A NEW project launched this month calls for the stories of members of the diverse group that makes up the London Irish community.
The London Irish Centre has revealed its new community-led mixed-media project London Irish Stories, which aims to collect and celebrate the stories of Irish people living in London.
Presented as an online collection of first-person blog posts from people with connections to both Ireland and London, the series will include both audio clips and imagery, the Camden-based charity confirms.
As part of this launch, the team behind London Irish Stories are now asking for people with a connection to London and Ireland to submit to be part of the project and have their story told.
“The Irish in London are a diverse, rich, multigenerational group, with all kinds of ties and relationships across the city and over the Irish Sea,” Gary Dunne, Director of Culture at the London Irish Centre, explained.
“Through this new online initiative, we want to explore and celebrate these identities, and move beyond tired, reductive stereotypes,” he added.
“Over time, London Irish Stories will document the rich, real-lived experiences of four generations of Irish people right across the city, and will present them in an engaging, accessible way.’"
With a number of blog posts already completed, the series opens with stories from Dublin-born nurse Laura Fay, who is living and working in London amidst the pressures of a pandemic, and Irish chef Nicholas Fitzgerald, who quit his job to set up his own taqueria in London’s Borough Market.
The project calls for submissions from all corners of the London Irish community, with the organisers confirming they want to hear “from the generation who arrived in the mid-20th-century, to those who have just arrived in recent months, from London-born second and third-generation Irish, who feel strongly connected to their Irish identity, to those with no connection through heritage but are avid Irish dancers or Gaelic footballers, London Irish Stories is for you”.
For more information, to read the stories or to take part click here.
