Situated in our over 300-year-old Military Barracks, the new Changing Ireland Galleries provide unprecedented public access to our 20th and 21st century history collections. Here you will encounter the everyday or extraordinary objects that witnessed or contributed to the transformation of Ireland over the last 150 years.

See Hannah Sheehy Skeffington’s suffrage banner, James Connolly’s hat from the Easter Rising, and new acquisitions including world-renowned guitarist Rory Gallagher’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster and Former President of Ireland and Human Rights Trailblazer Mary Robinson’s inauguration suit designed by Louise Kennedy. 

Our new galleries welcome different voices and alternative perspectives into the Museum though co-curated projects, audiovisual experiences, and artistic interventions including newly commissioned poems by the celebrated Irish poet Paula Meehan.

By welcoming conversations and sparking the imagination, we invite everyone to explore the collections, to connect with history, and to question their place in the world.

Search our collections online - discover collections connected to histories and peoples of Ireland.

Take a free audio tour to discover some of the people, stories, and themes explored in the Changing Ireland galleries. Listen to the audio tour here.