National Library & Genealogical Office

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  • Address
    Southside, Kildare St, city centre
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  • Phone
    603 0200
  • Website

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Lonely Planet review

Next door to Leinster House, the suitably sedate National Library was built from 1884 to 1890, at the same time and to a similar design as the National Museum, by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane. Its extensive collection has many valuable early manuscripts, first editions, maps and other items of interest. Parts of the library are open to the public, including the domed reading room where Stephen Dedalus expounded his views on Shakespeare in Ulysses .

Check in your bags at security for a look-see, although you won't expound anything at all in the stiflingly hushed atmosphere. There's a Genealogical Office on the 2nd floor of the National Library, where you can obtain information on how best to trace your Irish roots.