Nollaig Shona Duit/Merry Christmas

Here at Festival HQ, we've been making our lists and checking them twice... and we just wanted to send you all our best wishes for a very Merry Christmas, a happy New Year and a safe, warm, healthy festive season.

We also wanted to say thank you for all your support in 2020; one of the most complicated years on record! To those of you who have had to deal with loss, we send condolences; for those handling this dreadful illness (and the many others that have continued), our thoughts and thanks are with you; and -to everyone else- struggling through, we offer our companionship to keep on keeping on.

Last messages of the year

Gael Linn open call commission

Gael Linn and An tUltach and have partnered with the Liverpool Irish Festival to create a one-off, £1,000 creative commission that celebrates Irish language and folklore, available to artists putting in a proposal to us. The resulting work will form part of Liverpool Irish Festival 2021 (21-31 Oct 2021). Our initial deadline for proposals is 31 Jan 2021. To find out more, click here.

St Brigid's Day

Our first celebration to focus on, when we return in the New Year, will be St Brigid's Day (1 Feb). Using her story as an emblem for female endeavour, and the pursuit of equality for all, we will share some amazing stories.

We were very luck to secure creative community funds from the Irish Embassy, from which we have commissioned a number of artists to create works that we will share details of in January; so stand by!

Missing theatre?

The Everyman (Cork) have a bumper crop of live streamed theatre coming from its stages, with a variety of Christmas treats. Click here to download their brochure.

Irish Film Institute player

The Irish Film Institute have compiled a Christmas list of films you could watch on their player, which might help stave off a cold winter evening. Click here to access....

Make a gift

Any gift you can make to support our work is greatly appreciated. Despite cultural recovery funding from the HM Government and Arts Council England, funding for arts, culture and heritage looks set to become even harder than the previous decade of austerity. Anything you can spare will help us to continue our work with artists and communities for 2021. Make a gift...

SMART testing in Liverpool

Liverpool has opened some SMART testing sites that it would like you to know about.
Click here for the leaflet / Click here for the site opening times.

You can just pop in for a lateral flow Covid test. Don’t forget to take your mobile phone, if you have one, and your face covering. The City Council is still encouraging everyone living, working or studying in Liverpool to get a free Covid-19 test, as part of the city’s SMART testing programme. If you have NO symptoms, please drop into one of our testing centres. They want everyone to get tested regularly, before everyday activities like shopping, going to the hairdressers, the gym or for a night out. There’s also two pop-up sites in the Town Hall and Liverpool One or anyone who’s out and about in the city centre to use. There’s no need to book, just turn up. For a full list of centres go to: www.liverpool.gov.uk/smarttesting Let’s Get Tested Liverpool – Let’s get life going again.

Common Travel Area updates

The Embassy ran a couple of sessions about updates on the Common Travel Area, following Brexit developments. If you have questions, it might be worth looking at the FAQ sheet, which you can download here.

Stay well!

We hope you are keeping as well as it is possible to under the lockdown restrictions in your area, wherever you are in the world. Irish in Britain are running a number of online resources and networks, that you may find useful (use this link) and, in Liverpool, Irish Community Care and CARA continue to develop their services (read the latest enewsletter here).

We are looking forward to brighter, merrier and more creative times ahead, building on the work of CARA and the friendships developed there and in our communities. We're looking forward to seeing you at in-person events and to feeling all the things connected with sharing space safely, enjoying culture together and celebrating inspirational people. Whilst this may be a hard Christmas for many, we hope it will be a better year ahead.

liverpoolirishfestival.com