It’s a must see exhibition. A riveting glimpse into the way we were. And the way we dressed.
In celebration of the Bealtaine Festival‘s 30th anniversary, A New Form Of Beauty is a captivating exhibition of archival photographs that has been commissioned by, 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 new 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.
In his exhibition introductory essay, Gavin Friday says, “You just can’t deny what these images reveal. They evidence the innocence, the innovation and the defiance of working class youth at a time when Ireland was a suffocating place, still under the stranglehold of emigration, unemployment and the theocracy of the Catholic Church. The young Dubliners in this exhibition turned their ordinary into extraordinary.”
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.
Where Were You?, a photographic celebration of Dublin’s youth culture, street style and teen life, from the 1950s to the 1990s had a massive reaction when it was first published. At last here was a visual documentation of post war youth life in Ireland, photos you could show the kids (grandkids more likely) of what yer Ma and Da were wearing while stomping the streets of dirty oul Dublin.
From a pool of over 5,000 images, this fascinating visual record featured over 800 photographs, taken from a huge range of sources, including the work of established photographers such as Tony O’Shea, Derek Speirs, Bill Doyle and Fergus Bourke, alongside an incredibly diverse and eclectic mix of snapshots, photobooth and Polaroid photos contributed by the public.
A selection of ticket stubs, badges, flyers, adverts, quotes and newspaper clippings complement the photographs and enhance this unique social document of an often overlooked aspect of Dublin’s past.
As part of the Bealtaine Festival programme for this exhibition, the Museum will host a panel discussion at Collins Barracks on Friday 16th May from 6 – 7.30pm with speakers Garry O’Neill, Dandelion – DJ and vintage style icon, Deirdre Macken – founder of Sé Sí and Lucy’s Lounge and author Eamon Delaney. Tickets are free from Eventbrite.ie
Words: John Brereton
A New Form Of Beauty runs from May 2025 until March 2026 at National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Benburb St, Dublin 7, D07 XKV4.
Admission is free.
