Congrats to the Ireland Rugby team for winning the Grand Slam. Although i'm not an rugby expert or regular fan, it was very heartening to see the scenes in Cardiff yesterday and also the fact that a 32 county Ireland team has been so successful...........judging from my walk through Liverpool city centre yesterday, there were literally hundreds of people out for the game, with Ireland rugby shirts on show everywhere............

Being Irish is not all its craic'd up to be................

Last nights Liverpool Echo newspaper http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/echo-letters/2009/03/19/anichebe-concerns-100252-23180267/ published a very interesting and thought provoking letter from Cllr James Noakes, Clubmoor Ward (Labour) reminding us that while alot of us were celebrating St Patrick's Day, members of our community don't have it so good. In his letter, Cllr Noakes was able to quote from extensive research on the health and social disadvantages suffered by members of the Irish community in England.


Irish Community Care Merseyside is a registered charity and been in existence in Liverpool since the 1960's helping and supporting newly arrived Irish people in this city and offering practical support to those already settled here, especially the elderly. Since its formation, ICCM has grown considerably and now has over 10 staff mainly funding by the Irish Government's DION funding but also from Local Authorities and PCT's etc etc and huge team of volunteer workers. It does provide an excellent service especially to Irish homeless, Travellers and Elderly within the community, with activities across Liverpool and the Wirral.

The work of ICCM and the disadvantage suffered by sections of the Irish community is not something that most of us would be aware of , or in fact, want to know about. It is true that while Ireland prospered economically for most of the 1990's and this decade and became known as the 'Celtic Tiger', this new found prosperity often bypassed the poorest sections of Irish society and as a result emigration continued to occur. Hence the need for such organisations and the need for us all to be mindful of those in need and campaign for better services for our community

More information on the work of ICCM can be had from the following link http://www.irishsocieties.org/about/affiliateinfo/communitycare/irishcommunitycaremerseyside

Happy St Patrick's Day....

Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone...........No parade today in Liverpool, but we'll still enjoy ourselves no doubt..........

As is standard, I take the day off work and the next day of course to get over whatever happens today. It normally starts with a big breakfast/lunch followed by a tour of Liverpool's city centre pubs. Ironically, I tend to stay clear of the Irish pubs as there's normally queues to get in in the first place, queues to get served and the queue is made worse as people start to double up on rounds, and that leads to more queues. Yes, it is very much cicular!!! Also, they are too full and last year a friend went outside to have a cigarette and the bouncers wouldnt let him back in, because it was too full!!!!

There will literally be thousands of people out to celebrate today even though it is a Tuesday and the sooner the economic and political leaders of this city catch on to this and recognise St Patrick's Day something akin to the Beatles festival with the potential to bring in huge revenues to the city over a period of 2/3 days, the better. Perhaps I should write them a letter........

So its Ireland Soccer, rugby and GAA county shirts as fitting attire for today. So it will be easy to spot us........I mean literally so easy to spot. So greetings to eveyone out today and remember, while your sinking your 15th pint of guinness.........there is no tomorrow.............................................................

Hold Your Nerve...........

Hold your nerve.............that's the response that needs to be understood and observed for the coming weeks in light of the killing of 2 British soldiers by the Real IRA 2 days ago. I know that a lot of people within the Irish community will be very uncomfrotable about what has happened and for those older enough to remember living through the war of the 70's, 80's and 90's it no doubt brings back very bad memories and feelings.

The war in Ireland brought put a huge amount of pressure to bear on the Irish community in Liverpool and elsewhere in this country. It brought hardship, fear of violence/retaliation, abuse, and scrutiny from the British State that has left its terrible mark upon members of our community to this day. For some, the war in Ireland meant learning more and developing a deeper understanding of the conflict outside of that expressed through Britain's media and taboloids and thus, being able to develop and express in a confident manner ones own views on the cause of such war i.e. the lack of justice, policing, and democracy in the six county state. However, for others it was all too much and lead to going underground, losing your accent, keeping your head down and with our children highlighting 'Englishness' and 'Britishness' as an identity that would avoid bringing trouble to your doorstep, rather than celebrating our 'Irishness'.

It is clear that the political landscape has changed and the once downtrodden and oppressed nationalists within the six counties have made huge gains through first its armed struggle and then through the Peace Process that developed during the early part of the 1990's and that there still exists a clear pathway to peace, justice and freedom through the institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement. So hold your nerve, put your support behind the political process. Become involved in the debate. Do not shy away from engaging with those who seek a return to war and lets not allow the British government and the Unionist community to withdraw from this process and avoid their committments to this process. Fo they will try to avoid a settlement with nationalist Ireland at all costs, given the opportunity.

A lot has been gained since 1969 and alot more can be gained by supporting the process and in the end for those of us within our community that seek equality, justice and the unity of our country as our political aims, be confident, be proud and be free!

Irish Centre's................

Busy within the Irish community in Liverpool at present and it all seems to be happening at St Michaels Irish Centre, West Derby Road, Liverpool. The Liverpool public will be very aware of the previous existence of the Irish Centre at Mount Pleasant Liverpool, which was open from the early 1960's till the middle of the 1990's and was then lost due to various financial problems.......................no time at present to go into the history of the old Irish Centre now, but may do in the future at some point, as its a very long story!!!!!!!

Anyway, since 1998ish St Michaels Irish Centre has been up and running providing a great service to various Irish community organisations in Liverpool to meet and organise themselves. A lot of the former families that where involved in the previous Irish Centre were given the opportunity by St Michaels Parish to take over the existing building and run it soley for the Irish community as well as the locals. I have to say that the Centre has gone from strength to strength since that time and a lot of work has been done on the inside of the building to help modernise a very jaded and 1970's look. The people involved in running the centre deserve much credit for the work that goes into maintaining the building and also the activities that go there which include Irish language classes, Irish dancing and music classes, a flute band, a soccer team and a GAA football team and of course a great function room that all the groups regulalry use. There's also a nice little shop that sells foodstuffs from Ireland.

The centre is also great for watching sports on the tv's and always has GGA games a s well as live games featuring Celtic, Liverpool and Everton. Sunday afternoon is always special with an informal music/singing session happening or just occuring.......


Only problem that St Michaels always faces is that fact that while its only 10 mins from the city centre, alot of people think its in the middle of nowhere!!!!!!!!!! so its misses that passing trade that the mount pleasant building was always good at attracting............but hey ho, you can't have everything................St Michaels has a website http://stmichaelsirishcentre.org/ go down on a sunday and have the craic!!!!!