Liverpool Irish Festival 2026 says I Am Here
Liverpool Irish Festival is taking place this month with the theme for 2026 being I Am Here.
The annual festival, now in its 24th year, runs until next Sunday, October 25.
The celebration is the UK’s largest arts and culture-led festival and the 2026 programme covers almost 40 events and exhibits - some free, some ticketed - including music, theatre and performance, talks and tours, visual arts, film, literary voices and family activities.
I Am Here ‘explores what it means to arrive, stay, and be seen’, and is rooted in the history of the 1.8 million Irish Famine poor who entered Liverpool through Clarence Dock between 1845 and 1853.
Liverpool Irish Festival chair Dr Ann Hoskins says: “What I love about I Am Here is that it is as much about the present as the past. Irish life in Liverpool today is thriving, creative and wonderfully varied. So many of our families are multi-heritage families, carrying Irishness alongside other identities with pride.
“This Festival celebrates all of that: the people arriving now, the generations who came before, and the children growing up with more than one story of home.”
Music
Sefton Park Palm House hosts I Am Here on October 22. More than 50 musicians and dancers from across Merseyside will perform in the thematic event the organised by George Ferguson Irish Dance School and Merseyside’s Melody Makers.
Téada (pictured above) are one of Irish traditional music’s most celebrated and hard-working ensembles.
Celebrating 25 years on the road in 2026, the group comes to the Music Room at the Philharmonic Hall on October 23 in an event presented in partnership with Return to London Town.
Also on October 23, Peter Kavanagh in nearby Egerton Street holds an informal PK Seisiún where people are invited to bring along an instrument and join in.
Highly acclaimed Pogues tribute act The Phogues play at Liverpool Irish Centre on October 24.
Then just outside the main festival dates, on October 26 Emmy Award-winning band The Shamrocks come to the Philharmonic Hall on their debut UK tour, promising the roaring, rousing atmosphere of traditional Irish pubs.
Performance and Poetry
Geraldine Moloney Judge (pictured) visits the Liverpool Arts Club and Hope Street Theatre on October 21 to reprise her one woman show Obscured View, five years on from performing to a sell-out crowd and standing ovation.
The one-act play is about how a love affair for football began when Judge saw Ireland qualify for their first World Cup in 1990.
A free rehearsed reading of The Great Indaba takes place at the Museum of Liverpool on October 23. The is new play by Irish writer/director Adam McGuigan and South African writer/director Sibusiso Mamba uncovers the remarkable and little-known role South Africa played in helping Northern Ireland towards peace.
Meanwhile just following the main festival dates, The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong comes to the Unity Theatre on October 30-31.
Talks and Tours
A Scotland Road and the Irish Community walk on Sunday, October 18 at 10am includes a guided tour of three community landmarks.
Meanwhile on the same morning, Frank Shovlin, Professor of Irish Literature at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies, Frank will be at the Victoria Gallery & Museum talking about his much-anticipated authorised biography of the Irish writer and novelist, John McGahern.
Later the same day, the Ashton Street venue also hosts the seventh John McGahern Annual Book Prize.
Also on October 18, ArtsGroupie’s John Maguire will lead the South Liverpool walking tour – ticketholders should meet at the Great Hunger Commemoration memorial at St Luke’s.
On October 19, Liverpool Hope University Sonja Tiernan will talk about her landmark biography of Irish radical poet, rebel and reformer Eva Gore-Booth (pictured above) in a special event at The Black-E.
Take exhibition tours of the fictional The St Brigid’s Arms at the VG&M on October 20 and 22.
Or on October 24, join Liverpool Irish Famine Trail short or long tours. Meet at the Pilotage Building near the Museum of Liverpool.
The annual An Gorta Mór vigil walk in memory of the Great Hunger takes place on October 25, between the Clarence Dock and St Luke’s followed at 1pm by the An Gorta Mór memorial.
Then Shared Lands: Reconciliation, recognition and reciprocity at LJMU on October 26 explores the shared histories of famine, displacement, food and survival that connect Ireland and the Choctaw Nation in present day Oklahoma.
Community
Why not pop along to John Mitchel’s pitch at Greenbank Lane tomorrow morning, October 18, and give hurling and camogie a go? The free GAA event runs from 10am to 11.30am.
The annual Tony Birtill memorial will be held at Liverpool Irish Centre on October 20.
This year’s memorial lecture will be delivered by the committee of Conradh na Gaeilge Learpholl. As 2026 marks 130 years since the founding of Liverpool’s first branch of the Gaelic League in 1896, the event will look back over the history of the organisation in Liverpool, from its beginnings in the late 19th century to Birtill’s invaluable contribution to the Irish language in the city and beyond.
Meanwhile the Museum of Liverpool welcomes back the Irish Festival Family Day on Saturday, October 24 with a range of activities for visitors of all ages, including the return of the Armagh Rhymers with their (exclusive to the festival) Liver Bird story helping to understand how the First Nations people of North America helped the Irish during The Great Hunger.
And the traditional Samhain Céilí will be held at the Liverpool Irish Centre on October 25 with music from The Armagh Rhymers and Comhaltas.
Liverpool Irish Festival runs until October 25. More details and tickets HERE