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Ireland to Liverpool

5th March 2021

The Festival has always dreamed of having its own theme song.

A tune that helps to tell our story; reflect our creativity and honour the people we serve. We thought we could use a song at the start of events -online and inperson; use it on adverts and mini-films we make for celebration days, and innumberable other occasions where we want to make an impression when a logo, banner or speech isn’t the right thing…

The right time, the right place

In December, we were alerted to a new fund; a Creative Community Fund (#CreativeCommunity), organised by the Government of Ireland.…

Is the Irish language alive in Liverpool?

26th February 2021

Many of you will have read campaigns about the Irish Language Act in Northern Ireland and will have views on national languages being spoken at home and abroad. Language itself can be a contentious subject; politicised and exclusionary for some, but ‘mother languages’ often transport people to happy places; to a loved one’s voice and to connections not brought about by any other sound.…

Finding Bridget

22nd February 2021

Maz O’Connor came to the Festival’s attention in 2018 when she discovered and shared the history she had unearthed about her family’s Irish connections.

Those findings inspired her next album, Chosen Daughter and a feature we ran (article on page 24).…

Quarantine – a response

1st February 2021

We began work with Alison Little in 2016 when we first launched our In:Visible Women programme. A Liverpool based artist, activist and educator, Alison’s work layers texture and printed evidence against abuse and empowerment.

Following on from the in memoriam work the Festival did with Eavan Boland’s poem Quarantine in 2020, Alison has created a visual response to this work.…

Retrospective future gazers

1st February 2021

Sub-title: A quick, short, and linear exercise to map the Royal Charter’s failed-return to Liverpool against the history of weather forecasting.

<<<During lockdown, Derry-based Hong Konger, artist Edy Fung has used weather to help motivate her working cycles.

In doing so, she has studied meteorological history, finding links between Derry and Liverpool.…

Operation Nollaig community cards

23rd November 2020

Write your first Christmas card to a stranger…

The Liverpool Irish community has within it isolated members, who -particularly in lockdown- have few contacts or digital interactivity to rely on. Help us let them know they are being thought about this festive season by sending them a Christmas card using our CARA service.…

Lockdown Lights: A reading list

15th October 2020

During lockdown we’ve kept chatting with Sefton Park Palm House, continuing from our fundraiser last year, through #GlobalGreening in March to today. Over that time, the Palm Readers group has taken on new meaning; connecting readers and friends and providing opportunities for people to escape in to other worlds via the book selections they make.…

Lockdown Lights: We Must Create

15th October 2020

As part of our Lockdown Lights project, we selected two poems and invited people to record themselves reading them, so we could geneate a film, to share as part of this year’s digtal launch.

Active, positive and full of creative hope, Stephen James Smith’s poem We Must Create was selected in counterpoint to Eavann Bolanf’s Quarantine.…

Lockdown Lights: A reflection…

15th October 2020

Siubhán Macauley – A reflection…

Lifting, carrying, hoisting, heaving, we were mid-move when Boris Johnson announced the UK-wide lockdown on account of the coronavirus. Settlers, we made new turf our own, and filled our áít shona nua with colour, kindness, curries.…

Lockdown Lights: On Exchange Flags

15th October 2020

Back in old glory days, long since forgotten,
The flags here were smothered in snowy white cotton.
Soft as a carpet beneath merchant feet
King Cotton was plenty, King Cotton was cheap
It came by the Mersey, it came by the seas
By white canvass aloft in the westering breeze.…

Lockdown Lights: Shenanigans Guinness takeaway

15th October 2020

Shenanigans Liverpool is an independent Irish bar in Liverpool’s business district, known for its warm friendly welcome, quality drinks, live music and sports.

They are back open now, serving delicious food and beverages, including briliant breakfasts and takeaway drinks. You can book a table by DMing the team or emailing [email protected]…

Lockdown Lights: Vin Finn

15th October 2020

Vincent Finn
In memoriam

The recent passing of Vin Finn was a heavy loss for the Liverpool Irish community. Vin took a great interest in Irish music, and was a stalwart of the Festival for many years. Those who have attended the history walks will have encountered Vin, taking care of registration, managing the mike, and generally lending a hand.…

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