Marsh's Library

About the museum

Marsh’s Library was founded by Narcissus Marsh, who became Provost of Trinity College in 1679 and Archbishop of Dublin in 1694. Finding the college library poorly kept and hard to use, he decided to create a library open to the public. The building was designed by William Robinson, the Surveyor General in Ireland, and put up in the garden of the archbishop’s palace beside St Patrick’s Cathedral. It was finished later than Marsh had hoped, and the first librarian, the Huguenot scholar Élie Bouhéreau, moved into his rooms there in December 1703 with his own book collection.

The core of the holdings came from Marsh’s purchase of about 10,000 volumes from the son of Bishop Edward Stillingfleet, which arrived in Ireland in 1705 and still fill the first gallery. An Act of the Irish Parliament of 1707 secured the library for public use, and Jonathan Swift was among its first governors. A second gallery and the wire alcoves known as cages were added soon after. Because books were being stolen, the governors ruled in the 1760s that readers should sit at supervised tables or be locked inside a cage while they worked.

The library came under machine-gun fire from a nearby building on 30 April 1916, during the Easter Rising, which shattered windows and damaged books. James Joyce visited in 1902 and later mentioned the library in Ulysses. Today it is an independent charitable trust run by its Governors and Guardians, with an annual state grant and income from admissions and its shop. Visitors walk through the two galleries, the old reading room and the cages, and can rest afterwards in the hidden garden.

Highlights

• Original eighteenth-century oak bookcases in two galleries
• Reading cages where readers were once locked in
• Stillingfleet and Bouhéreau collections
• Bullet damage from the 1916 Easter Rising
• Hidden garden behind the library

Permanent exhibition

• The eighteenth-century library – Walk through the First Gallery, the old reading room, the Second Gallery and the reading cages of the original building from the early 1700s, with its oak bookcases and historic collections.

Founded

1707

Operated by

Governors and Guardians of Marsh’s Library

Admission & discounts

People receiving social welfare payments and Ukrainian citizens also enter free. A discounted joint ticket with St Patrick’s Cathedral is offered (price not stated). Individuals and groups of fewer than 8 can book a date online or pay at the door.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible: not available
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The public galleries are not accessible by wheelchair because of the historic building: the entrance is up 17 outside steps and the galleries are reached by 22 stairs. Staff will help carry buggies and prams up the stairs if you phone ahead on +353 1 454 3511. An accessible toilet is on the ground floor, but the library states that its ground-floor facilities are currently affected by building works.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide

Children are welcome and enter free. Families can search for hidden minifigures that tell stories from the library’s history, and staff share tales such as a ghost story. Staff help lift prams up the stairs.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

• Museum shop

A gift shop is on the ground floor, and visitors can sit in a hidden garden after the visit.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Plan your visit