Perhaps more than any other genre, gothic literature depends on place and space to craft its characteristic atmosphere of danger and dread. The simple creak of a stairway, or the echoing of footsteps, can provoke the thrill of terror. 

Place and space are central to Ireland’s gothic writing, which is frequently associated with mouldering country estates that dramatise the end of the Anglo-Irish Ascendency. This exhibition curated by Dr Katie Mishler, however, examines the contribution that Irish writers have made to a different tradition of Dublin gothic writing. The writers examined in this exhibition have unleashed phantoms, vampires, and other undead horrors into the city environment.

This exhibition has emerged from Dr Katie Mishler’s Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, Mapping Dublin Gothic: 1820-1900. Curated by Dr Katie Mishler. The exhibition was produced with the support of the Irish Research Council and the European Research Council.