National Library of Ireland

The Library was established in 1877 and is located in a building designed by Irish architect Thomas Newenham Deane, (1828-1899) and is located in Kildare Street, adjacent to Leinster House and the archaeology section of the National Museum of Ireland. The mission of the Library is to collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the documentary and intellectual record of the life of Ireland and make accessible such information. Like the majority of national libraries it is a reference library and, as such, does not lend its contents. Everything it holds is available in various reading rooms, some by appointment. The Library has a programme of exhibitions and events for all ages.

It houses a large quantity of Irish and Irish-related material which can be consulted without charge. It is estimated that more than 8 million items are available and these include books, journals, newspapers, magazines, manuscripts, maps, prints, drawings, printed music, photographs, ephemera and access to websites. The papers and manuscripts of figures of the Irish establishment include Roddy Doyle, Seamus Heaney, James Joyce and W. B. Yeats to name but a very few.