THE Liverpool Irish Centre is set to open a new space, celebrating the Irish and the history of their descendants in the famous port city.
The Liverpool Irish History Room will open in the coming months and will house everything from old news articles to photographs, trophies, historical records, books and maps.
Centre manager Niall Gibney said he wanted to preserve the stories that have helped shape Britain's biggest Irish community.
"We're going to put all sorts of Irish history in there, from the old Liverpool Irish Centre to the current one we are in now.
"It's going to be like a mini museum."
Local historian Greg Quiery will oversee a section of Liverpool's general Irish history, while Mr Gibney and members of the community will focus on the Centre's own history from the 1960s onwards, including their move to their new building in 1999, and everything that's happened since.
Niall Gibney, on the right, at a recent event at the Centre (Photo by the Liverpool Irish Centre)"If you're sitting down in the bar having a drink, we can say, 'Come and look at our history.' It's just another hook for the centre."
While many heritage groups now focus on digital collections, Mr Gibney believes there is still value in a physical archive that people can experience in person.
"Everyone is into digital archives and oral archives these days, and we just thought let's have a physical one in the building."
Mr Gibney's own connection to Ireland comes from his grandparents, who were mainly from Westmeath.
He first began working with the Centre around 2017.
"The reason I joined was some of my family had passed away, and I wanted to keep that Irish heritage strong in my life," he said.
He became manager in March 2020, just as Covid was in full swing.
Irish dancing is among the many classes on offer at the Liverpool Irish Centre (Photo by the Liverpool Irish Centre)"It was a bit of a reset, I think, for the centre, and we got to focus on things we maybe wouldn't have had time for otherwise, like painting and social media and stuff like that," he said.
"We got to build a nice base for that over Covid, and that helped us continue to grow our online presence afterwards."
Since then, he believes the centre has gone "from strength to strength", expanding its list of cultural activities.
Today, the Centre hosts everything from music lessons, a choir and céilí dancing to yoga classes, bingo, flute bands and Irish language courses.
It is also home to the Liverpool Irish Rovers running group, which has between 80 and 100 people depending on the day.
Mr Gibney said Irish language classes have experienced a huge surge in popularity over the past year.
Kids having some fun at one of the centre's weekend parties (Photo by the Liverpool Irish Centre)"Last September we had 40 people turn up for lessons on a Wednesday and another 40 people on a Thursday, and you just think, 'Where am I going to put all these people?'"
He said that some learners have travelled in groups together to the Gaeltacht for the last couple of years.
"It's nice to see members experience that. Obviously, what we're doing here is Irish culture, but sometimes people might forget to go to Ireland as well," he laughed.
The centre's ambitions extend beyond just preserving the past.
"Obviously Liverpool has such a strong Irish connection, but we really want the Liverpool Irish Centre to be the absolute best it can be. We want the rest of the world to know about it."
"Because Liverpool and Boston and New York are probably the most famous places that Irish people went to. So I think we deserve to have centres as good as those other places."
Some of the Liverpool Irish Rovers taking a break from their roving (Photo by the Liverpool Irish Centre)He is also pleased that there is a surge of new people coming to the centre, helped by a new wave of students, particularly from Northern Ireland, and a new Irish pub "seeming to open every other week".
"People are crying out for community now more than ever," he said. "With phones and social media, there are so many distractions."
"We want people to come on down and make some new friends.”
"You don't need to be Irish or to be of Irish descent. If you care about Ireland, feel free to come on down."
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