Myself and dfallon spotted a number of these plaques around the Dublin 8 and Liberties area last weekend. Here’s the story behind them…
Artist Chris Reid set out to create a micro history about Nicholas Street, Ross Road, Bride Street and Bride Road. This history would be centered on audio recordings of conversations Chris had with residents and people associated with the area. This research took place between 2004 and 2008. These oral narratives formed the basis of a subjective local history and heritage that would be placed back into the area. This subjective local history would be for local, resident, and tourist alike.
This history would privilege the human reality of a given situation rather than any factual account. The oral narratives recorded on minidisks were turned into a series of 220 short texts and a series of 100 longer anecdotes and stories. Each contributor participated alongside chris in the selection of a final 20 short texts for use on the plaques. These were typeset and individually cast on bronze in the form of commemorative plaques and installed on the walls of the aforementioned streets between 7 and 8 foot from the ground.
To view all the plaques and a map showing where they are, log onto http://www.chrisreidartist.com/projects.html. Let’s hope we see more of this in Dublin in the near future.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
I love this idea. Great stuff. Fair play. I don’t be around Dublin 8 much but I’ll keep an eye out for these plaques. I suppose it’s up to the rest of us from the other post codes to do something similar!
Saw these a fee weeks ago, they’re great, Got a copy of his book since.
Fantastic. What a brilliant way to conserve and display the real oral history of a place. These plaques beat all statues of the famous and naming roads after Lord Mayors.