AN EXHIBITION charting the movement of people from Ireland to Britain is set to open in Northern Ireland for the first time as part of Belfast’s Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann celebrations.
Look Back to Look Forward: 50 Years of the Irish in Britain was launched in 2023 to mark 50 years of the Irish in Britain organisation, formerly known as the Federation of Irish Societies.
Having exhibited in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Dublin, the heritage project is now headed for Queen's as part of the university’s Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann Fringe programme.
Belfast is hosting Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann for the first time from August 2 until August 9, while the Fleadh at Queen's fringe programme began in June and features several events running until August.
Inspirational and heart-breaking
Drawing on emotive oral histories, archival material, photography, film and audio recordings, Look Back to Look Forward: 50 Years of the Irish in Britain reflects decades of movement between the island of Ireland and Britain.
Exploring themes of migration, identity and belonging, the exhibition documents people's different experiences of leaving home behind and setting up life in a new place as well as community activism, work and cultural identity.
The stories within the exhibition are as inspirational as they are heart-breaking and capture a breadth of lived experience rarely brought together in one place.
They include powerful personal testimonies about leaving home, building new lives in Britain and sustaining connections across generations and place.
There is the construction worker who stepped onto English soil speaking only Irish and the daughter of one of the falsely-accused Birmingham Six who fought to free her father.
Visitors will hear of a woman who had no choice but to leave the institutional Ireland she grew up with and another who helped organise lesbian and gay ceilidhs when she moved to Britain.
The exhibition also features contributions from notable Irish cultural figures including actors Siobhán McSweeney, Ardal O'Hanlon, Adrian Dunbar and Aisling Bea.
Other contributors include broadcaster Terry Christian, Siobhan Fahy from Bananarama and Shakespears Sister and musician Jah Wobble.
Meanwhile, Moth Poetry Prize Winner Laurie Bolger has composed a specially-commissioned poem inspired by the project.
Valuable contribution
By telling the story of 50 Years of the Irish in Britain, the project has helped raise awareness of the public in migration and the modern history of Britain and Ireland.
It has documented and preserved the life stories of people of Irish heritage in Britain and the valuable contribution they have made through the recording and archiving of oral history interviews.
In doing so, it is hoped that future generations will learn about the experience of the Irish in Britain and their remarkable community work, social engagement and political activism.
The exhibition gets underway at Queen's University's Elmwood Hall on July 28 and is open from 10am to 4pm each day until August 15.
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See More: Irish In Britain, Queen's University Belfast
