A black and white photography of Lord Mayor Carmencita Hederman presenting a book of condolences signed by the people of Dublin to the people of Enniskillen following the Enniskillen bombing November 1987.

In November 1987 eleven people were killed when an IRA bomb exploded during a Remembrance Day Service in Enniskillen. Carmencita Hederman, who was Lord Mayor at the time, remembers: “When a Book of Condolences was opened in the Mansion House, we kept having to run back down to Eason’s to buy new books because so many people turned up. At a memorial service in Enniskillen, I presented the book on behalf of the people of Dublin.” This photograph was taken during that service – note the presence of one Charles J Haughey.

A black and white photograph of a book shop with the sign 'The Dublin Bookshop' over the top and a bike parked on the street outside with the sign 'Fred Hanna Ltd. Booksellers 29 Nassau St.' on it.

A black and white photograph of the Theatre Royal. The main sign over the door says 'Glenn Ford in Blackboard Jungle'. It also has posters for the Dublin International Festival of Music and Arts on the side.

This is a photograph of the Theatre Royal, with its striking Art Deco facade and a Moorish-inspired interior. It was the largest cinema in Dublin, with an auditorium that housed 3,800 people. The International Festival of Music and the Arts is being advertised, and Blackboard Jungle is showing. The Royal had a resident 25-piece orchestra and its own dance troupe, the Royalettes. Judy Garland played here in 1951.

A black and white photograph of William Butler Yeats sitting in a chair from Independent Newspapers PLC. W. B. Yeats is written up the right side from the picture itself.

A black and white photographic portrait of Gabriel Byrne taken by Conor Horgan.

A black and white photographic portrait of Colm Tóibin in a room full of books with pages scattered on the ground taken by Perry Ogden.
Colm Tóibín stands in his office near Fitzwilliam Square. One of Ireland’s more astute commentators – and surely Dublin’s greatest networker – he was born in Wexford but has spent much of his life in the capital. Tóibín published his first novel, The South, in 1990, partly based on his experience of living in Barcelona. His other works include The Blackwater Lightship (1999) and a wonderful collection of short stories called The Empty Family (2010).