What are the opening hours?

Monday 11am - 5:30pm Tuesday 9:15am - 5:30pm Wednesday 9:15am - 5:30pm Thursday 9:15am - 8:30pm Friday 9:15am - 5:30pm Saturday 9:15am - 5:30pm Sunday 11am - 5:30pm

National Gallery of Ireland

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National Gallery of Ireland

One of Ireland’s top visitor attractions housing the nation’s collection of European & Irish art. Admission to the permanent collection is free.
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The National Gallery of Ireland is located in the heart of Georgian Dublin. Opened in 1864, it houses the national collection of Irish and European fine art. The National Gallery of Ireland is a registered charity. CHY Number: 2345
Registered Charity Number (RCN): 2000302

29/05/2026

"I think it's really a collaboration between sitter and artist, as the best portraits are."

Our Director, Dr Caroline Campbell, recently took a walk around the Gallery with RTE Arena's Rick O'Shea to look at some of her favourite artworks in our collection. Her picks included this vibrant and exuberant portrait of Marian Keyes by Margaret Corcoran in our Portrait Gallery.

You can listen in on their conversation at the link below, and then why not come in and see the artworks mentioned this long weekend, and pick out your own favourites!

🎧 https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22617015/

P.S. If you're visiting this weekend, as well as our permanent collection, you can also see our major summer exhibition, William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy. It continues here until 19 July, and Friends of the Gallery and under 18s go free. Organised in collaboration with Tate. This exhibition is supported by The William Blake Giving Circle. The Gallery would like to thank the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport for their ongoing support.

🎟️ https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/william-blake-age-romantic-fantasy

Image: Margaret Corcoran (b.1963 Dublin), The Composition – A Portrait of Marian Keyes, 2023.

28/05/2026

✍️We’re now accepting entries for this year’s Sarah Cecilia Harrison Essay Prize. Now in its fifth year, it recognises new research and writing, telling the stories of women in Ireland’s visual culture

🔗 Find out more, and read the essays by previous winners, at the link below. The closing date for receipt of entries is Friday 18 September. https://www.nationalgallery.ie/what-we-do/library-and-archives/sarah-cecilia-harrison-essay-prize

This prize is generously supported by the descendants of the sister of Sarah Cecilia Harrison, Beatrice Chisholm.

Image: Sarah Cecilia Harrison, Self Portrait (1889). Collection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by Captain Harrison, 1942.

27/05/2026

⏳ ENTRIES NOW WELCOME

As we near the deadline for the submission of entries to the AIB Portrait Prize and AIB Young Portrait Prize 2026 on Friday 3 July, we’re very pleased to introduce you to this year’s judges.

⚡️The AIB Portrait Prize judges are:
- Brian Fay, artist and Lecturer at TU Dublin.
- Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator, Head of Collections at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
- Joseph McBrinn, Art Historian and Lecturer at Belfast School of Art

⚡️The AIB Young Portrait Prize judges are:
- Amanda Coogan, artist
- Carl Hickey, artist
- Donna Rose, curator at the National Museum of Ireland

A warm welcome to all six judges, who have a difficult but very rewarding task ahead of them as they choose the shortlisted works, and later, the winning portraits.

📆The closing date for receipt of entries is 10pm on Friday 3 July - all the details are linked below. Good luck to all the artists who are thinking about entering this year.

🔗AIB Portrait Prize: https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/aib-portrait-prize-2026

🔗AIB Young Portrait Prize: https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/aib-young-portrait-prize-2026

The shortlisted artworks in both competitions will go on display here at the National Gallery of Ireland from 14 November 2026 until 14 March 2027, and the winners will be announced at an awards ceremony here in December. The exhibitions will also travel to our exhibition partners, Galway Arts Centre and Limerick City Gallery of Art, later in 2027.

26/05/2026

Our Centre for the Study of Irish Art is hosting a free Yeats study morning and pop-up display tomorrow, Wednesday 26 May.

While the study morning is fully subscribed, we’d love to invite you all to drop by to take a look at the display in our Reading Rooms from 2pm to 4pm, where members of our Library and Archive team will be on hand to tell you more about the treasures on display and answer any questions.

Among the items you can look forward to seeing are two of Jack B. Yeats’ paint boxes, which we recently acquired. Fascinating objects in their own right – one has extendable tripod legs and a wall-mounted easel! – the addition of a painting tray and tubes of oil paint, as well as the aforemenioned legs and easel, speak directly to Yeats’ working methods. They will support ongoing conservation research projects by offering fresh insights into the materials and techniques that shaped Yeats's distinctive artistic vision.

Other beautiful objects on display tomorrow will include examples of Lily Yeats’ exquisite embroidery and Jack B. Yeats’s 1922 silver Olympic Medal, and other surprises that will showcase the creativity of three generations of this artistic family, from portrait painter John Butler Yeats (1839-1922) and his four talented children – William, Lily, Elizabeth and Jack – to acclaimed painter and designer Anne Yeats (1919-2001).

📍Find the Reading Room in Rooms 35 and 36, on Level 3 of the Milltown Wing. All very welcome.

🔗This study morning and pop-up display coincides with the exhibition ‘Collaborating in Conflict: The Yeats Family and the Public Arts’ at the McMullen Museum, Boston, which features significant loans from our Yeats Archive. You can read more about it here: https://sourcenationalgallery.ie/node/141

Images:
1. Seagull portiere. c. 1903. Designed by Mary Cottenham Yeats, embroidered by Lily Yeats.
2 & 3. Reproduced with kind permission of Gormleys Art Auctions
4. Silver Olympic Medal (Paris, 1924). Awarded to Jack Butler Yeats for The Liffey swim.
5. Dun Emer Industries embroidery room, Dundrum, Dublin, 1905. Image © National Gallery of Ireland

25/05/2026

Bígí linn le haghaidh caint saor in aisce i rith am lóin amárach, ag féachaint ar The Gleaners le Jules Breton (1827-1906).

Join us for a free lunchtime talk tomorrow about Jules Breton's The Gleaners.

📍Seomra 1 / Room 1
⏲️13.15

22/05/2026

⭐ Join us on 18 June for a specially curated evening celebrating our summer exhibition, William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy.

Highlights on the night include tarot readings, a musical performance, themed tours, a film screening, a print-making workshop, improv poetry and a Meet the Makers event in the Gallery Shop.

Our café will have a special menu for the evening, too, with Blake-inspired small plates and drinks from €5 each. Plus you'll be able to see the exhibition for €5 after 5pm. Friends of the Gallery and under 18s go free.
Schedule:

🎫 All events are free, but there are limited places available for the tarot readings and the musical performance, so you can book your free slot for those on our website - link in the bio.

William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy continues here until 19 July. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Tate. This exhibition is supported by The William Blake Giving Circle. The Gallery would like to thank the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport for their ongoing support.

21/05/2026

Run, don't walk, to the Gallery, where you can enjoy an evening of art, food and drink for €15 tonight.

🍷 🎨 🍴 Every Thursday after 5pm, we offer €5 admission to our exhibition, William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy, and our café has a special menu with a drink and a small plate for €5 each. A lovely way to catch up with friends or take yourself on a solo date.

📅 The exhibition continues here until 19 July. Friends of the Gallery and under 18s always go free.

🤝 Organised in collaboration with Tate. This exhibition is supported by The William Blake Giving Circle. The Gallery would like to thank the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport for their ongoing support.

Image: William Blake, The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve - detail, c.1826. Tate, Bequeathed by W. Graham Robertson 1949. Photo: Tate.

20/05/2026

We’re delighted to mark National Volunteering Week, an initiative from Volunteer Ireland running from 18–24 May 2026.

This year’s theme - ‘From Every Corner, For Every Cause’ - celebrates the many different types of volunteers and the diverse contributions that strengthen our communities.

Here at the Gallery, we’re proud and lucky to work with over 160 volunteers, each with their own unique story about why they choose to give their time. Over the next few days we’ll be sharing some of their stories via Instagram Stories, so keep an eye out for that.

Our volunteers play a vital role in creating a welcoming, high‑quality visitor experience. If you’re visiting the Gallery this week, please take a moment to say hello to our wonderful volunteers, who help make this place so special.

📸 Photo shows four of our volunteers: Bernie Lloyd, Imran MacManus, Maria France and Jim Ferguson. Photo by Andre Poveda.

18/05/2026

Visual Poetry: The Photography of John Minihan offers an insight into John Minihan’s extensive career, which spans over sixty years, exploring his experience of working as press photographer for the Daily Mail from the age of 16, which led to his introduction to Samuel Beckett, to his eventual relinquishment of media assignments in favour of more personal projects.

In this short film, the Gallery's Director Dr Caroline Campbell and exhibition curator Sarah McAuliffe talk about Minihan’s work, the exhibition, and how it speaks to the importance of the Gallery’s mission to collecting photography for the national collection.

Find Visual Poetry: The Photography of John Minihan in our Sir Hugh Lane Room until 11 October 2026. Admission free.

https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/exhibitions/visual-poetry-photography-john-minihan

Film by Enda O’Looney / ROOM4 Productions.
Photographs by John Minihan. © University College Cork - National University of Ireland, Cork.

Address

Merrion Square West
Dublin
D02K303

Opening Hours

Monday	11am - 5:30pm
Tuesday	9:15am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	9:15am - 5:30pm
Thursday	9:15am - 8:30pm
Friday	9:15am - 5:30pm
Saturday	9:15am - 5:30pm
Sunday	11am - 5:30pm

Website

http://www.nationalgallery.ie/

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