Ireland's national archaeological treasures — from prehistoric gold to Viking artefacts and Iron Age bog bodies — housed in a stunning Victorian Palladian building in the heart of Dublin.
The crown jewel of the museum: three galleries of early medieval Irish art from the Iron Age to the 12th century. See the Ardagh Chalice, Tara Brooch, Derrynaflan Hoard, and the Faddan More Psalter — an 8th-century manuscript discovered in a Tipperary bog in 2006.
One of the largest and most important collections of prehistoric gold in Europe, spanning 2200 BC to 500 BC. See delicate lunulae, twisted torcs, and sheet-gold collars — jewellery and ritual objects from the Bronze Age.
An extraordinary and sobering exhibition centred on Iron Age bog bodies — human remains naturally preserved in peat bogs for over 2,000 years. Explores the ritual of sovereignty and sacrifice in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
The finest collection of excavated Viking-Age finds from any early medieval site in Europe. Centred on the Museum's own Dublin excavations (1962–1981), it traces Norse impact on Ireland from the first raids around 795 AD through to cultural fusion and the first towns.
Trace 9,000 years of human settlement — from the stone tools of Ireland's first hunter-gatherers around 7000 BC through to Late Bronze Age weapons. Highlights include a reconstructed passage tomb, a decorated flint mace head from Knowth, and a 4,500-year-old logboat from Lurgan, Co. Galway.
A newer exhibition showcasing 26 objects never before displayed from one of Ireland's most important monastic sites. Discover the lives of monks, pilgrims, and the powerful at Glendalough through artefacts including a 10th-century leather shoe and an 11th-century bishop's decorated pin.
Opened in 1890, the Victorian Palladian building is an attraction in its own right. Look for the domed rotunda inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, classical marble columns from across Ireland, and the zodiac mosaic floor by Oppenheimers of Manchester.
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