What a year, a year full of memories and more......
O'Laddin kicked off the year with gusto!
Around 30 community based actors (with no acting experience)
750 attendees over 4 performances! Countless volunteer man hours, from set building to painting to everything in between. A success all round!
We even had The Sam Maguire Trophy over on Panto weekend!
Our resident Irish Dancers (The Bolger Cunningham School of Irish Dance) Keep hitting new heights!
Here's the girls last March...
We kept up with our oldest traditions. We never forget to Hail Glorious St.Patrick!
With the help of Liverpool Irish Rovers, Bolger Cunningham Dancers and lots of our friendly musicians we took over Parkrun for St Patrick's weekend. Expanding our reach once more.
Speaking of reach, did you know we have over 25k followers on facebook, over 5k on Instagram, 7.5k on Twitter and over 1.65k on Youtube - we really want to have the best online following of any Irish Centre. We also rebuilt our whole website. Check it out, you’re on it now. Have a look at the menu - www.liverpoolirishcentre.org
We attended The Liverpool St. Patrick's Day Parade - we opened the bar late to be there! Imagine the queue when we then turned up at The Centre more than a wee bit late!
Still, we had a class night anyway - cue Someones Sons with a Westmeath takeover!
We fixed our session - word on the grapevine is we now have the best session in Liverpool! With anywhere from 20-30 musicians coming every month!
We keep it cultural - we host different musicians throughout the year, either as gigs or as free live music of a Sunday - sometimes even fluent Irish speakers..
Our Tuesday club celebrated its 40th year! No mean feet...
We lost some greats, such as Phil Fitzpatrick, Tony Grimes and Joe England and plenty of other members who have passed on in 2024!
But we remember them all...
A great highlight was the visit of the Sliabh gCua Dance School from Dungarvan.
You couldn't get our Dance teachers attention for a while. It was all about Dungarvan.
It was all worth it though....
We had an amazing visit from Leeds Irish Choir as two choirs combined (Leeds and our own Liverpool Irish Choir) they were better dancers though we have to admit...
But we sung together - two communities combined. Doesn't that just melt your heart.
We cheered the Liverpool Ceili Band on to Wexford Fleadh - and we even sent two of our staff to volunteer at The All-Britain Fleadh! Building bridges with Comhaltas in Britain.
Anything goes in this place, comedy nights, movie nights, quizzes, cultural parties, wakes, weddings, even wrestling - literally nothing surprises us anymore. We’re a very versatile bunch.
Another highlight was the visit of Spink Comhaltas organised by Liverpool's Comhaltas branch - coach loads of Spink Comhaltas' team came over from Ireland, showed up and put on a hell of a show!
That night ended with the BEST session!
We keep our community active and moving, with ceili's, Tea Dances, yoga and more!
We help launch The Liverpool Irish Festival every year.
Here's a wee cultural moment we loved as Hope Metropolitan Concerts hosted an Autumn event here.
There's no limit to the amount of lives that we reach, enrich and enhance. From teaching the young ones the culture to keeping the old ones warm and active. We’re both a lifeline and a stepping stone to your heritage and everything in between.
We’ve always got time for a Samhain Ceili.
We had a lovely visit from Liverpool FC's Leanne Kiernan (Cavan native) all filmed and shared by the ROI social media team.
This was easily one of our finest nights of the year, as our friends The Penniless Tenants learned The Pogues and then became The Pogues just for us. We remembered Shane MacGowan with gusto.
Our choir smashed it out the park with 'Carols at Candlelight' they've grown in size massively this year - we think there is 'at least 40 of them'
They started in the shed, then they moved to the heritage room - now they've taken over our hall.
This is the best weekend of the year and a new tradition!
We bring all local Irish dance schools into The centre - check out The Loughran Dance School dancing at our Christmas Grotto - prepare for a cuteness overload.
If you look closely, a proud Santa watches on in the distance. No doubt judging the children. This is not a feis.
A lovely way to end the year was with Liverpool Comhaltas who have went through many changes this year - artfully bringing our Crib Sunday tradition alive once more!
We can not put into words how many lives we touch, whether young or old, we are absolutely VITAL - the services we provide, the memories we help create and the value we provide is nothing short of a miracle.
We need more support in order to increase our activities and upkeep our aging building, there is a different problem that needs addressing what feels like every week. We can’t go on like this.
We hope we can continue to reach more people and continue the absolutely amazing work we do each and every year! We want to be the very best Irish Centre we can be and a true beacon of Irish culture and heritage in the 33rd County.
