The Liverpool Irish Festival is under way, with close to 40 events running across the city as part of this year’s programme.
The main festival runs until Sunday 25 October, with satellite events continuing into the following week.
Now in its third decade, the festival describes itself as the UK’s largest Irish arts and culture-led festival. Organisers are expecting between 7,500 and 10,000 visits this year.
This year’s theme is I Am Here.
A theme about belonging
Artistic director and chief executive Emma Smith, who has worked with the festival since 2016, has called I Am Here one of the most political statements a human being can make, describing it as a claim to presence and recognition.
The theme is rooted in Liverpool’s history as a major point of arrival for Irish migrants and in the generations that followed.
According to the festival, more than 1.8 million Irish migrants passed through Liverpool between 1845 and 1853. This year’s programme draws on that history while also reflecting artists travelling from Ireland, the wider diaspora and people who have made the city their home.
The programme was previewed on Wednesday evening at the Liverpool Irish Centre, at a launch hosted by the Consulate of Ireland and featuring musician and kidney transplant survivor Enda McCabe.
What is on
The programme spans music, theatre, film, talks, walks and family events.
Dublin collective Kíla play the Music Room at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Friday 16 October, returning to the festival eight years after their last appearance.
Victoria Fradgley’s one-act play High Tea, about two estranged sisters forced to confront their shared family history, is staged at the Liverpool Irish Centre on Saturday 17 October.
Historian Sonja Tiernan will discuss the Irish poet, campaigner and reformer Eva Gore-Booth on Monday 19 October.
On Thursday 22 October, more than 50 musicians and dancers from the George Ferguson Irish Dance School and Melody Makers take over Sefton Park Palm House for I Am Here, a family-friendly event that shares its name with the festival theme.
The Phogues bring the music of The Pogues to the Liverpool Irish Centre on Saturday 24 October, including songs from the band’s 1984 debut album Red Roses for Me.
That same day, the Museum of Liverpool hosts the festival’s Family Day, including a story from The Armagh Rhymers.
The festival closes with a Samhain Céilí at the Liverpool Irish Centre on Sunday 25 October, which is free to attend.
New for 2026, access social stories are available for festival venues to support neurodivergent visitors and those with access needs.
Remembering the Famine
Heritage remains central to the programme.
New Liverpool Irish Famine Trail tours run on Saturday 24 October, using an app and headsets to take walkers through the city’s history. A South Liverpool walking tour takes place on Sunday 18 October.
On the final morning, Sunday 25 October, a vigil will retrace the Walk of the Bronze Shoes from Clarence Dock, where more than 1.8 million people fleeing the Famine arrived, to St Luke’s Bombed Out Church.
It leads into the annual An Gorta Mór memorial at 1pm, where the Liverpool Irish Centre choir will lead the commissioned song The Ullaloo.
A connection that runs both ways
The festival is a registered charity.
It receives support from Liverpool City Council’s Culture Arts Investment Programme and the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme, and is sponsored by Tourism Ireland.
That mix of funding reflects how the relationship between the two places is viewed on both sides of the Irish Sea.
When discussing this subject with Simon Winter, author at Casino.com Ireland, he had the viewpoint that many people in Ireland see Liverpool as one of the most familiar cities in Britain, with ties built through migration, music and football over generations.
That familiarity is visible in the programme, which brings artists from Dublin and Armagh to venues across the city.
Get involved
Many events are free, while others require booking.
Film screenings, theatre performances and the Phogues concert are among the ticketed events still to come.
Satellite events continue after the main festival ends, including an Irish set dancing course beginning at Liverpool Cricket Club on Tuesday 27 October and running for six weeks.
Full listings are available on the Liverpool Irish Festival website.
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