Things To Do: Praise public infrastructure, dwell on digital photography, talk shop

Our Picks

Our recommendations – no sponsored content, or adverts, just stuff we like.

Afterimage: Photography in the Digital Age

This evening, a new exhibition exploring the impact of digital technology on photography is launching in Photo Museum Ireland.

Afterimage: Photography in the Digital Age brings together a selection of work by Irish and international artists who are looking at “the material and conceptual transformations that have profoundly altered our sense of what a photograph is and can be”. Taking as their subject matter the ubiquity of smartphone cameras, image-sharing apps and reality-bending generative artificial intelligence, the exhibition peers into how many ways a photographic image can now be made and manipulated.

Curated by Darren Campion, ‘Afterimage’ features work  by Alan Butler, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Luke van Gelderen, Gregory Eddi Jones, Maria Mavropoulou, Alan Phelan, Michael Schäfer and Linn Phyllis Seeger.

The official launch is at 6pm today, Thursday, 16 July, and the exhibition will be showing until 23 August.

For more information, visit Photo Museum Ireland’s website here.

Echoes of Shared Walls

We’re sending you back out to Clancy Quay Studio in Islandbridge this week.

At the end of June, artist and Onion Boys lead vocalist James Carroll-Freeney launched his exhibition This is not a Table // This is a Table, which examined the idea that the past, present and future all exist simultaneously.

This is not a table… only had a short run in Clancy Quay. The studio is an initiative set-up by the National College of Art and Design to provide year-long residencies to a selection of their graduates. But, on Friday evening, the studio is launching Echoes of Shared Walls, the final studio exhibition of the 2025-26 residents.

Opening at 6pm, Echoes… will feature works from Carroll-Freeney, Andrew Scully, Clarissa Kelly, Donna Lawlor, Noor Farsakh and Scout McLeod.

It will be free to visit until Sunday, 19 July. For more information, follow Clancy Quay Studios here.

Camilla Grudova

On Saturday evening, Paddy Cosgrave’s venture The Whistleblower will be welcoming author Camilla Grudova into their hub of radical books, ideas and choices of paint in the hardware shop.

Named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in 2023, the Canadian author has garnered acclaim for her Shirley Jackson Prize-winning 2016 short story "Waxy", her 2017 collection of stories The Doll’s Alphabet, published by FitzCarraldo Editions, and her 2022 novel Children’s of Paradise, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Grudova will be in the South Anne Street café and bookshop at 6:30pm to talk about her literary influences and the importance of reading.

Tickets are free and available here.

Value for Many

On Tuesday, the Irish Film Institute will be holding Value for Many, a special double bill of documentaries celebrating publicly-funded architectural projects.

Commissioned by the Office of Public Works in 2025, the two films Circle and Threshold were directed by Patrick Voigt of 9sekunden, a Germany-based studio that enticingly promises “atmospheric films about architecture, landscape, urbanism and corporate culture”.

Circle takes the viewer down to see the Arklow Wastewater Treatment plant in Wicklow, which was opened in April 2025, roughly 35 years after locals were first promised the facility. The film looks at the €139 million Uisce Éireann facility, the architectural practice Clancy Moore, which is behind it, and the town as they celebrate its completion at last.

Then Threshold heads further south down to Rosslare Europort as the OPW carries out its ambitious reconfiguration of the 20-hectare port in the aftermath of Brexit.

Value for Many starts at 6:30pm on Tuesday, 21 July, and will be followed by a conversation led by Emmett Scanlon, director of the Irish Architecture Foundation. On the panel will be Voigt, Arklow resident Sandra Hall, architect Andrew Clancy and marine pilot Sean Boyce.

Tickets are available here.

Talking Shop

Finally, the Liberties Festival is returning on Monday and once again, the Dublin InQuirer will be dropping into a few local businesses to chat with their owners for the second edition of Talking Shop.

Last year’s edition saw a few members of our team drop into spots like the Model Shop, Straffan Antiques and Little Flower Penny Dinners to discover some of the stories that shaped these businesses, and frame them within the larger cultural and social context of the Liberties, while also providing places like Noel’s Deli a chance to revive their famous sausage rolls.

This year reporter Stephanie Costello, deputy editor Lois Kapila and I will heading out, beginning on Tuesday at 6:30pm in Hopeless Botanics on Dean Street, followed by Thomas House on Thomas Street at 7:30pm.

Then, on Wednesday, we will be over in Some Neck Guitars on Francis Street at 6:30pm and Picado Mexican on Cork Street at 7:30pm.

Finally, on Wednesday, we will be paying a visit to Martin Fennelly Antiques on Francis Street at 6:30pm, and Betty Bojangles on Thomas Street at 7:30pm.

Each talk is free, but booking is required. To reserve a spot and to see the full festival line-up, visit the Liberties Festival website here.

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The Liberties Festival, one of the oldest community festivals in the country, returns across 7 days with over 70 (mostly free) events.

Monday 20 July to Sunday 26 July 2026.

Find out what's on here

Noticeboard

Listings of events submitted by readers – you can submit yours for next week's newsletter, via this form.

Summer in Dublin, Kerlin Gallery

On Friday, the Kerlin Gallery will be launching its new group exhibition Summer in Dublin.

Running until 22 August, Summer in Dublin will feature works by Dorothy Cross, Samuel Laurence Cunnane, Willie Doherty, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Justin Fitzpatrick, Mark Francis, Guggi, Callum Innes, Jaki Irvine, Zhou Li, Stephen McKenna, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Isabel Nolan, Hazel O’Sullivan, Sean Scully and Liliane Tomasko.

For more information, visit the Kerlin website here.

Acid 87, The Gall and Enola Christ Metalizer

On Monday evening, 20 July, Kirkos will be hosting a night of performance art, sound art and the unexpected for those who refuse to settle for the ordinary.

Doors open at 7:30pm, and among those set to feature in the venue at 1 Little Green Street is Acid 87, the Gall and Enola Christ Metalizer.

The event is unticketed. It is also going to be loud.

Consultation on Aircraft Noise Regulation at Dublin Airport

The Aircraft Noise Competent Authority (ANCA) is encouraging the public to make submissions and observations on planning application F23A/0781 that would see an increase in passenger capacity at Dublin Airport.

The consultation is currently underway, and ANCA invites the public to make their submissions and observations until 3 September. These can be made online though the consultation portal here, by email to aircraftnoiseconsultation@fingal.ie, or in writing to Aircraft Noise Consultation, Aircraft Noise Competent Authority, Fingal County Council, County Hall, Main Street, Swords, Co Dublin, K67 X8Y2.