Join us for the sixth annual John McGahern Book Prize event, featuring readings from the winning debut, chosen by Colm Tóibín and announced in September. The shortlisted titles include Hagstone (Sinéad Gleeson), Glorious Exploits (Ferdia Lennon), Girl in the Making (Anna Fitzgerald), and The Coast Road (Alan Murrin). Established by the university’s Institute of Irish Studies, the £5,000 prize celebrates outstanding new Irish fiction.
At the time of releasing this information, the booking information is not yet know. We will update this page when it is known.
This event forms part of the Liverpool Literary Festival, running 17-19 Oct 2025. The event will be held in the Leggate Theatre at The Victoria Gallery and Museum (part of the University of Liverpool campus).
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Image credit: Bobby Hanvey photographic Archive, courtesy of Digital Commonwealth.
Harry Clarke was an exemplary illustrator and stained-glass designer and maker, whose work in the 1920s-30s continues to build his legacy. Examples can still be found across Ireland and the UK, America and Australia. Anyone enjoying a brew in Bewley’s Tea Rooms on Grafton Street (Dublin, Ireland) will be aware of his talents. Despite a short life and a fragile material, Clarke’s secular and faith-based windows offer a permanence and ways into stories still needing to be told.
Gerry Molumby (The Irish Post) leads this hour-long illustrated talk, presented in partnership with The Institute of Irish Studies at University of Liverpool.
Image credit: Nate Bergin (detail only), shared under Cultural Commons.
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Venue information to follow.
A special preview to launch the Festival, tonight presents the exclusive first screening of our new documentary and the debut of our long-awaited book, Reveal. Three years in the making, this evening marks a milestone moment for Liverpool Irish Festival.
Documenting the 2024 Walk of the Bronze Shoes — a pilgrimage from Strokestown, Ireland to Liverpool, UK — and the creation of the Global Irish Famine Way, this book and film capture countless hours of research, endurance and dedication from our remarkable walkers and researchers.
Featuring research from the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail’s History Research Group, the project has received direct support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Consul General of the North on behalf of the Government of Ireland, the Liverpool Great Hunger Commemoration Committee and generous donors who contributed through our JustGiving campaign.
Held in partnership with Boxpark, this evening highlights the Festival’s commitment to telling the story of An Gorta Mór, 180-years on. Join us for this unique opportunity to witness history being revealed.
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Join Liverpool Irish Festival‘s John Maguire (also of ArtsGroupie) on an expanded walking tour of several Liverpool Irish Famine Trail sites, including Clarence Dock – the entry way for over 1.8m+ Irish Famine poor – and others in the town centre.
Spectators will hear how The Great Hunger changed Liverpool’s streets, learning how locations were used for sanctuary, nourishment and safety. Along the route, sites of Irish influence will also be marked helping to show the geographic memory of these times. Walkers will also hear about the benevolence of Liverpool’s people and on-going effects on the city today.
Using a new trail app, headsets and recent Walk of the Bronze Shoes experience, your guide will really help you to walk in the shoes of Liverpool and Irish people 180-years ago.
The walks leave at 2pm. Bookers are asked to gather in the 15mins prior at the Pilotage Building (near the Museum of Liverpool). The walk will last approximately 120mins.
Bookings for these walks close at 5pm on Fri 17 Oct 2025.
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Completely informal opportunity to come along for a tune. The first seisiún of two in the Festival; the other takes place the following Fri (24 Oct 2025).
Bring an instrument, your voice and a will to play along. There’ll be Festival friends to help bring the gang together, whilst a fully stocked bar — in one of the most historic and quirkiest pubs in Liverpool — eases you towards the dawn. This event gets busy quickly and sometimes it’s ‘standing room only’, so be prepared to ‘hotch up’ and swap places so everyone can get a piece of the action. This is a night that almost guarantees high kicks ‘til dawn.
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The Bluecoat Display Centre and Liverpool Irish Festival are delighted to announce our 2025 maker: Corinne Price; continuing our annual In The Window partnership. This event provides visitors with the chance to speak with the artist directly, about their work, general practice, ambitions and achievements. Centred on Corinne’s ceramics, which layer pigment into the clay itself, visitors will benefit from a guided question and answer session, being able to ask additional questions. Refreshments will be provided on arrival.
Friends of the Bluecoat Display Centre will receive a 10% discount on all purchases during the event.
Booking is needed. Please call +44(0) 151 709 4014, to book a place, or stop by the gallery to reserve a space with a member of staff. This event has a recommended donation price of £10 per ticket, providing a speaker fee for Corinne. See our exhibition listing for more details about Corinne.
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Meet the Festival team and artists from the #LIF2025 programme.
Hear about the programme and meet with friends. The Centre, the spiritual home of the Irish community in Liverpool, provides a convivial space in which to toast ‘fáilte’ (welcome) to all those who join us, have helped us and will be with us for Festivals ahead. Book ahead to claim your free arrival refreshment!
Be among the first to claim your free Brave Maeve treasure map and meet Stu Harrison — the illustrator and storyteller that brought Liverpool’s real life Brave Maeve to 2D!
We’ll have speeches, music and entertainment to mark the arrival of #LIF2025, with other surprises along the way.
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Multi-award-winning novelist Eimear McBride chats to literary critic (and Irish literature fan) David Collard in an informal, friendly tête-à-tête.
Speaking to the Festival theme of ‘arrivals’, David Collard and Eimear McBride will discuss Eimear’s latest novel — The City Changes its Face — and her recent film debut (as a director) A Very Short Film About Longing (currently available on BBC iPlayer). Eimear (born in Liverpool to Irish parents) moved with her family to Ireland as a toddler. Her arrival on the literary scene was a long time coming – it took nine-years to find a publisher for her first novel A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing. Subsequently she has been internationally lauded for her unique blend of experimentation and very contemporary female-centred storytelling.
The author of two additional novels The Lesser Bohemians and Strange Hotel, as well as the non-fiction work Something Out of Place: Women and Disgust, Eimear held the inaugural Creative Fellowship at the Beckett Research Centre (University of Reading), during which she wrote Mouthpieces; three short powerful plays on the female experience. Her debut directorial work A Very Short Film About Longing (DMC Films/BBC) screened at the 2023 London Film Festival. Eimear is the recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Goldsmiths Prize, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, Kerry Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
David Collard is the author of About a Girl (CB Editions) and Multiple Joyce and A Crumpled Swan (both published by Sagging Meniscus) and writes for the Times Literary Supplement. He curates and hosts the weekly online salon The Glue Factory.
Recorded exclusively for #LIF2025, this is the first of a series of Festival-linked Literary Salons we will run with David in the coming years.
Image credit: Kat Green (detail only).
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The Irish Countess (75mins) brings to life the extraordinary story of Countess Constance Markievicz. Born into Anglo-Irish privilege, she rejected her comfortable lifestyle and made a defining choice to stand alongside Ireland’s revolutionary movement. From the Gaelic Revival through the Easter Rising and the battle for Irish independence, this play presents a reflection on her courage and conviction.
The theme of identity continues in Declan Duffy’s thoughtful and moving presentation: Call Yourself an Irishman (90mins), which follows. Using humour, reflection and song Declan explores what it means to be Irish through the lens of second- and third-generation voices. He’ll consider the history of Irish migration to Britain — including the huge contribution of Irish people to Liverpool and Manchester — alongside the difficulties encountered by the people who made that journey. In doing so, he’ll share how all of this has influenced us, their descendants, in our consideration of who and what we are.
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Completely informal opportunity to come along for a tune. The second seisiún of two in the Festival; the other takes place Fri 17 Oct 2025.
Bring an instrument, your voice and a will to play along. There’ll be Festival friends to help bring the gang together, whilst a fully stocked bar — in one of the most historic and quirkiest pubs in Liverpool — eases you towards the dawn. This event gets busy quickly and sometimes it’s ‘standing room only’, so be prepared to ‘hotch up’ and swap places so everyone can get a piece of the action. This is a night that almost guarantees high kicks ‘til dawn.
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