Dear Colleagues,

Our next branch outing will see us return to Stephen's Green South for another guided tour of MoLI. This return visit is to facilitate the members who, for one reason or another, did not make it to our initial August outing and for other member that may wish to book. You are welcome to invite a companion.

If you were on the waiting list for the August outing and wish to attend the September outing, please renew your booking.

The normal admission into MoLI for over 65s is €8, and for a group guided tour €10.80

Browse the Café Menu:-https://moli.ie/cafe-gardens/the-commons/

 

 INVITATION

Guided Tour of Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI)

Meet Up 10.45 - Museum Reception Area

UCD - Naughton Joyce Centre

86 St. Stephen's Green (Newman House)

(Allow 90 minutes max. for Museum tour)

THURSDAY 29th SEPTEMBER

Guided Tour €10.80  Admission

Booking Information

If you hope to attend, I would appreciate receiving notice by email or text asap, and before Monday 19th September at the latest. As there is a limit of 20 people on guided tours places will be allocated on first come first served basis. I will confirm receipt of your booking. I appreciate late cancellations are sometimes unavoidable. You are very welcome to invite a companion.

Additional information for intending visitors.

MoLI - MAIN FOCUS

Located in Newman House (now named UCD - Naughton Joyce Centre) the Museum’s primary focus is the celebration of Ireland’s internationally renowned literary culture and heritage from the past to our celebrated contemporary writers of today. This celebration is achieved through a permanent collection and display of James Joyce related material  and revolving exhibitions on other Irish literary figures, displays and information on priceless artefacts, lectures, performances, historic house tours and much more. With a range of audio and immersive displays MoLI has been nominated for and won a number of awards for design and architecture. Overall, the Museum makes a major contribution to the local and international literary landscape. If one has an interested in any area of literature, this Museum is well worth a visit.

THE BUILDING

Leaving aside the celebration of literature dimension, Newman House, formerly UCD, is a complex of two Georgian houses and the original university Aula Maxima (Great Hall), all of this space, with some new "insertions", is used for the museum. Houses 85 & 86 were built as city mansions, No 85 was the first stone-faced house built 1738 on the Green. Collectively they retain an eclectic collection of very fine architectural features, including palazzo-style architecture with fine external stonework, fine interiors with original fireplaces – carved mahogany staircase – quality joinery and some of the best examples of eighteenth-century plasterwork in the city. No 85 has some of the finest eighteenth-century interiors in Ireland.

MoLI - THE BRIEF

The aims of the project were to develop a world class standard ‘Ulysses Exhibition’, integrate Newman House into a wider city context and weave the three buildings together into a better functioning integral whole. The scheme has been designed in such a way that the new building works will be to the rear of the buildings and have minimal impact on the front exteriors and historic fabric of the buildings. From the street view the main visible architectural intervention is the creation of a new stair and lift element that will replace an existing external steel staircase. This solved a host of practical issues associated with the overall Newman House project. It provides a museum-quality stair and lift that connects all four levels of the exhibition, cafe and shop, as well as resolving fire safety issues across all three buildings.

After two years of careful restoration and modernisation by Purcell Construction, under the guidance of award-winning architects Scott Tallon Walker, MoLI (Molly) opened to the public on 21 September 2019.

If one has an interest in architecture the building in itself is well worth a visit.

Eamonn Kerrigan

Dublin Br. Sec.

eamonnkerrigan@gmail.com