Dublin Festival of History events at 14 Henrietta Street
NewsPublished 28 August 2025
This year’s Dublin festival of History will run from 26 September to 12 October 2025, with our Big Weekend at the Round Room at the Mansion House, from Saturday 27 September to Sunday 28 September.
The Dublin Festival of History is an annual free festival, brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with the Dublin City Council Culture Company.
Now in its thirteenth year, the festival has built a reputation for shining a fresh perspective on history and its importance in our everyday lives, attracting best-selling Irish and international historians to Dublin for a high-profile programme of history talks and debate each Autumn.
A list of the Dublin Festival of History events taking place at 14 Henrietta Street is below.
William Rooney, Fear na Muintire: Journalist, Poet, Gaelic Revivalist
When: 1 pm, Monday 29 September
William Rooney (1873-1901), from a working class background in Dublin, was considered a central figure of the National Revival, who envisaged Sinn Fein and influenced the subsequent revolution. It is now timely to reassess his political ideas, organisational ability and significant contribution to this historical period.
Swift Blaze of Fire: The Life of Robert Hilliard
When: 3 pm, Monday 29 September
Celebrated in song by Christy Moore and affectionately recalled in many memoirs, Robert “Bob” Hilliard, Lin Rose Clark’s grandfather, is one of Ireland’s best-known International Brigadistas. His short life blazed with a rare intensity; his death in Spain left a dark shadow hanging over his family. This book unravels Hilliard’s enigmas to bring us an absorbing character and a fresh understanding of the times that shaped him.
Jonathan Swift: Hearing Differently
When: 5 pm, Monday 29 September
Jonathan Swift is best known as a master satirist, whose razor-sharp wit skewered the politics, religion, and social injustices of his time. But what if the key to understanding Swift’s unique voice lies not just in what he wrote, but in how he perceived the world? This talk explores the idea of Swift as someone who “heard differently”—not only through his experience with illness and probable hearing loss, but also in his acute sensitivity to the unspoken hypocrisies and silences of early 18th-century society.
This event will be conducted in ISL.
Family Workshop: Stepping into History with Sarah Webb
When: 2:30 pm, Saturday 4 October
Join us for this family workshop with Sarah Webb, award-winning children’s author of The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street. What was life like for children who lived on Henrietta Street in 1911? Did they go to school? What games did they play? What did they wear and what food did they eat? Sarah will help families step back in time and find out all this and more, before creating their own 1911 Henrietta Street world.
Suitable for families with children aged 9+.
book your tickets here
Féile na Staire: Turas 14 Sráid Henrietta
Nuair: 3 pm, Monday 6 October
Tar éis duit dul isteach in 14 Sráid Henrietta gheobhaidh tú blaiseadh ar stair na cathrach a ghabhann siar breis agus trí chéad bliain lastigh de bhallaí tí amháin. I rith ár dturais threoraithe phearsanta tabharfar ar aistear thú ón am a tógadh an teach i ré ghalánta Sheoirseach go ré na n-árasán tionóntáin ina dhiaidh sin.
Turas Gaeilge é seo.
Cuir do thicéid in áirithe anseo
Teatime Talk: Monto: Dublin's Forgotten Red Light District
When: 6 pm, Thursday 9 October
Dr Caroline West is the author of a best-selling feminist history of Europe's largest red-light district and an examination of the lives of the women who worked there. Tucked away in Dublin's north inner city, Monto - purported to be Europe's biggest red-light district from 1860 to 1925 with up to 1600 sex workers at any one time - made headlines for wild tales of debauchery. However, what happened to the women and girls within its brothels in life and death is less clear.
Book your tickets here
The full programme of events is available online a www.dublinfestivalofhistory.ie and from libraries throughout Dublin city, and from the Festival’s partners.
You can view the full list of events and programmes here