Event type: Comedy

A regular feature on the Liverpool Irish Centre’s calendar, the Supper Céilí provides a night of céilí dancing, with live music from Michael Coyne.

The Secret of Kells (Cert PG, 78mins) is an animated fantasy film in which magic and Celtic mythology come together in a riot of colour and detail that dazzle the eyes.

It is a sweeping story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times. Directed by Tomm Moore (Newry, NI) and Nora Twomey (Cork, ROI).

Join Empty Spaces Cinema at The Handyman Supermarket for a pop-up film festival celebrating Irish cinema with a mixture of movies that look at Irish life.

How can we use our creativity to influence others and affect change? Blackwell’s Liverpool will host a workshop looking at zines and posters as activism. Through the medium of collage, attendees will make handmade booklets and posters to photocopy and distribute amongst friends, whilst discussing what UK citizens can do to help people seeking abortions in Ireland. Everybody is welcome. Some materials will be provided, but please bring along anything you would like to use.

Run by Liverpool Blackwell’s, in partnership with the Liverpool Irish Festival.

“Better than Coronoation Street” – review from audience member for Mon 23 Oct 2017 performance!

Body and Blood is a new play exploring a buried cultural history – arranged marriages in Ireland. Inspired by writer Lorraine Mullaney’s grandmother who had an arranged marriage, Body and Blood is a dark comedy that tackles a tough subject with humour and live music.

It’s 1956, and young Aileen comes to London looking for her sister, who fled Ireland to escape an arranged marriage to an elderly farmer “with a face like the Turin shroud”. Instead of finding her sister, Aileen finds a new life of freedom and possibilities. Will Aileen choose this new life or return to Ireland and make the sacrifices required to stay true to her roots? And will she discover why her Uncle Colm refuses to return home? Body and Blood explores the conflicts and culture clashes resulting from migration and the pull of traditional Irish values, highlighting how far Ireland has come since the 1950s.

Sat 21 and 28: Liverpool, Ireland and the luck of the Irish Beatles! – Walks from Hope St to the City Centre

Also running: Sun 22 and 29: Liverpool, Ireland in our Bones – The Georgian Quarter

Liverpool Music Tours are offering two cultural walking tours. The first Liverpool, Ireland and the luck of the Irish Beatles starts in The Casa (Hope St) and takes you into the city centre. The second Liverpool, Ireland in our Bones starts in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms (pub on Hope St) and takes you through the glorious bohemian Georgian Quarter. These are tours with a difference. The theme is drawn around music, performed live at each destination. Each includes visits to three pubs of important historical significance to the city. Your ticket covers you for the walk, the history knowledge of your guides and their performances along the way. You buy a refreshment of your choice in each pub – should you wish to -to enjoy as Alan Burke and Debbi Stanistreet take you on a magical musical history tour. Roll up!

Saturday tours start in The Casa (Hope Street) and Sunday tours begin in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms (pub) on the corner of Hope Street and Hardman Street.

Sun 22 and 29: Liverpool, Ireland in our Bones – Walks of the Georgian Quarter

Also running: Sat 21 and 28: Liverpool, Ireland and the luck of the Irish Beatles! – Walks from Hope St to the City Centre

Liverpool Music Tours are offering two cultural walking tours. The first Liverpool, Ireland and the luck of the Irish Beatles starts in The Casa (Hope St) and takes you into the city centre. The second Liverpool, Ireland in our Bones starts in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms (pub on Hope St) and takes you through the glorious bohemian Georgian Quarter. These are tours with a difference. The theme is drawn around music, performed live at each destination. Each includes visits to three pubs of important historical significance to the city. Your ticket covers you for the walk, the history knowledge of your guides and their performances along the way. You buy a refreshment of your choice in each pub – should you wish to -to enjoy as Alan Burke and Debbi Stanistreet take you on a magical musical history tour. Roll up!

Saturday tours start in The Casa (Hope Street) and Sunday tours begin in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms (pub) on the corner of Hope Street and Hardman Street.

Finns Hotel Ceilidh Band will play – for one night only – fundraising for Irish Community Care. Finns Hotel is a long established, but recently dormant, ceilidh band which started during the miner’s strike in the 1980s.

Irish Community Care works across the Liverpool City Region; in Cheshire and Wigan and Greater Manchester, too. Irish Community Care supports Irish and Irish Traveller people through times of uncertainty, trouble, hardship or isolation. We make sure people have a decent place to live and are safe and well. We ensure that they settle well in the community, whether as new arrivals in the country/area or from prison release, maximising their income through training, employment and welfare benefit entitlement and helping them to feel part of and connected to local communities.

All money raised will contribute to this much needed work.

Further to a day of illustrated talks, installations and debate, we present an evening of exceptional female talent, from Liverpool and Ireland.

Including four acts, this evening celebrates contemporary music and the women making it. With modern takes on traditional songs, self-penned tracks and exceptional instrumental talent, the night is hosted by Gerry Ffrench, a popular local radio star and touring musical artist in her own right.

The line-up includes sets increasing in length from Emma Lusby (Limavady, Co Londonderry), Mamatung (Liverpool) and Sue Rynhart with Ailbhe Reddy (both from Dublin) headlining.

Ailbhe Reddy (Headline)

Described by The Irish Times and Hotpress as ‘euphotic’ and ‘ethereal’, Ailbhe’s work has received excellent reviews and extensive radio play in Ireland, the UK and Germany; receiving streams of over 2million on Spotify! Having first attracted attention in 2014 after the release of her first single ‘Flesh and Blood’, Reddy has gone on to perform at every major music festival in the UK and Ireland. A worldwide publishing deal with boutique, London-based publishing house BDI music is sure to see Ailbhe soar!
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Sue Rynhart

Sue’s debut album ‘Crossings (Songs for Voice & Double Bass)’ with Dan Bodwell, an American based in Dublin, has reached international critical acclaim from RTÉ Lyric fm, The Irish Times, the respected American website allaboutjazz.com, The Independent and The Sunday Times UK. She has premiered works by many of the Composers from the Irish Composers Collective and the Contemporary Music Centre and and has performed on BBC Radio with the Choir of Christchurch Cathedral Dublin. Sue’s new album ‘Signals’ was released on Fri 28 April 2017 presented by Note Productions.
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Mamatung

Three pronged freak folk outfit Mamatung bring a sprinkling of scouse ceremony with a journey to the centre of the heart. A set entwined with spirited melodies, chants, serendipitous harmonies and a magical mixture of musical instruments. “Mamatung. . . are like something you’d stumble upon in an empty field. Like witches singing sweet songs of earth and the wild. ‘New ancient sounds” – Cee Smith, Newsnet.scot @mamatung
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Emma Lusby

Steeped in the roots of Irish tradition and influenced by the likes of Dervish and Sandy Denny, 20 year old Trad and Folk singer Emma Lusby has performed at Celtic Connections (Glasgow), the Baltic State Folk Festival (Latvia) and other UK festivals. Liverpool based, her music is played on folk radio stations throughout the UK. Presently, Emma is working alongside Cinematic Skies on a project promoting cultural tourism in Northern Ireland to be released later this year… “Emma doesn’t sing words, she sings pictures. One note from her lips can transport you down history’s path to the tip of a lovers’ tiff or the pit of a nation’s anguish.” – Marty Cullen, BBC Radio Ulster. soundcloud.com/emma-lusby

 

Unveiling a number of discrete, yet important case histories of Liverpool, Liverpool Irish and/or Irish women, In:Visible Women’s morning sessions set the scene for exploring the issues women still face today, particularly in certain Irish communities.

By recognising their influence and impact we aim to redress their abilities and attributes. Discussions move to more difficult issues in the afternoon and could include discussion around shamed pregnancies, arranged marriages, faith crises, institutional abuse, secret adoptions and illegal abortions; many of which retain influence and impact on families and communities today and are highlighted elsewhere in the festival programme. Whilst the laws in the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland and mainland Great Britain still allow 11 women per day to travel to England to have their ‘shame dealt with’ these issues are not just a matter for women, but for society, legislature and reconciliation and so the late afternoon sessions will consider this.

In:Visible Women builds relationships with artists, academics and organisations to deliver illuminating talks, films, performances, artworks and written features to start making ‘invisible’ women’s issues, visible.  Piloting this year is our In:Visible Women day at Central Library. Artists and academics will highlight individual, historic case studies, bringing to light diminished or overlooked histories and stories. After an enlightening day of discussion, imagery, installations and film, we have an evening of Liverpool, Liverpool Irish and Irish female singer songwriters at the Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room, showcasing a raft of contemporary talent.

This is the tip of the iceberg. As In:Visible Women has developed, more striking stories, histories and opportunities have presented themselves and we expect to expand the programme in future years. Our inaugural year already has much to offer. Having received interest from press, artists, academics and activists, we advise getting your tickets early and engaging now. A full day schedule will follow online, but artists Casey Orr and Alison Little are already involved. #invisiblewomen

We also recommend booking for the Visible Women: New and powerful women in music.

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Whilst the Liverpool Irish Festival does provide free events, this is an all-day event that will require refreshments. The ticket price is to cover visitor beverages for the day, but lunch will not be provided. Although we will not provide a lunch, we do recommend the cafe at the library and people are welcome to bring a packed lunch which can be eaten outside. In order to provide barrierless access, we have with-held a small allocation of tickets for those who do not feel they are able to pay the ticket price. To apply for one of these tickets, please send your request to info@liverpoolirishfestival.com with the subject header “IW Bursary”.

This event is now completely sold out. We are sorry for any inconvenience and hope you will join us for other festival events.

Orla Guerin (Dublin) became the BBC’s Egypt Correspondent in 2013. Since then she has reported Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Tunisia, and Libya.

She has reported on the first democratic transition of power in Cairo, suicide bombings, sectarian violence, the Taliban shooting of Malala Yousufzai and the battle for female education. In total, Orla has reported from over 60 countries, and her work has been recognised with awards and nominations in the UK, USA, and her native Ireland. In this talk, Orla discusses her work and life.

Organised by the Institute of Irish Studies, in partnership with the Liverpool Irish Festival, this event also contributes to the festival’s new strand of work In:Visible Women, an important body of work considering women, particularly those with Irish connections, today.
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Free entry, booking required. Spaces are limited. Please RSVP to Dorothy Lynch (Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool) using dorothy@liv.ac.uk or +44(0) 151 794 3837. Remaining seats will allocated on a first-come first served basis. The event takes place in the Eleanor Rathbone Theatre in the Eleanor Rathbone Building.