Visitors to MoLI will walk through the beautiful rooms of UCD Newman House to arrive at cutting-edge interactive exhibitions on Irish writing from medieval times to the present. Moving through the exhibitions, visitors will hear the sounds of Irish writing, see the work of James Joyce mapped onto the contemporary city through film and sculpture, and engage with some of the most exceptional items from the National Library’s collections. These include Joyce’s handwritten Ulysses notebooks and the famous ‘Copy No. 1’ of Ulysses, inscribed by Joyce to his patron Harriet Shaw Weaver and donated by her to the National Library in 1952.

Throughout the museum, visitors can explore diverse exhibits featuring contemporary Irish writers, Irish literature around the world, and the history of publishing in the Irish State. An ambitious temporary exhibition programme will see these exhibitions changing regularly, adapting to new developments and scholarship in the literary field, and travelling from MoLI to other locations around the world.

Partnerships with the National Library, UCD, and other institutions and collectors will enable MoLI to present a diverse and ambitious exhibition programme. There will be a focus on individual writers and works from the past to the present as well as Irish folklore and intangible literary heritage through artefacts, sound, film, new technologies and digital media. At the core of our mission will be a desire to connect international and domestic visitors with a love of reading, writing and creative inspiration.