Events Posts

Children’s Art, Craft, Create, Imagine and Play Workshops from the Museum of Childhood Ireland, Músaem Óige na hÉireann team The Museum of Childhood Ireland Músaem Óige na hÉireann (MCI) have hosted free children’s and intergenerational, art, craft, play engagement workshops across Ireland, since early 2018. They are called ‘Tír na nÓg. Throughout 2025 the work… Continue reading Tir na nÓg

A celebration of childhood, creativity, and community spirit! Today the Museum of Childhood Ireland / Músaem Óige na hÉireann, took part in the 2025 Dún Laoghaire – Rathdown St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Our 100 strong team walked with the museum’s art/crafts group ‘Tír na nÓg’s, intergenerational, ‘Land and Sea; Celebrate your locality’ (using sustainable materials)… Continue reading St. Patrick’s Day,  Lá Fheile Padraig  2025

Hello! Great to see you at Comic Con Dublin 2025 Thank you for your interest in the Museum of Childhood Ireland’s Barbie Project!  Imagine, craft, document, display…Inspired by the Dorothy Hanley collection: The doll that is now in your custody is waiting for you to craft her an outfit/s so that she can be the… Continue reading MCI at Dublin Comic Con 2025 – Barbie Project!

2025 However long the day, night comes If it was fine till Halloween someone would be unhappy Ireland divided is Ireland laid low Listen to the sound of a river and you will catch a trout The cows owner must go under her tail Small shards suit as well as big stones for building walls… Continue reading Seachtain na Gaeilge

Christmas 2024 The Museum of Childhood Ireland were at Bloomfields Shopping Centre on December 13th for a festive day with McCormick’s Puppets, featuring seasonal performances between 1:00 and 4 pm! Santa had arrived, but where was Rudolph the Reindeer? And what was Crocodile up to? Plus, we all met Cheeky Monkey and snapped a photo… Continue reading Puppet Show, Seó Puipéad and Dominican School

Ongoing project Two 3rd and 4th class primary school classes gathered information from parents and grandparents about their childhoods, including celebratory holidays and traditions for a curriculum history module, and engaged with the museum to explore the subject. As a group they also watched the RTE Today Show with Dáithí and Maura for the lovely… Continue reading MCI’s Primary School Outreach 2024

Oíche Shamhna 2024 Shona Daoibh! lá spraoi teaghlaigh! Creatlach ( Skeleton dressed figure ) from MoCI Playmobile Collection, Andrea Kehoe from 1974+ Bígí linn i gcomhair Samhain @ An ILAC! 31 Deireadh Fómhair 10:00 – 16:00. Beidh scéalta ar théama Oíche Shamhna, chomh maith le healaín, péinteáil, aisteoireacht, balúin agus go leor eile. Dírithe ar thuismitheoirí… Continue reading Oíche Shamhna 2024

Museum of Childhood Ireland, Músaem Óige na hÉireann, with Sticky Fingers Arts Festival Day Time! Tales of Ireland’s Ancient East at Ice House Hill Park, Dundalk 12-4pm. Saturday 12th October 2024. Puppetry, art, craft, mythology, folklore, history, magic, play and storytelling…adventures of curious creatures across land and sea, and exploring the many different worlds in-between.… Continue reading Féile na Draíochta

Easter basket making, on Saturday 23rd March. In preparation for the upcoming Easter egg hunt at St Audeon’s, come and make your own basket for collecting eggs! Spring into Activity at Audoen’s Park, Dublin on Saturday 30th March. Join the Museum of Childhood Irelands’s Dakota and Sofia, for a day of fun! https://www.dublincity.ie/residential/parks/dublin-city-parks/visit-park/st-audoens-park St. Audeon’s… Continue reading Easter, An Cháisc

Greystones, Co Wicklow https://share.icloud.com/photos/092sRSApLUNri54TEz9lWvwJQ

Christmas at the Museum of Childhood Ireland It’s beginning to look a lot like…… Christmas! Only days now until the big day. Christmas is a wintry holiday celebrated by many in Ireland, and it brings with it fond memories and waves of nostalgia, reminiscing about Christmases past, and indeed the year that has just gone… Continue reading Season’s Greetings!

Halloween began as a pagan celebration over 2,000 years ago in Ireland as part of a festival known as ‘Samhain’. Traditionally celebrated on the 31st of October – 1st November, the Celtic festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the annual harvest and the coming of Winter. Samhain consisted of many different acts and rituals,… Continue reading Halloween, Oíche Shamhna at the Museum of Childhood Ireland

Museum of Childhood Ireland Músaem Óige na hÉireann 2016-2023

History of Toys. The Museum of Childhood Ireland worked with Dublin Primary school students on a curriculum history strand: Learning from the past, through a programme of exploration of toys that children played with from the 1900s to the 1980s. Teacher overview:

Monday 12th and Wednesday 14th June 2023. The Museum of Childhood Ireland was delighted to facilitate engagement by local children in Kilkenny with this wonderful town planning and heritage resource, which is anticipated to transform how Ireland’s historic towns are planned and managed. #EngageKilkenny is a digital, public engagement platform designed, developed and managed by… Continue reading EngageKilkenny

Dublin Comic Con, 11th and 12th March 2023. What an incredible, Creative, Inclusive, and Playful family day out! The atmosphere was electric ⚡️ We met tons of old and new friends. Wonderful superhero creation in the all day workshop too! 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️🦸 We were delighted that Basak Ellibes from the Istanbul Toy Museum, Karol O’Connor, Action… Continue reading MCI at Dublin Comic Con 2023

Batgirl at Comic Con Dublin 2022!  Our museum team member Sorcha with items from the MoCI’s collection. Thank you  Dublin Comic Con for an amazing weekend. 💥A fantastic atmosphere and everyone was so friendly and helpful ❤️ #dublincomiccon #dublincomiccon2022

And the winner of our raffle is…. Ticket : AC 192290 Number, 361. Alison Quigley, Tallagh, Co. Dublin. Prizes sponsored by museumofchildhood.ie and a special thank you to Funky Geeks, Wexford, for the star prize, a 1st Edition Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! @Funkygeekswexford Thank you too to all the new friends… Continue reading MCI at Dublin Wizard Con 2022

Launch Event 25th November @ 2pm Venue: County Museum, Dundalk Town Centre  2.00pm Complimentary Lunch in Museum 2.30pm Announcement of the Dundalk Historic Trees #Hashtag Competition Winners Majella McAllister, Director, Museum of Childhood Ireland Músaem Óige na hÉireann 2.45pm Welcome to Dundalk and Louth County Museum – An Cathaoirleach, Kevin Meenan & Brian Walsh, Louth… Continue reading Dundalk Town Centre’s historic Long Walk Trees

Programme for Government & Collaborative Town Centre Health Check (CTCHC) Programme (Heritage Council) – From October 2021 “Our Town: Our Future” – Capturing the Voice of Children and Young People as they explore their role in revitalising Ireland’s Historic Town Centres. The first of our youth panel discussions is now available here: The CTCHC Youth… Continue reading Our Town: Our Future

Where are you really from? By Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi The old title is “writing home”, the new title is “where are you really from?”. This poem was originally performed at the the 2019 panel event “Are We Doing Diversity Justice?” organised by Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi and Dr Emma Penny. Highlighting the diversity of Irish poetic voices on… Continue reading Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi

History now! The Museum of Childhood Ireland meets history head-on with our Memory Boxes, aiming to offer a glimpse into how we here in Ireland navigated the Pandemic for future generations.  We began to collect ‘Covid-19 Pandemic time’ related artefact suggestions from Irish children from March 12th 2020 onwards when our government announced the closure… Continue reading Memory Boxes Cuimhne Boscai

The Museum of Childhood Ireland were invited to the Harold’s Cross Village Community Council’s Age Well initiative and Festival. Their neighbourhood ( in collaboration with several Residents Associations and Dublin City Council) hosted an Age Well programme of activities for people who are older, who may have been particularly impacted by COVID, but also who… Continue reading Generational interaction at MCI

MoCI engagement with younger children: The Apple Tree Project. #CTCHC The project was first launched in Tralee during Tree Week. The Museum of Childhood Ireland were so happy to organise this tree planting ceremony at Beech Hill in recognition of the wonderful apple seed project work of the children at Donnybrook Community Play School, in collaboration… Continue reading From Apple Seeds to Apple Trees

Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales. Dear grandparents, parents, children, Aunties, Uncles, neighbours, everyone! Our MoCI colleague Ruthanne Baxter (Edinburgh University Museum) has developed this wonderful intergenerational initiative for you. We hope you’ll find it an interesting resource to help you stay connected both during the pandemic and afterwards. It’s a really great, simple, fun, community project… Continue reading GEL Project

You are invited around to our’s for tea, cake and tales around the fireside, about play and growing up in Dublin City and suburbs. The games played, rhymes rhymed, bobbin tanks and ‘gats’ made, ‘pinkeens’ fished for, orchards robbed, the ‘scutting’, the going for ‘messages’ for mammy, and battles to be first in line for… Continue reading Play and Growing Up in Dublin

Unburn bush Storyteller: Matthew, age 10 Listen here: It was a long time ago. Two kings – Polish and Hungarian – united their armies and approached the wall of the famous Ukranian city of Dorohobuzh. A letter was handed over to the defenders of the city. They offered to open the city gates without a… Continue reading Ukrainian Stories and Legends in English

Storytelling by Viktoria Kozak Ірландські історії та легенди від оповідачки Вікторії Козак Scéalta agus Finscéalta na hÉireann i dteanga na hÚcráine. Scéalaíocht le Viktoria Kozak  The Story of the Giant’s Causeway Дорога велетнів, Ко Антрім Doroha veletniv, Ko Antrim Scéal faoi Clochán an Aifir, Co Aontroma Illustration, Norah, age 12 Have a listen to our… Continue reading Irish Stories & Legends in Ukrainian

with Dublin Gazette The Youth Voice Team at the Museum of Childhood Ireland ( aged 12-18 years of age ) were so happy to support Dublin Gazette Newspaper’s sustainability competition for primary schools in Dublin, as it chimes with the contemporary aims and focus of our team at the Museum of Childhood Ireland, and following… Continue reading Making Dublin Greener

Planting in Blackrock, Co Dublin, Ireland, for the Museum of Childhood Ireland Tree Week We have ongoing children’s tree projects at the museum all year around. For Christmas 2022 and 2023 we provided native grown living Christmas trees to children’s groups we’d worked with during the year, which they decorated with ornaments that they handmade,… Continue reading Tree Week 2021- 2023

Alex. Launching on #WorldPoetryDay we are honoured to have 12 year old Irish Poet Alex as our guest. The first poem he will recite is his own original composition, Ár gCrann Dárach, and throughout the week we will upload Alex’s recitations or readings, recorded specially for the museum, of work by Irish poets with trees… Continue reading Poetry Week 2021

Dear children and youth, from March 17th 2020 until….take part. It’s very simple. Have an adult guardian email a photograph of your creative response to the Covid-19 pandemic (Draw /paint/ installation /poem /haiku / writing…) in to us at info@museumofchildhood.ie The idea is for you to be heard; for you to express yourself, in a… Continue reading Children’s Voices Project 2020 & 2021 Together, Le Chéile

We are almost there again, almost happy, almost clappy, but not quite yet. By Christmas they say we will all hug again and share again, but I wouldn’t bet, Will it ever go back to how it was? Will my life always be a different ‘normal’ because, I’m fourteen and I’m asking. I’m Fourteen. By… Continue reading Project 2021 Exhibition

Short presentation on Project 2020 / 2021 Together, Le Chéile. [office_doc id=7443]

“Project 2020 / TOGETHER, LE CHÉILE” Children’s Voices at home and abroad during the pandemic from the Museum of Childhood Ireland Project team. ​https://museumofchildhood.ie/project2020/ Tarraingíonn scéal scéal eile. One story begets another. In this strange and unsettling time of Pandemic, the well-being and mental health of all our children is of paramount importance. Project 2020… Continue reading Press Release

About FION GUNN:                                                                                                        … Continue reading Fion Gunn

The Museum of Childhood Ireland and An Post are pleased to support and launch this first Exhibition and Book by photographer Barry Delaney. It runs until this Sunday, October 20th.  Barry Delaney’s photo exhibition at GPO Photographer Barry Delaney launched his debut book on Dublin’s inner city, Stars and Souls of the Liffey, with an… Continue reading Stars and Souls of the Liffey

Commemorating the writer Seumas O’Kelly. Where: 94 Lower Georges St., Dún Laoghaire. Time 5pm Saturday 17th Nov. We welcome Mairdhia Ni Murchu with the terrific group of actors, Val O’Donnell and The JoyceStagers, who will perform rehearsed readings from the short stories of Seumas O’Kelly this evening for our event, (one of a series of… Continue reading Seumas O’Kelly

Moriarty Unmasked: Conan Doyle and an Anglo-Irish Quarrel. An evening with author Jane Stanford, and secondary level students for a discussion on Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Homes. Moriarty Unmasked: Conan Doyle and an Anglo-Irish Quarrel, Jane Stanford. (Available to buy on Amazon, paperback, and ebook) Arthur Conan Doyle, best known for the Sherlock… Continue reading Jane Stanford

‘Mumbles’ in Hong kong. The story of the artist’s return to her Hong Kong childhood.. An evening Slideshow and Conversation with artist, environmental campaigner, educator, and author Veronica Haywood, focusing on her early childhood, family history and connections to Hong Kong. Venue: Upstairs at 94 Lower Georges St., Dún Laoghaire. Time: 7.30-9pm. Date: Friday 23rd… Continue reading Veronica Haywood

Join us for an intimate evening around the fireside in our bookshop upstairs at 94 Lower Georges St., for an evening of readings and discussion with poet/author and great friend of the museum, Martin Swords. Time 8pm. Thursday 22nd February. Refreshments will be served from 7.30pm. Greetings Friends, Poets and other enthusiasts, here I am… Continue reading Martin Swords

High Tea At A Low Table. Talk by author / poet Angela Patton at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire. June 29th. 7-8.30pm. “High Tea at a Low Table.” (If you click here, you’ll see a short description, brief review, and an excerpt from her wonderful memoir) Angela will read from her memoir, interspersing the… Continue reading Angela Patton

An evening with John Goggins.

Virtual Poetry Workshops (1 ) & (2)for Children age 5-12 years and 13-18 years. The MoCI Project are delighted to announce that Poet and Performer Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi will be hosting a Virtual Poetry Workshop (1) for 5-12 year olds next Wednesday May 20th, from 2-3pm.  On Wednesday May 27th she will host a Virtual Poetry… Continue reading Poetry with Chiamaka Enyi -Amadi

Lean on Me by Bill Withers You’ve Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman Count On Me by Bruno Mars That’s What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick Our Special Absent Friends by Daniel O’Donnell “Friends are people you enjoy spending time with other than your family! Friends are people you like being with;… Continue reading Exhibition Universal 1: Friendship

Éist le ceol / listen to music. A digital resource centered around the universal themes with the aid of music. Each theme will be introduced with an accompanying music playlist supported by open-ended questions to which children can respond creatively. Responses can be expressed through any creative medium whether it be with poems, short stories,… Continue reading Exhibition Universal

Listen, enjoy, sing … and if you are inspired or feel like being creative send your work about Hope into us at: info@museumofchildhood.ie identifying it as EU3 Hope. The poet Emily Dickenson once said that ” Hope’ is the thing with feathers-‘ When you close your eyes can you see hope? If you can visualise… Continue reading Exhibition Universal 3 Hope

Lyrics Óró sé do Beatha Bhaile ‘Sé do bheatha, a bhean ba léanmhar, Do b’ é ár gcreach thú bheith i ngéibheann, Do dhúiche bhreá i seilbh méirleach, Is tú díolta leis na Gallaibh. Óró, sé do bheatha ‘bhaile, Óró, sé do bheatha ‘bhaile, Óró, sé do bheatha ‘bhaile Anois ar theacht an tsamhraidh. Tá… Continue reading Exhibition Universal 2: Home