{"id":389579,"date":"2025-09-01T15:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T15:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389579\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T15:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T15:51:11","slug":"liverpool-irish-festival-returns-this-october-with-theme-of-arrivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389579\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Irish Festival returns this October with theme of \u2018arrivals\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool Irish Festival is back from 16\u201326 October 2025 with more than 30 events across the city, celebrating Irish arts, culture and heritage. The UK\u2019s largest Irish arts festival is expected to welcome 8,000\u201310,000 visitors over its ten-day run.<\/p>\n<p>The Festival opens with the world premiere of a documentary and book,\u00a0Reveal, exploring the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail. Both are the result of three years of research, including documenting The Walk of the Bronze Shoes pilgrimage from Ireland to Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/MG_3170-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Liverpool Irish Festival\" class=\"wp-image-225264\"  \/>Credit: Liverpool Irish Festival<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s theme, \u2018arrivals\u2019, focuses on migration, settlement, belonging and new ideas, while also marking the 180th anniversary of the Irish Famine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Highlights across the programme include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Heritage<\/strong>: New walking tours alongside the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail vigil and Great Hunger memorial (26 Oct), with a performance of commissioned song\u00a0The Ullaloo.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Theatre<\/strong>: Gr\u00e1inne Hunt brings\u00a0Queer Arrivals\u00a0to The Unity (17 Oct), David Gilna presents\u00a0Did I Ever Tell Ya\u00a0at Liverpool\u2019s Royal Court (22 Oct), plus productions from Green Curtain Theatre and more.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Music<\/strong>: World-Folk band Dallahan close the festival at Liverpool Philharmonic\u2019s Music Room (26 Oct). Traditional sessions take place at Peter Kavanagh\u2019s and The Druids return with storytelling at Liverpool Irish Centre.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Literature<\/strong>: The first ever Literary Salon welcomes award-winning novelist Eimear McBride in conversation online from 16 Oct. The John McGahern Annual Book Prize (19 Oct) celebrates new Irish fiction, and a year-long\u00a0Ulyssesshared reading group launches.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Family<\/strong>: A Family Day at Museum of Liverpool (25 Oct) includes performances from The Armagh Rhymers and local dance schools. The Samhain C\u00e9il\u00ed (26 Oct) promises spooky fun for all ages.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Visual arts<\/strong>: Four exhibitions take place across the city region, from Birkenhead\u2019s Rathbone Studio to Bluecoat Display Centre and Northern Lights.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Festival officially launches at Liverpool Irish Centre on 16 October with previews of the programme, hosted by BBC Radio Merseyside\u2019s Helen Jones.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/MG_1718-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Liverpool Irish Festival\" class=\"wp-image-225262\"  \/>Credit: Liverpool Irish Festival<\/p>\n<p><strong>Emma Smith, Artistic Director and CEO of the Festival, said:<\/strong><br \/>\u201cThis year marks a significant milestone. \u2018Arrivals\u2019 allows us to explore both historical and contemporary journeys \u2013 from Irish Famine refugees who found sanctuary in Liverpool to modern stories of identity and belonging. The world premiere of our documentary represents years of dedicated research, while launching our first Literary Salon with Eimear McBride signals our expanding ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For the full programme and tickets, visit\u00a0<a>www.liverpoolirishfestival.com<\/a>.<br \/>\nKeep up to date with the latest events around the city <a href=\"https:\/\/theguideliverpool.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Find out what\u2019s good up North on our new platform, The Northern Guide.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>From the best hotels, beauty spots, days out, food and more up North \u2013 visit<a href=\"https:\/\/thenorthernguide.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00a0thenorthernguide.com<\/a>\u00a0and follow The Northern Guide on Instagram\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thenorthernguideuk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool Irish Festival is back from 16\u201326 October 2025 with more than 30 events across the city, celebrating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,2766,393,920,390,1203,786,9144,4884,179,135004,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-389579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-events","12":"tag-family","13":"tag-food","14":"tag-food-and-drink","15":"tag-going-out","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-liverpool","18":"tag-liverpool-irish-festival","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115129842791928886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}