Event type: Comedy

Event cancellation notice
We are sorry to advise that all the #LIF2021 The Mersey Mash events have had to be postponed until 2022. This means the community conversations, and recording sessions, can no longer run as part of this year’s Festival.

We remain committed to collecting these stories, and creating the film, but life-circumstances for the project’s owners means we are not able to run the events in October as originally planned. Please stay tuned for further sessions, most likely to be scheduled for 2022’s Festival.

Original listing
Across the Festival, Doug Devaney (and his camera man and recordist, Barry) will be collecting your stories.

Why? They will be brought together to create a ‘magazine film’ -called The Mersey Mash- which we’ll present to attendees, at the Liverpool Irish Centre, on 2 Nov.  It will form a record of #LIF2021 and give Doug more information for his podcast The Plastic Podcasts (plasticpodcasts.com).

To collect these recordings, Doug et al will run the following drop-ins, which we’re calling Mersey Mash Mixers! You don’t have to sign up, but if you have an interesting or meaningful story to tell about Liverpool, Liverpool Irish or Irish connections, Doug would love to hear from you. You can drop-in to any of the sessions (or more than one if you’ve a few stories and fancy a change of scene) within the times shown. Doug will be there to listen, question and record! Pop along.

Image © timajo
The Mersey Mash: Mixer #3
11am-1pm (not 2pm as in some listings), Thurs 28 Oct. Liverpool Irish Centre. Free, no booking necessary

Wednesdays were traditionally the day for the tea dance at Liverpool Irish Centre, back in the Mount Pleasant days. This Wednesday will see an extra pair take their place on the floor (or near to it) as Doug and Barry set up their talking shop at the Boundary Road Liverpool Irish Centre for three hours of chat, char, and cha-cha-cha. In between waltzes -and seeing whether Liam’s got white pudding in at the shop- they’ll be there to hear your stories of how the Irish changed Liverpool, and how Liverpool changed the Irish.

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We are proud to state this event is linked with Black History Month and the Cuture Liverpool programme.

Comhaltas and the Armagh Rhymers take it in turns to play fun (spooky) games and music, to dance and play along with, whilst the veil between our world and ‘the Other’ is at its thinnest.

We invite you to bring along the  kids -in their best creepy dress-up (or not)- and hope adults will play along.

We welcome false eyes and teeth, wigs and props (whether you need them or not!). So, grab the green paint, webbing and bat toy; ready your ‘mwah-ha-has’ and bolt on your tiger feet…this ought to be a fun Monster’s Ball!

Activities are mainly geared for kids between 4-10 years old, with adult supervision. Kids aged 18-100 years old are also welcome to play, but should be child-supervised!

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Event cancellation notice
We are sorry to advise that all the #LIF2021 The Mersey Mash events have had to be postponed until 2022. This means the community conversations, and recording sessions, can no longer run as part of this year’s Festival.

We remain committed to collecting these stories, and creating the film, but life-circumstances for the project’s owners means we are not able to run the events in October as originally planned. Please stay tuned for further sessions, most likely to be scheduled for 2022’s Festival.

Original listing
Across the Festival, Doug Devaney (and his camera man and recordist, Barry) will be collecting your stories.

Why? They will be brought together to create a ‘magazine film’ -called The Mersey Mash- which we’ll present to attendees, at the Liverpool Irish Centre, on 2 Nov.  It will form a record of #LIF2021 and give Doug more information for his podcast The Plastic Podcasts (plasticpodcasts.com).

To collect these recordings, Doug et al will run the following drop-ins, which we’re calling Mersey Mash Mixers! You don’t have to sign up, but if you have an interesting or meaningful story to tell about Liverpool, Liverpool Irish or Irish connections, Doug would love to hear from you. You can drop-in to any of the sessions (or more than one if you’ve a few stories and fancy a change of scene) within the times shown. Doug will be there to listen, question and record! Pop along.

Image © timajo
The Mersey Mash: Mixer #1
12pm-5pm, Fri 22 Oct. Brahms Suite, Liverpool Philharmonic Dining Rooms. Free, no booking necessary

Fri 22 Oct starts the opening weekend of the Liverpool Irish Festival, and the first of Mersey Mash Mixers. What better way to kick both off than with a coffee (or a pint) and a chat, in the Brahms Suite of The Phil? Doug and Barry will be there with camera and mic for anything you want to tell them about your story, your family’s story, Irishness or Liverpool. Or even all four. Whether it’s the time your Gran stepped off the train at Lime Street; when you met your wife at an Irish Centre dance or how you couldn’t move half-a-mile from Bold Street without hitting a green bar, they want to hear it.

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We are proud to state this event is linked with Black History Month and the Cuture Liverpool programme.

Event cancellation notice
We are sorry to advise that all the #LIF2021 The Mersey Mash events have had to be postponed until 2022. This means the community conversations, and recording sessions, can no longer run as part of this year’s Festival.

We remain committed to collecting these stories, and creating the film, but life-circumstances for the project’s owners means we are not able to run the events in October as originally planned. Please stay tuned for further sessions, most likely to be scheduled for 2022’s Festival.

Original listing
Across the Festival, Doug Devaney (and his camera man and recordist, Barry) will be collecting your stories.

Why? They will be brought together to create a ‘magazine film’ -called The Mersey Mash- which we’ll present to attendees, at the Liverpool Irish Centre, on 2 Nov.  It will form a record of #LIF2021 and give Doug more information for his podcast The Plastic Podcasts (plasticpodcasts.com).

To collect these recordings, Doug et al will run the following drop-ins, which we’re calling Mersey Mash Mixers! You don’t have to sign up, but if you have an interesting or meaningful story to tell about Liverpool, Liverpool Irish or Irish connections, Doug would love to hear from you. You can drop-in to any of the sessions (or more than one if you’ve a few stories and fancy a change of scene) within the times shown. Doug will be there to listen, question and record! Pop along.

Image © timajo
The Mersey Mash: Mixer #2
11am-2pm, Tue 26 Oct. Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre. Free, no booking necessary

“We all come from somewhere else” is the motto of The Plastic Podcasts (Doug’s series of interviews with members of the Irish diaspora). Nowhere is this better reflected than at the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre (Princes Road, Toxteth). With a plentiful supply of tea and biscuits, Doug and Barry will be there to hear and record your tales; not just on Irishness, but on family, race, mixed heritage and the changing face of the city.

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We are proud to state this event is linked with Black History Month and the Cuture Liverpool programme.

Taking in Liverpool’s waterfront in the way many migrants will have over centuries, this tour tells much about the formation of Liverpool’s waterways and those who had a hand in the developments.

Due to scheduled works on the waterways, we are unable to take visitors to Clarence Dock, where many Irish migrants entered the city, this time. Instead, passengers start their tour in the Royal Albert Dock, sailing to Canning Dock, Salthouse Dock, Duke’s Dock, Wapping Dock, Queens Dock, Coburg Dock and Brunswick Dock before returning to the mooring. Lasting almost an hour, passengers will hear about the birth of the docks, their history and the people that made them, transforming a sleepy fishing village in to a City of Empire.

Children must be supervised by those that bring them.
Bookings and timings
Tickets are extremely limited (no more than 12 per journey) so booking is essential. Please be mindful of the limited ticket numbers available and to return unwanted tickets in advance so that other people can take advantage of this free offer.

Tours will leave The Pride of Sefton mooring at 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3.30pm on Sat 30 Oct 2021 only.

Please be sure to book for the tour time you want and note the departure time. You are asked to be at the mooring site 10mins before expected departure.

The boat will have to leave on time in order to return and depart for its next tour. It will leave without ticket holders if they are not present.

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Taking in Liverpool’s waterfront in the way many migrants will have over centuries, this tour tells much about the formation of Liverpool’s waterways and those who had a hand in the developments.

Due to scheduled works on the waterways, we are unable to take visitors to Clarence Dock, where many Irish migrants entered the city, this time. Instead, passengers start their tour in the Royal Albert Dock, sailing to Canning Dock, Salthouse Dock, Duke’s Dock, Wapping Dock, Queens Dock, Coburg Dock and Brunswick Dock before returning to the mooring. Lasting almost an hour, passengers will hear about the birth of the docks, their history and the people that made them, transforming a sleepy fishing village in to a City of Empire.

Children must be supervised by those that bring them.
Bookings and timings
Tickets are extremely limited (no more than 12 per journey) so booking is essential. Please be mindful of the limited ticket numbers available and to return unwanted tickets in advance so that other people can take advantage of this free offer.

Tours will leave The Pride of Sefton mooring at 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3.30pm on Sat 30 Oct 2021 only.

Please be sure to book for the tour time you want and note the departure time. You are asked to be at the mooring site 10mins before expected departure.

The boat will have to leave on time in order to return and depart for its next tour. It will leave without ticket holders if they are not present.

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Presentation of short film Hold the Sausage and interview with its makers and IndieCork Director Mick Hannigan, presented on Liverpool Irish Festival’s YouTube channel.

We are no longer able to air Cal’s full film, for licencing reasons, but you can see it, alongside others from the programme, here on iPlayer.

In this short film, comedy meets chaos as Saoirse’s Nanny learns of her new lifestyle choices. Watch the drama unfold as Saoirse is interrogated by her Nanny after refusing her Sunday roast sausages. Saoirse is a contemporary Irish Catholic teenager, showcasing the progressive youth and nature of Northern Ireland – ‘wrecking’ her Nannie’s nerves in the process.

As well as screening this film, spectators will meet its director, Cal Freeman, and lead actor, Chloe Muldoon, who are interviewed -exclusively for the Festival- by Mick Hannigan (Director IndieCork). You will hear how Cal was commissioned by New Creatives North, a filmmaker program funded by BBC Arts & Arts Council England, providing real industry insights for new makers.

Interested in modern Irish and Queer identity, and ‘reclaiming space’ for the north (at the centenary of the formation of Northern Ireland), Cal and Chloe provide a vantage in to the world of millennial filmmakers, all whilst having a merry giggle along the way.

After the premiere, it will be available to watch below.

Image (c) Finn Harvey.

You know that Samhain (Hallowe’en) is a Pagan festival? A time when the veil between this world and ‘the Other’ is at its thinnest; a time we must honour the dead and protect ourselves from evil spirits?

Dressing up, feasting, lighting bonfires and carving pumpkins are traditions that echo our ancient roots. So, who were the people that first celebrated it and what did they believe? Who were the gods they worshipped, and where are they now?

The answer is: they are still with us! Although Christianity came and took hold of the country, Ireland never fully lost its Paganism. The gods of old remain with us to this day as ‘the fairy folk’ and superstition holds strong.

Come along to a session of Hallowe’en storytelling with a difference! Set amongst an exhibition illustrating the myths and legends of the first peoples in Ireland, the stories include explanations of the gods of old and their downfalls, as well as how they exist in today’s world!

This event is for children*, accompanied by their respective carers, and is set at the Mansion House to be close to the Calder Stones, which bear the marks of Celtic tribes who would have honoured these stories. The session will last about an hour.

* We recognise that children might cry, run off, dip in and out, etc. We have not set an age on this; it is for children who continue to want to be there and can engage in a storyteller’s voice. We anticipate carers making calls on whether their wards can stay or are creating issues for other children.

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This event is supported by Gael Linn and An tUltach and presented in partnership with The Reader.

Our Family Day has become a Festival-staple and must-see. Call down to the Museum of Liverpool (Pier Head), to witness all kinds of Irish culture, often with a spooky twist!

We will have the ever-spectacular mummers, the Armagh Rhymers as well as Gael Linn/An tUltach commissioned storyteller Nuala Monahan, telling children’s stories. The George Ferguson and Bolger-Cunningham Schools for Irish Dance will run exciting demonstrations. There’ll be something new to see, on the hour, every hour, with a last act at 4pm. Our Board members will run a stop-in session, throughout the day, for budding Board-wannabes, of any age. Alison Little (artist) will provide a fun, free children’s art activity, linked with Samhain/Hallowe’en (11am-1pm, 2pm-4pm).

The day puts the Irish of Liverpool at the heart of everything – the programme, the museum building and the city centre. Call in or stay all day. Link up with the Pride of Sefton dock tours; go on the self-guided Irish trail (around the Museum) or simply sit and watch as the fun unfolds in the atrium.

For a full breakdown of the activities, check back closer to the Family Day. We will upload everything we have here.

The Family Day is sponsored by Tourism Ireland and held in partnership with National Museums Liverpool. As part of the Family programme, you might also like the Samhain Céilí (Sun 31 Oct).

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Taking in Liverpool’s waterfront in the way many migrants will have over centuries, this tour tells much about the formation of Liverpool’s waterways and those who had a hand in the developments.

Due to scheduled works on the waterways, we are unable to take visitors to Clarence Dock, where many Irish migrants entered the city, this time. Instead, passengers start their tour in the Royal Albert Dock, sailing to Canning Dock, Salthouse Dock, Duke’s Dock, Wapping Dock, Queens Dock, Coburg Dock and Brunswick Dock before returning to the mooring. Lasting almost an hour, passengers will hear about the birth of the docks, their history and the people that made them, transforming a sleepy fishing village in to a City of Empire.

Children must be supervised by those that bring them.
Bookings and timings
Tickets are extremely limited (no more than 12 per journey) so booking is essential. Please be mindful of the limited ticket numbers available and to return unwanted tickets in advance so that other people can take advantage of this free offer.

Tours will leave The Pride of Sefton mooring at 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3.30pm on Sat 30 Oct 2021 only.

Please be sure to book for the tour time you want and note the departure time. You are asked to be at the mooring site 10mins before expected departure.

The boat will have to leave on time in order to return and depart for its next tour. It will leave without ticket holders if they are not present.

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