FOR EMMA SMITH, Liverpool, with its undeniable connection to Ireland, is a place she has come to love deeply.
“It is the best place in the world as far as I’m concerned.”
Now, having worked with the Liverpool Irish Festival since 2016 and recently celebrated her tenth anniversary, Smith is programming the next one this October.
What began in 2003 as a music circle has evolved into a ten-day arts festival showing Ireland and the Irish diaspora through a Liverpool lens.
The festival has also grown beyond its October events, becoming custodians of the Liverpool Irish Famine Trail, which has taken place for over 30 years.
Smith’s own role within Liverpool’s Irish community has not always been straightforward.
“Very early on in my career with the festival, I had strips torn out of me because I don’t have a Scouse accent; I don’t have an Irish accent,” she said.
Yet she came to see her outsider status as an advantage.
“One of the things I realised early on was being the outsider is useful; I can ask the questions that other people think they know the answer to. I come with no assumptions or baggage.”
The Famine walk from Clarence Dock to St Luke’s Bombed Out Church, commemorates victims and survivors of an Gorta Mór. (Photo by the Liverpool Irish Festival)The 2026 festival, running from Thursday, October 15, to Sunday, October 25, centres on the theme ‘I Am Here’, with music, theatre, exhibitions and film showing Irish identity and belonging.
Some of the highlights Smith is really excited for are the return of Kíla, eight years after their last appearance.
She described the performance as an “exclusive and intimate gig” where “that closeness and proximity will be genuinely electrifying.”
She also pointed to exhibitions at the Bluecoat Display Centre and Victoria Gallery and Museum, as well as Paddy Armstrong's Story and the film Testimony, which explores the mother and baby homes.
For Smith, the festival ultimately shows the great strength of Irish culture.
“Ireland’s cultural footprint is so big, deep and varied,” she said, and shows how people that experienced hardship and oppression have kept their stories alive.
And when asked what she loves most about Ireland, her answer is simple.
“My favourite thing about Ireland is the people; there’s nothing like it.”
The ten-day festival will be running, Thursday, October 15, to Sunday 25, throughout Liverpool.
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