Frontlines: Irish Journalists Abroad - EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin

Date: 10th October 2025 – 7th April 2026
Time: 10am – 6:45pm (last entry 5pm)
Location: Gallery at EPIC
Cost: Entry to the Frontlines: Irish Journalists Abroad exhibition is included in general admission tickets.

About the exhibition

Across the world, Irish journalists have worked to reveal human rights abuses and hold the powerful to account. Their reporting on conflict and hardship has shaped public opinion and provided an impetus for change. In the major centres of Irish settlement, they have challenged negative stereotypes and helped immigrants adapt to their adopted homelands. And they have, in some cases, entirely refashioned what it means to be Irish, crafting new identities in London, Paris and Buenos Aires. EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum is pleased to present Frontlines: Irish Journalists Abroad, a temporary exhibition exploring two centuries of Irish journalistic achievement.

Featured Stories

Diaspora Press

The Irish World and American Industrial Liberator (1878-1951), formerly Irish World (1870-1878), was a New York-based newspaper that promoted Irish nationalism and campaigned against racial and economic inequality.

Under the editorship of Galway-born Patrick Ford, it became a major financial supporter of the Irish Land League. The weekly reached a circulation of 125,000 by 1900.

Image: Cabinet card of Irish World contributor Ellen Ford, a leader of the American Ladies’ Land League. Board of Trinity College Dublin.

Des Mullan who was one of Ireland’s most prominent journalists at home looking out his window

Biafra Famine

Des Mullan (1931-2021) travelled to Biafra in the late 1960s to document the famine caused by a Nigerian government blockade during the country’s civil war. His reports for the Evening Herald, Irish Independent and Sunday Independent recorded the devastating scale of suffering and the emergency relief provided by Irish missionaries.

Image: Des Mullan was one of Ireland’s most prominent journalists at the height of his career. Photo courtesy of the Mullan family.

Sudan Crisis

Since 2023, Sudan’s civil war has displaced more than 12 million people and left almost 25 million facing extreme hunger.

Declan Walsh, chief Africa correspondent for The New York Times, gained rare access to the conflict zone to report on this ongoing catastrophe. He and his team, including Irish photojournalist Ivor Prickett, won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage in 2025.

Image: Adam Omar Osman, Fatima Hassan and their children leave Darfur for a refugee camp in Chad. Ivor Prickett/New York Times, via Redux/eyevine.

Sudan family travelling on horse and cart

Dr Catherine Healy, Historian-in-Residence at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum

A Note from the Exhibition Curator of Frontlines: Irish Journalists Abroad

“Irish journalists have highlighted some of the most significant social and political issues of their day – from William Howard Russell’s damning reports on the Crimean War and Frances Power Cobbe’s analysis of violence against women, to Sally Hayden’s exposure of the human rights violations on Europe’s borders. Technology has transformed the tools and formats through which news is told, but the human drive to uncover important stories remains unchanged. This exhibition is an exciting opportunity to highlight the breadth and impact of Irish reporting from across the world, drawing on both historical records and contemporary interviews.”

Dr Catherine Healy, Historian-in-Residence at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum.

Exhibition Bibliography

This exhibition is supported by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Emigrant Support Programme.