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Temporary Exhibition | On display until the end of August 2026

A New Form of Beauty: Dublin youth culture, street style and subculture history, 1960s to 1990s

Free Admission | No booking required

Image credits: Top row L-R: Sinead Byrne, Podge O'Farrell, Andy Dalton, Sharon Morrin. Bottom row L-R: Simone Ni Chinneide, Lena Byrne, Sean Gilmartin.

In celebration of the Bealtaine Festival's 30th anniversary, a captivating exhibition of archival photographs has been commissioned and is being hosted in collaboration with the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks. This exhibition offers a unique glimpse into the evolution of Dublin's youth culture across three pivotal decades, featuring images from the 1960s through to the 1990s.

This exhibition is an expansion of 2024's Teenage Kicks Rebellious Youth Subculture and Street Style in Dublin (1970s-1990s); an event hosted at Photo Museum Ireland.

Curator Garry O’Neill has spent two decades collecting and sourcing material from the general public, photographers and photojournalists. This exhibition is formed from this active archive, documenting Dublin’s rich and diverse decades of youth culture, viewed through a prism of its street styles and subcultures, both retro and progressive.

The origins of this archive are rooted in a project documenting street styles and subcultures in a  book collaboration with Dublin designer Niall McCormack, leading to the publication of "Where Were You? Dublin Youth Culture & Street Style 1950–2000" (Hi Tone Books, 2011), numerous exhibitions over the years, and the establishment of the independent publishing house, Hi Tone Books.
 


Related Experiences

Join an evening tour with the curator of the exhibition 'A New Form of Beauty' at Collins Barracks as part of Dublin by Dusk. 

 

Location:


A New Form of Beauty: Dublin youth culture, street style and subculture history, 1960s to 1990s is located at:
Collins Barracks ,
Benburb St,
Dublin 7
D07 XKV4


Marking Bealtaine Festival’s 30th birthday celebrations, this exhibition features images from the 1960s through to the 1990s. 

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Collins Barracks

Collins Barracks ,
Benburb St,
Dublin 7,
D07 XKV4

+353 1 677 7444