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civic · Saturday 29 August 2026 · 3:00pm 
50 Years: Ireland and the EU, a Talk by David McCullagh
At Dundalk Library · County Hall, Millennium Centre, Dundalk, Co. Louth
At Dundalk Library · County Hall, Millennium Centre, Dundalk, Co. Louth
RTE broadcaster and author David McCullagh gives a talk on fifty years of Ireland’s membership of the European Union at Dundalk Library on Saturday, 29 August 2026 at 3pm. McCullagh has presented RTE current affairs programmes for years and is a familiar face from television news coverage of Irish and EU politics. The talk is part of Louth Library Service’s autumn lecture series, which brings journalists, historians and authors into the county’s libraries for public talks through the second half of the year. Booking is essential as space is limited.
McCullagh presents current affairs on RTE and has written political biographies of Sean Lemass and Eamon de Valera, and this talk draws on that background to trace Ireland’s EU membership from the 1973 accession through to the present, covering the referendums, the economic shifts and the political arguments that have run alongside membership over five decades. The format is a public talk followed by audience questions rather than a formal lecture with slides, and it runs in the library’s public meeting space rather than a lecture theatre. Louth Library Service runs several talks like this across the year under its lecture series banner, mixing local history with national and international subjects, and this one is timed around the fiftieth anniversary of Ireland’s accession.
Dundalk Library is part of the County Hall complex at the Millennium Centre, within walking distance of the town centre and close to on-street parking and the Long Walk bus station. Clarke Station, on the Dublin to Belfast railway line, is also within easy walking distance for anyone travelling in by train.
Dundalk’s Town Hall and An Tain Arts Centre, the County Museum and the town’s shops are all a short walk from County Hall. More on Dundalk and across Co. Louth.
Heading to Dundalk Library in Dundalk? Louth has plenty more to see. Read the Dundalk area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.