National Library of Ireland

The National Library of Ireland on Kildare Street is one of the country's great research libraries – and remarkably accessible for visitors all the same. Admission and every exhibition are free, with the award-winning Yeats show in the Victorian main building of 1890 as the centrepiece. If you're tracing Irish roots, this is also the best starting point for genealogy research. Right next door stands Leinster House, the Irish parliament.

History and architecture

The library was founded under the Dublin Science and Art Museum Act of 1877. Its founding collection was the Joly Collection, bequeathed to the Royal Dublin Society in 1863 by physician Jaspar Robert Joly – on condition that it eventually pass to a future public library.

The current building on Kildare Street formally opened in 1890, designed by the architectural firm Thomas N. Deane and Son. Construction began in 1885 after the Prince of Wales – the future Edward VII – laid the foundation stone; at the opening, Thomas Newenham Deane was knighted. The original sandstone facade in Mount Charles stone was replaced in 1969 with Ardbraccan limestone due to weathering.

At the heart of the building is the reading room beneath its distinctive dome. James Joyce made this room the setting for the ninth episode of Ulysses, in which Stephen Dedalus philosophises on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Readers interested in literary Dublin will find the wider picture in the Literary Dublin guide.

The exhibitions

The NLI runs across three different sites in 2026 – if you want to see all of them, plan for some walking between the city centre venues.

• Yeats: The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats, in the main building on Kildare Street. This award-winning exhibition on the Nobel laureate features original manuscripts, personal items and multimedia installations; free, no booking needed. This is the flagship exhibition – 45 to 60 minutes is enough on its own.
• Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again, at the Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre on Westmoreland Street. The archive of Ireland's second Nobel laureate for literature, with manuscripts, diary entries and notes. Open Mon–Sat 10:00–16:00 (last admission 15:30), closed Sundays and bank holidays.
• Live Aid Exhibition, at the National Photographic Archive on Meeting House Square in Temple Bar. The photographic archive's current headline exhibition runs until 2027, daily 10:00–16:00; guided tours Fridays at 14:00 and Saturdays at 11:00.

All three exhibitions are free. If time is short, focus on the Yeats exhibition in the main building – the Heaney and Live Aid exhibitions are worth adding on mainly if you're heading towards Temple Bar anyway.

Collections, reading rooms and the Reader's Ticket

The NLI is a reference library – nothing can be borrowed. Free access covers books, manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, maps, sheet music and prints. Since 1927 the library has held legal deposit status for all publications issued in the Republic of Ireland.

To work in the reading rooms you need a free Reader's Ticket. Apply for it online in advance at rtickets.nli.ie, then collect it in person with photo ID at the Reader's Ticket Office. The reading rooms (Main, Microfilm, Manuscripts) are open Mon, Thu, Fri 9:30–17:00 and Tue, Wed 9:30–19:00, with only select Saturday mornings and no Sunday opening. A Reader's Ticket isn't needed if you're only visiting the exhibitions.

Genealogy and parish registers

For travellers with Irish ancestry, the NLI is the first port of call. The Family History Service in the main building helps free of charge with research and with using sources such as parish registers, census records and land records. Book a one-to-one consultation in advance by emailing [email protected] or calling +353 1 6030 256; allow 30 to 60 minutes for the consultation.

You can also make good progress from home: the Catholic parish registers are digitised for free at registers.nli.ie – over 3,500 registers from 1,086 parishes with around 373,000 images, with a cut-off in 1880. Most registers, however, only start in the 1820s, so earlier ancestors often can't be traced this way.

Visiting and practicalities

Admission is free and no booking is needed for the exhibitions. It's quietest early in the morning shortly after opening at 9:30, and on weekdays outside lunchtime. Note that different areas keep different hours – the opening hours shown in the box above apply to the Yeats exhibition in the main building, while the reading rooms and the Heaney/Live Aid exhibitions run on their own schedules. There are also several bank holiday closures in 2026, so it's worth checking nli.ie before you travel.

The location in Georgian south Dublin makes it easy to combine with other sights. Right next door is Leinster House, adjoining it the National Gallery of Ireland, and about 250 metres further the Natural History Museum. A few minutes' walk brings you to Trinity College, St Stephen's Green, the Museum of Literature (MoLI), Mansion House and the Little Museum of Dublin. For getting there, see the Public Transport guide; for planning your day, the Attractions overview; and for more of Dublin's collections, the Museums in Dublin guide.