Watch this video of archivist Leah Benson sharing stories about Shaw and the Gallery, recorded to mark National Heritage Week 2020.
Our new exhibition Shaw and the Gallery: A Priceless Education explores George Bernard Shaw's special relationship with the National Gallery of Ireland. As a child in Dublin, Shaw spent many hours wandering the rooms of the Gallery, calling it the place to which he owed “much of the only real education [he] ever got as a boy in Eire.”
In this video, Leah Benson, curator of the exhibition, talks about objects from the Gallery's institutional archive which reveal what the Gallery might have looked like when Shaw visited as a boy. From original fixtures and fittings to newspaper articles and photos, discover the story of one of the country’s most influential writers and the place he called the “cherished asylum of my boyhood”.
Keep an eye on the Gallery's Instagram Stories during Heritage Week (17 - 21 August) to learn more about Shaw and the archives from ESB CSIA Research Fellow Donna Rose.
Explore more
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Shaw and the Gallery: A Priceless Education
On view until 19 September 2021
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Heritage Week 2020 at the National Gallery of Ireland
Celebrate heritage with us online from 15 to 23 August 2020
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Gallery archive
Holds the official records of the National Gallery of Ireland
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Recording a Refurbishment
Fascinating objects uncovered during the Gallery's renovation