Name: Ballybough Portraits and The Republic of Play: Street Games in Dublin
Start: 2026-04-09T10:00:00+01:00
Location: Charleville Mall Library

Ballybough Portraits and The Republic of Play: Street Games in Dublin is a photography exhibition by Colm Pierce exploring memory, identity and community in Dublin’s inner city.
Presented at Charleville Mall Library, this free exhibition brings together two photographic series. Ballybough Portraits focuses on artists, writers and activists shaped by conversations with Tony O’Shea, while Republic of Play: Street Games in Dublin looks back at the inner city of the 1980s, when streets became playgrounds and children claimed public space as their own.
**About the Exhibition**
The Ballybough Portraits exhibition in Dublin honours individuality, conviction and the quiet strength of inner city voices. Created with patience and directness, the portraits reflect the lives and presence of people connected to Dublin’s north inner city.
Alongside this, Republic of Play: Street Games in Dublin captures a time before traffic and urban change reshaped the city. These photographs document freedom, imagination and community, showing children at play in the streets and preserving a vivid sense of everyday life.
Together, the two series create a powerful reflection on Dublin’s social history, belonging and the changing landscape of the inner city.
**About the Artist**
Colm Pierce is a photographer whose work records direct encounters, neighbourhood life and the character of Dublin’s communities. Shot on film and developed over time, his photographs focus on presence, dignity and everyday experience without performance or nostalgia.
His work offers a grounded view of working-class Dublin and the social life of the street, preserving moments of memory and connection through documentary photography.
Ballybough Portraits exhibition Dublin showing a portrait photograph from Colm Pierce’s series
Portrait photograph from Colm Pierce’s Ballybough Portraits series in Dublin
**Why Visit**
This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience photographic work rooted in Dublin’s inner city history and community life. Through portraits and documentary images, Ballybough Portraits and The Republic of Play captures the people, places and street culture that shaped the city.
For anyone interested in Dublin history, photography, social memory or free exhibitions in Dublin, this is a thoughtful and visually compelling event.
**Event Details**
📅 9th to 30th April
🕒 10 AM to 5 PM (Monday to Saturday)
📍 Charleville Mall Library
📍 Charleville Mall, North Strand Road, Dublin 1
🎟 Admission: Free entry
**Exhibition Talk**
📅 16th April
🕒 3 PM
📍Charleville Mall, North Strand Road, Dublin 1
🎟 Admission: Free entry