Rathmines Library Features!

The suburb of Rathmines made the shortlist in the recent Irish Times sponsored competition for 'The Best Place to Live in Ireland'. The overall winner, announced on the 25 June last, was Westport, Co. Mayo. But congrats to Rathmines for winning the 'suburb' category.

The video profiling the suburb of Rathmines is hosted on the Irish Times YouTube page and can be viewed below. AND we want to unashamedly point out that our wonderful Rathmines Public Library branch features prominently in the short (1:17) video!

Rathmines was nominated by Nick Kelly, and you can read Nick's pitch here.

Rathmines Branch Library, located right in the heart of the suburb on the corner of Rathmines Road and Leinster Road, is open six days a week and offers a whole range of services. The library was re-opened last August (2011) following a major refurbishment, and the following slideshow of photos will give you some further indication as to the great work that was carried out.

The suburb of Rathmines and its environs has also been the home to many of Ireland's greatest literary figures, making Rathmines a convincing argument for being the most literary quarter of our literary city. In that regard Dublin City Public Libraries provides a wonderful resource here on this site, Rathmines and Beyond: A Literary Heritage, profiling many of the literary figures associated with the area and placing them in a geographic context in regards to Rathmines and surrounding areas.

Rathmines Public Library was built in 1913 with the aid of a Carnegie grant. But did you know that the first public library in Rathmines was opened in June 1887 just up the road from its current location? You can learn more of the history of the library on a short video we created and designed as a resource for primary and post-primary students up to Junior Certificate, but we think of interest to all.

So get on down to Rathmines Library!