Where you can walk in for free, from Kildare Street to Castlebar, when each place is open, which ones are closed for works, and how many people visit.
More than four million visits are made each year to Ireland's national museums, galleries and library, and most of them cost nothing. You can see Viking finds, a Lavery painting or the Yeats exhibition without buying a ticket.
Free to enter, with a few paid shows
The State funds a group of national cultural institutions. The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport says their collections are "usually free of charge". Some special exhibitions charge for tickets, but the main collections do not.
Two well-known galleries are closed for now. The Hugh Lane, run by Dublin City Council, and the Crawford in Cork are both having major building work.
| Venue | Where | Opening hours |
|---|---|---|
| National Museum: Archaeology | Kildare Street, Dublin 2 | Tue to Sat 10am to 5pm; Sun and Mon 1pm to 5pm |
| National Museum: Decorative Arts and History | Collins Barracks, Dublin 7 | Tue to Sat 10am to 5pm; Sun and Mon 1pm to 5pm |
| National Museum: Country Life | Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co Mayo | Tue to Sat 10am to 5pm; Sun and Mon 1pm to 5pm |
| National Museum: Natural History | Merrion Street, Dublin 2 | Closed for works |
| National Gallery of Ireland | Merrion Square West, Dublin 2 | Tue to Sat 9.15am to 5.30pm (Thu to 8.30pm); Sun and Mon 11am to 5.30pm |
| Irish Museum of Modern Art | Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8 | Tue, Thu to Sat 10am to 5.30pm; Wed from 11.30am; Sun from noon; closed Mon |
| National Library: Yeats exhibition | Kildare Street, Dublin 2 | Tue and Wed 9.30am to 7pm; other days 9.30am to 5pm (Sat closed on some dates) |
| Hugh Lane Gallery | Parnell Square North, Dublin 1 | Closed for refurbishment |
| Crawford Art Gallery | Cork city | Closed for redevelopment |
Industrial action is affecting some sites. The National Museum at Kildare Street is closed on Sunday 18 October 2026, and the National Library closed its Yeats exhibition on Saturday 3 October. Check before you travel.
The National Museum: four sites, one free ticket
The National Museum of Ireland has four sites, and entry to all of them is free. Kildare Street holds gold treasure, ancient history and the Viking collection. Collins Barracks, beside the Liffey, covers decorative arts, design and military history.
The Natural History museum on Merrion Street, known as the Dead Zoo, closed fully on 2 September 2024 for works. A new space called the Dead Zoo Lab has opened at Collins Barracks instead. In Mayo, the Country Life museum shows the folklife collection in 30 acres of parkland.
The National Gallery passed a million again
The National Gallery on Merrion Square had 1,049,683 visitors in 2025. That was its third year in a row above one million. Entry to the permanent collection is free.
Some exhibitions are free too, such as Rembrandt to Matisse, a show of European works on paper. Others, like Hilma af Klint: Artist and Visionary, are ticketed. A recent addition to the collection is John Lavery's The Bathing Hour, the Lido, Venice.
IMMA, the National Library and the Chester Beatty
The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) is in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, with 48 acres of grounds, gardens and meadows. IMMA says entry is free, and so are most of its exhibitions.
visitors to IMMA in 2023, up 10% on the year before
Source: report.imma.ieThe National Library on Kildare Street runs a free exhibition on the life and work of WB Yeats. Its Photographic Archive in Temple Bar has a Live Aid exhibition, open daily from 10am to 4pm. A Seamus Heaney exhibition is on Westmoreland Street.
The Chester Beatty is in the grounds of Dublin Castle. Its collection ranges from a statue of Guandi, the Chinese god of war, to a 17th-century metal cover for the Four Gospels made in Constantinople. Entry is free, but check its website for current hours.
Two galleries are closed for building work
The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork closed on 22 September 2024 for a major redevelopment. The works were expected to take about two and a half years from spring 2025. Budget 2027 says the redevelopment is under way.
The Hugh Lane is also closed for refurbishment. When open, it runs Tuesday to Sunday with free entry. It is known for Francis Bacon's studio, stained glass by Harry Clarke and paintings by Sean Scully.
While it is closed, its learning team runs art programmes in schools, community centres and city libraries.
Visitor numbers: which places draw the crowds
The Department's most recent full table of visitor figures is for 2019, the last year before the pandemic. It shows the National Gallery ahead, with Kildare Street and IMMA next.
Together, the four National Museum sites had about 1.25 million visitors in 2019. The National Gallery has grown since then, to over a million a year.
Free events and late openings
- National Museum at Kildare Street and Collins Barracks: late opening on the last Thursday of each month
- Collins Barracks stays open to 8pm on those Thursdays
- National Museum: family discovery days, and free guided tours on selected dates
- National Gallery: open to 8.30pm every Thursday, with free audio tours on your own phone
- IMMA: free outdoor events and talks, many recorded online
- National Library: Yeats exhibition open to 7pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
What this means for you
- You do not need a ticket for the main collections at any of the open venues listed here.
- Check the venue's website on the day. Industrial action has closed some sites at short notice.
- Collins Barracks cannot store coats or bags at the moment, so travel light.
- Kildare Street and Collins Barracks suggest arriving by 4.30pm, as they close at 5pm.
- Ticketed exhibitions are the exception. The rest of the building stays free.
You have to pay to get into the National Gallery or the National Museum.
Entry to the National Gallery's permanent collection and to all four National Museum sites is free. Only some special exhibitions charge.
Last Thursday of the month: late opening at the National Museum in Dublin
Budget 2027 adds €3.8 million for the national cultural institutions
Crawford Art Gallery redevelopment continues, with no reopening date confirmed
Work continues on the National Library's West Wing and the National Concert Hall
- Department of Culture, Communications and Sport: Budget 2027 details, 7 October 2026
- Department of Culture: Visitor figures for the National Cultural Institutions
- National Museum of Ireland: Archaeology, opening hours
- National Museum of Ireland: Decorative Arts and History, opening hours
- National Museum of Ireland: Country Life, opening hours
- National Museum of Ireland: Visiting during Ireland's EU Presidency 2026
- National Museum of Ireland: Annual Report 2024
- National Gallery of Ireland: Visit us
- National Gallery of Ireland: Over one million visitors in 2025
- IMMA: Visit
- IMMA: 2023 Annual Report
- National Library of Ireland: Opening hours
- Chester Beatty
- Hugh Lane Gallery: Visit us
- Hugh Lane Gallery: Explore and Learn
- Office of Public Works: Crawford Art Gallery closure for redevelopment, 20 August 2024
