Culture Date With Dublin 8 Festival

The lineup has just been unveiled for this year’s Culture Date with Dublin 8. The annual cultural extravaganza, celebrating the history, heritage and contemporary life of Dublin 8, will take place from May 4th to May 10th. 

The programme boasts over 100 specially curated activities, from walking tours and workshops to concerts, late-night parties, theatrical performances, and much more. This year, the festival will honour the 300th anniversary of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels with a special series of events.

The programme for the festival was officially unveiled at a ceremony in Marsh’s Library and speaking at the launch festival curator Grace McEvoy remarked:

“It is my honour to launch the programme for this year’s Culture Date with Dublin 8. This year’s theme, ‘Songlines of the City,’ reimagines Dublin 8 as a place where the streets, stories, and songs reveal the neighborhood’s cultural DNA, while ‘Gulliver 300’ reimagines Swift’s legacy with bold, playful events where myth, literature, and local stories collide.”

Flagship Events

Among the flagship events, the Guinness Choir will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a special concert in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Thursday, 7th May. The title of the event, “The City of Our Dreaming,” comes from a poem commissioned by Paula Meehan to mark the occasion.

At the National Stadium on Saturday 9 May, author and podcaster Donal Fallon hosts In The Ring: Dan Donnelly & Dublin’s Boxing Heroes, a unique event celebrating the legendary 19th-century bare-knuckle boxer. Blending boxing history with poetry, music and live performance, the evening features contributions from Damien Dempsey, Brian Kerr, Barry McGovern, Kelly McLoughlin, Terry O’Neill, Niamh Ní Charra and Emmet O’Brien, followed on Sunday 10 May by a tag-team wrestling and slam poetry event.

On Wednesday 6 May, The First Count: A Night in 1926 takes place at The Fumbally Stables, hosted by Shite Talk: An Irish History Podcast. This immersive “Reeling in the Years”-style experience brings the first census of the Irish Free State vividly to life through live music, performance, food and storytelling in the heart of The Liberties.

Gulliver 300 Celebrations
This year marks the 300th anniversary of Gulliver’s Travels, one of the most influential works of satire in literary history, written in Dublin by Jonathan Swift. Culture Date with Dublin 8 celebrates this landmark with a series of events exploring Swift’s life, legacy and enduring relevance.

Highlights include a keynote lecture by Swift scholar Dr Brendan Twomey at St Patrick’s University Hospital, examining the themes and cultural impact of Gulliver’s Travels, followed by a guided walk and rare access to the historic Board Room, where guests can view a selection of Swift artefacts including his writing desk and death mask. Swift’s Dublin, a specially curated walking tour, will trace the writer’s connections to the city, from St Patrick’s Cathedral to the streets and spaces that shaped his work.

Across the district, St Patrick’s Cathedral will open the Deanery, where Swift once lived, for special tours, while Marsh’s Library will present an exhibition of original copies of Gulliver’s Travels. A range of additional activities will bring the story to life for all ages, including Swift-themed walking tours, a hands-on Gulliver’s Swap workshop creating DIY luggage from reclaimed textiles, a young explorers adventure tour through Dublin 8’s green spaces, and a Lilliputian Morning Rave featuring DJ Billy Scurry. A special Gulliver 300 collectible postcard, illustrated by John Rooney, will also be available during the festival.

Music

Over the course of the festival, churches, distilleries and pubs across Dublin 8 will come alive with music, transforming the neighbourhood into a vibrant, multi-venue stage.

The Church of St Catherine & St James in Donore is set to become a uniquely atmospheric setting for a series of standout performances, with Tom Dunne, Fiachna O’Braonáin and Alan Connor performing on Wednesday 6 May, followed by Phelim Drew bringing his Remembering Ronnie show to the space on Thursday 7 May. On Friday 8 May, Camille O’Sullivan performs in the stunning surroundings of Christ Church Cathedral.

Elsewhere, Sofar Sounds Dublin hosts an intimate night at Teeling Whiskey Distillery, while a dynamic collaboration with BIMM Dublinwill see emerging artists take over venues across the district, spotlighting the next generation of talent rooted in the area. An Góilín Traditional Singers bring the songs of Dublin 8 to life through a series of outdoor performances woven into a unique walking trail across the neighbourhood, while St. George’s Brass Band will perform a lively outdoor concert in St Audoen’s Park.

Also on the programme, the Westland Trio Baroque Ensemble presents Between Renaissance and Baroque at St Audoen’s Church, an evocative concert journeying through medieval to Renaissance music from Ireland and England, exploring the rich musical heritage of these islands in one of Dublin’s most historic settings. Raidió Rí-Rá presents AIRNEÁN, an evening of music as Gaeilge bringing together new songwriters and traditional musicians, offering a platform for some of the most exciting voices in contemporary Irish-language music.

Talks & Tours

Discover Dublin 8 through a series of distinctive tours and talks that reveal the area’s hidden histories and lesser-told stories. Highlights include a special Alternative Tour of Kilmainham Gaol, offering rare access to parts of the prison not usually open to the public, and The Lost Prisons of Dublin 8, a walking tour uncovering the sites of long-forgotten jails across the city. Dublin Decoded leads a Hidden Portobello tour exploring the area’s rich past as “Little Jerusalem” and its connections to literature, film and migration, while The National Archives of Ireland presents 1926 Census clinics, giving audiences the chance to explore this landmark moment in Irish history with expert guidance.

Historian Liz Gillis presents a powerful talk at Richmond Barracks on the four Dublin 8 men executed following the 1916 Rising, while a live edition of the Three Castles Burning podcast with Donal Fallon takes place at The Lord Edward.

Additional highlights include a lecture with David Caron at National College of Art and Design exploring the area’s stained glass heritage, guided tours of Bully’s Acre Cemetery, and a fascinating OPW talk on the medieval belltower of St Audoen’s Church. At Farmleigh, visitors can explore both the poetic landscape of the estate through a Seamus Heaney-inspired walking tour and the social legacy of the Guinness Brewery through a talk on its pioneering approach to worker welfare, amongst many others.

Fringe & Community

Alongside the main programme, a vibrant strand of fringe and community-led events brings together grassroots creativity, local voices and shared experiences across Dublin 8.

From exhibitions and installations to performances, workshops and gatherings, the programme reflects the energy of the area at street level. Highlights include a screening of Chats in the Flats at Donore Credit Union, capturing working-class voices from the community, alongside exhibitions by Liberties-based artists Duc Van Pham and Valerie Gannon, offering intimate portraits of people and everyday life in the area. At Tailors’ Hall, Throwing Shapes Artist in Residence Camilla Hanney presents her ceramic installation A Liberties Feast, a striking and immersive work rooted in local tradition.

Creative activity unfolds across the neighbourhood, with a Dublin 8 art party hosted by Drink and Draw with Alternative Dublin at Drop Dead Twice, socially engaged projects by NCAD students at Studio 8 in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and an exhibition trail by artists Ishmael Claxton, Jye O’Sullivan and María Baez embedded in local businesses. The Liberties Weavers present a pop-up textile museum at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, continuing the area’s rich craft heritage.

Participation and connection are central throughout, from LEGROOM Collective’s immersive theatre and DJ night All My Friends Are in Australia to the Rialto Community Arts Festival launch and open mic, celebrating emerging voices. Audiences are also invited into La Catedral Studios for a special open studio evening, while hands-on workshops like Branch Hair Studio’s ‘Studio Parents’ Hair School SOS’ offer practical, social experiences.

Community-led storytelling and heritage remain at the core of this strand. 1,000 Waves: Hands of the City, an interactive art ritual by Unity in the Community, invites participants to explore belonging through shared stories and collective expression, while projects from The Liberties Community Project and The Robert Emmet History Group, and The Tenters Celebrated Heritage Group, highlight the depth of local knowledge and lived experience. Dublin City Council Culture Company opens up Kilmainham Mill through its Culture Club series, and events such as The Story of Inchicore and Kilmainham in Seven Landmarks and a creative celebration of the River Camac by Friends of the Camac further connect people to place, memory and identity.

Together, these events reflect the strength, creativity and generosity of Dublin 8’s communities, whose voices continue to shape and sustain the cultural life of the area.

The Culture Date with Dublin 8 Festival will take place from Monday 4th May – Sunday 10th May. Many of the events are free or low cost but booking is required.

This is just some of the highlights of this year’s programme for full details see culturedatewithdublin8.ie

Culture Date with Dublin 8 is an initiative led by the Dublin City Council South Central Area and Curator Grace McEvoy in collaboration with our programme partners.