Ballybough Portraits and The Republic of Play: Street Games in Dublin

Ballybough Portraits and The Republic of Play: Street Games in Dublin is a photography exhibition by Colm Pierce exploring memory, identity and community in Dublin’s inner city.

Presented at Charleville Mall Library, this free exhibition brings together two photographic series. Ballybough Portraits focuses on artists, writers and activists shaped by conversations with Tony O’Shea, while Republic of Play: Street Games in Dublin looks back at the inner city of the 1980s, when streets became playgrounds and children claimed public space as their own.

About the Exhibition

The Ballybough Portraits exhibition in Dublin honours individuality, conviction and the quiet strength of inner city voices. Created with patience and directness, the portraits reflect the lives and presence of people connected to Dublin’s north inner city.

Alongside this, Republic of Play: Street Games in Dublin captures a time before traffic and urban change reshaped the city. These photographs document freedom, imagination and community, showing children at play in the streets and preserving a vivid sense of everyday life.

Together, the two series create a powerful reflection on Dublin’s social history, belonging and the changing landscape of the inner city.

About the Artist

Colm Pierce is a photographer whose work records direct encounters, neighbourhood life and the character of Dublin’s communities. Shot on film and developed over time, his photographs focus on presence, dignity and everyday experience without performance or nostalgia.

His work offers a grounded view of working-class Dublin and the social life of the street, preserving moments of memory and connection through documentary photography.