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Animals of Dublin

Animals of Dublin

The Little Museum of Dublin presents the Animals of Dublin exhibition

The exhibition features cunning scavengers, Irish wolfhounds, postal egg boxes, the Dublin Horse Show… and an elephant in the Coombe.

Visitors will also meet an animal that was last seen in Dublin 12,000 years ago!

Giant Irish Deer once made their home in what is now Dublin. Standing over six feet tall, they were among the largest species of deer ever to exist. For our exhibition, the great Irish artist Mick O’Dea has re-imagined the head and antlers of this extraordinary creature, alongside the cranium of a real Giant Irish Deer.

Animals hold an outsize place in the local imagination, but alongside mythical beasts, we also decided to make room for daily wonders like the ducks of Stephen’s Green and the deer in Phoenix Park.

We were lucky to have legendary curator Nigel Monaghan, the just-retired Keeper of the National Museum of Ireland – Natural History, as an adviser on the project, which builds on the extraordinary work done by him and other experts in this field.

We look forward to welcoming animals of all shapes and sizes to this remarkable new exhibition.


Animals of Dublin is now on at the Little Museum of Dublin, 15 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2. Included in price of admission, which includes a place on one of our famous guided tours.

The exhibition is presented by Santa Rita Estates and hosted in partnership with The Heritage Council & The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media.

A book of the exhibition will be published in 2023. If you want to contribute a story about human-animal relationships in Dublin, please email hello@littlemuseum.ie.

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