Heritage Week at the Museum

National Print Museum celebrates Heritage Week 2026 with free tours and live demonstrations

The National Print Museum is celebrating Heritage Week by highlighting the importance of safeguarding Ireland’s printing heritage with a programme of free tours and live demonstrations.

This year’s Heritage Week theme, “heritage at risk”, resonates strongly with the Museum’s work to preserve and share Ireland’s printing heritage. At the heart of the Museum’s collection is traditional letterpress printing, a craft practiced in Ireland for almost 500 years.

In 2019, the Museum successfully applied to have letterpress included in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Museum is committed to preserving this important aspect of Intangible Cultural Heritage through its public programming and project work behind the scenes.

This year, through the Heritage Council’s Organisation Support Scheme, the Museum appointed a Letterpress Learning Officer and Technician. This is the first role of its kind in an Irish museum. This role aims to strengthen the Museum’s capacity to continue the practice and transmission of letterpress printing.

Mary Plunkett took up this role earlier this summer. Plunkett is a graphic artist and printer who specialises in letterpress. Her role combines hands-on printing, creative design, education, working with visiting artists, and facilitating skills transfer programming. Plunkett says: “I’m delighted to take on this role and look forward to working with other printers, designers, artists and my colleagues in the National Print Museum to promote and support the practice of letterpress printing in Ireland.”

Heritage Week Programming

Plunkett is hosting a special event with designer Niall McCormack, who has designed a response print to the current exhibition Come Fly With Me, Aviation, tourism and Irish design. McCormack will discuss the concept behind the design and Plunkett will print this new work. This event is fully booked with three times the capacity on a waitlist, demonstrating the public interest in traditional letterpress printing in contemporary practice and how heritage continues to evolve.

The Museum’s daily guided tours and family tours are all free for the week, many are already fully booked. Visitors will have the chance to explore the national collection and discover the history of printing in Ireland. One highlight is the fascinating story of the printing of the 1916 Proclamation of Independence.

The retired printers and compositors will be bringing the collection to life for not one but two demonstration events on Thursday 20 August, 11.00–13.00 and Sunday 23 August, 14.00–16.00. These events are drop-in with no booking necessary, and all are welcome. There will be an opportunity to see and learn about some ongoing work to the collection through the Department of Culture, Communication and Sport’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Scheme.

This Heritage Week, the National Print Museum invites everyone to discover, experience and celebrate Ireland’s printing heritage, while helping to ensure these skills remain part of our future.