Archive.
In the Entrance Hall, view a selection of architectural models including the Toulouse School of Economics, by Grafton Architects and ‘Babel’ by Aidan Lynam. Meanwhile, in the Architecture Gallery and on the first floor, visitors can also see the exhibition ‘Best Laid Plans’ by visual artist Mandy O'Neill and Curator Natasha Christia.
For more information, click here.
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The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) present The Living Tradition. In a series of six 30-minute concerts beginning at 5:30 pm, audiences will enjoy rousing sets of jigs and reels, plaintive slow airs, ballads and ditties presented by invited guests and staff musicians and singers. All age groups are welcome. Concerts will be staged in the ITMA library on the first floor, which is only accessible by a flight of stairs.
The concerts take place from 5.30pm until 9.45pm and booking is advised.
For more information, and to book your (free) tickets, click here.
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Fingal Local Studies & Archives are hosting an Open Night & Genealogy Advice Clinic. Join them and go behind the scenes of Fingal Local Studies & Archives and view a variety of interesting and unusual items from their collections including historic maps from turnpike and estate collections, 18th century directories, 1916 medals and more!
Find out what resources are available in the branch for local and family history and pick up free publications from previous exhibitions. Staff will be present to answer questions and guide visitors through the displays. Professional genealogist Claire Bradley will also be on hand to answer family history questions and point you to the right resources.
For more information, click here.
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Join The National Library of Ireland on Culture Night. Various events are planned across multiple buildings including tours in the library on Kildare Street, viewing of the William Butler Yeats exhibition on Kildare Street, self-guided tours of Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again in the Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre at College Green and view the ‘People and Places’ exhibition in Meeting House Square.
For further information, and for booking details, click here
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If you are planning an event for Culture Night which relates to our sector, and wish to have it listed here, please contact
ARA Ireland Communications Officer Rebecca O'Neill at oneillrebecca001@gmail.com
Culture Night 2021
Friday 17th September, 2021
The National Archives is hosting an online evening talk entitled ‘How to create your family tree’ and it will be presented by genealogist Tony Hennessy (Member of Accredited Genealogists Ireland). Tony’s talk will help you design and create your own family tree and will cover a range of topics.
For more information and to book your free tour, click here.
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The Irish Architectural Archive will be open for pre-booked tours. Join them for a tour of the largest terraced house on Merrion Square and learn about the work of the Irish Architectural Archive. In the Architecture Gallery, see a complete set of the iconic 18th-century views of Dublin in our latest exhibition, Malton’s Dublin. Take a last chance to see the Alternative Histories exhibition on the first floor before it closes.
For more information and to book your free tour, click here.
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The PRA (Land Registry and Register of Deeds) are holding an online talk by by Dr Brendan Twomey: "Lending and borrowing in a world without banks". The presentation will focus on important insights into the workings of the eighteenth century world of money which can be discovered in the Registry of Deeds property transactions.
For more information and to book your free ticket, click here.
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Culture Night 2020
The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) and Clare Arts Office will premiere, online and offline, a newly commissioned audio-visual film installation, Duala, by Jack Talty and Maurice Gunning to mark Culture Night 2020. Drawing on the concept of place as creative impetus, the piece explores the ways in which memory and landscape influence identity-formation.
Although a universal and global phenomenon, Duala explores and expresses local place and identity through the prism of Irish traditional music and song, combining archival footage of music and musicians from County Clare with interweaving original music and videography.
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Join the Registry of Deeds for a virtual tour delving into their records for a night of ‘Property and Poetry’. Explore Memorials that are connected with some of Ireland’s famous and loved poets such as Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats. Hear recitals of their poetry, witness original signatures and discover the information that can be found in these Memorials about the poets’ lives. Register here for the event.
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In lieu of being able to provide public access to 45 Merrion Square on Culture Night 2020, the Irish Architectural Archive will provide online access to a short series of lectures produced in conjunction with the Buildings of Ireland Charitable Trust to mark the publication of the two most recent volumes in the Buildings of Ireland series. More info here.
In addition there is online access to one of the Archive’s current exhibitions, Summarising Cities: European Squares and their Histories. Drone pictures by Cătălin D. Constantin. More info here.
Finally, the exhibition spaces in 45 Merrion Square are open to the public from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday to Fridays. You can enjoy the European Squares exhibition and Samburu Stores: Communicating Architecture in the Climate Emergency, an exploration of vernacular architecture in Kenya curated by Dr Samantha Martin McAuliffe and students from the School of Architecture, UCD. Access is free, and while you need an appointment to use the reading room, you don’t to visit the exhibitions.
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The National Archives (NAI) will premiere online a video which will take you behind the scenes of this national institution, showing among other features, records being repaired in its conservation studio and where the nation’s records are stored, in addition to providing guidance from a professional genealogist to help you to explore your family tree using our rich holdings. See here for more information.
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Culture Night 2020 is on Friday 18th September, 2020.
If you are planning an event for Culture Night which relates to our sector, and wish to have it listed here, please contact
ARA Ireland Communications Officer Niamh Ní Charra at niamhnicharra@gmail.com