This research investigates the role of associational culture in the development of Irish nationalism during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Parallel to this historical investigation it examines the use of and implements a digital humanities methodology to research and where possible a digital solution was used to support this thesis. This project can be described as a digital humanities project as it produces both a traditional historical thesis along with various digital objects or artifacts and consideration is given to the theoretical and practical issues of both the ‘digital’ and ‘humanities’ components. It reflects growing interests within the arts and humanities to incorporate the use of software solutions in humanities research and indicates a growing trend towards software development within the arts domain. Software development was a feature of this project and technical developments and discussions are interspersed with the historical investigation into Irish associational culture. Associational culture provides an important focus to investigate identity politics in Irish society which is linked to a complicated construction of and concept of nationalism, linked to religion, ascendancy and the imperial context. An overview of Dublin’s associational world reveals the magnitude and diverse range of clubs and societies which existed and how their contributions to society, in practical as well as ideological terms, were essential to the development of movements which shaped the Irish political, social and cultural landscape. A case study on the Historical Society of Trinity College reveal the educational, social and political roles societies play and the important social networks and communities they can nurture and support. Concluding remarks reveal a cultural shift in Irish society as post-Union politics and associational culture exposed the diversity of Irish identity and revealed the existence of ultra Protestant and ultra Catholic factions.