Interesting facts about the Irish Festival

Manchester Irish Festival – 2010

Interesting Facts

• It’s the world’s longest Irish Festival lasting just over two weeks, Dublin itself just stages a weekend.
• It’s official website www.manchesteririshfestival.co.uk is the premier Irish Festival website in the world as ranked by google and other leading search engines.
• It’s a community based festival, run by volunteers from the city’s vibrant Irish community. It is not commercially led, but has the support of local businesses and the Manchester City council along with some corporate sponsors. One of the festivals biggest and longest running sponsor is not Guinness but the Levenshulme Pub company who sponsor the festival website and are still one of its biggest sponsors in the festival programme. They also self fund a two week tradfest of Irish Music, Comedy and Dance in Levenshulme village.
• Levenshulme village is one of the main areas of focus for the festival, it is home to the biggest Irish community outside of London. The village organises its own two week tradfest during the festival, which features twp weeks of Irish music, Comedy & Dance.
• One of the highlights of the festival is the annual St Patrick’s Day Parade which has over 70 floats representing every county in Ireland is run by the Irish World Heritage Centre. The Parade is the biggest outside of New York and goes right through the city centre. It is solely a non commercial parade featuring different community groups and run by volunteers.
• It has its own very popular annual Irish market attracting traders and visitors from all over Ireland and the UK
• There is a large School based free cultural educational programme, which is run by volunteers during thw two weeks of the festival.
• The first festival was launched in 1996 by the then President of Ireland Mary Robinson.
• The festival has played host to the likes of Shane McGowan, Toss the Feathers, Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Westlife, The Corrs, Van Morrison , Mary Black, Sharon Shannon, Hazel O'Connor, Stocktons Wing and The Oyster Band.
• Irish Comedians involved have included Peter Kay, Ardal O'Hanlon, Jason Manford, Tommy Tiernan, Jason Byrne and Dylan Moran.
• Festival takes place all over Manchester at over 70 venues featuring 200 events and involving just over 1,000 performers.
• It annually attracts close to 100,000 visitors to its parade day alone

Festival History

The festival started with a public open meeting in the summer of 1995 at Manchester Town Hall. Cllr. Pat Karney from Manchester City Council chaired and addressed the packed meeting of the city's Irish community. A positive debate was held to discuss the possibility of holding an Irish Festival week in the following March leading up to St
Patrick's Day 17th March 1996.

After the initial meeting a steering committee was formed to co-ordinate the festival, representatives from various Irish groups volunteered their time and support to start what was to become the biggest Irish Festival in the UK.

The founding members included Levenshulme Councillors John Commons and David Hennigan, Alan Keegan, from BBC GMR's Irish Programme 'The Parlour', Lawrence Hennigan of the Palace Nightclub in Levenshulme, Lynne Percival from 'Club Cheol', Pat Sweeney(RIP) from CCE, Michael Forde, Rose Morris and other representatives from The Irish World Heritage Centre as well as Tony Hennigan the promoter behind 'Young, Gifted & Green'.

Lindsey Heald was appointed as the councils' co-ordinator for the festival and in the first year promoter Phil Jones helped to promote some of the events.

The festival had its very own Radio station called 'Manchester Irish Festival Radio' run by Alan Keegan and a team of hardworking volunteers as well as its own newspaper, the 'Irish Gazette' produced by Tommy Golden. The radio was launched on Sunday 25th February and ran until the 20th of March for 24 hours a day. It was a huge success not only in promoting the festival but in giving Manchester's Irish community a voice in the media.

The President of Ireland Mary Robinson officially launched the festival itself on Sunday 10th March 1996 at Manchester Town Hall and Guinness were the first official sponsors of the festival.

There were many highlights to the first festival. The biggest Irish Parade in the UK organised by the Irish World Heritage Centre. Young, Gifted and Green's three day Irish Music, Dance & Arts Festival in Albert Square that coincided with the city council's Irish Craft market. Comedian Ardal O'Hanlon from Channel 4's Father Ted played at the Palace Nightclub in Levenshulme as did Frances Black on the "Women's Heart Tour". Frank McGuinness's play 'The Factory Girls', the world champion Tara Ceili band, Young, Gifted & Green Unsigned bands final, Toss the Feathers featuring BBC Radio 2's award winning instrumentalist Michael McGoldrick, U2 tribute band 'Achtung Baby' and Club nights featuring Kiss 102's Grainne Landowski and Dance Nation's Conor McNamara from Limerick FM also played there. Many pubs, clubs, art galleries, theatres and libraries got involved with the festival by staging their own events.

The festival has grown into the biggest Irish Festival in the UK. Such has been its phenomenal success that Granada TV produced a six part series called 'The Irish Connection which was screened in July 2002.

The festival has played host to the likes of Westlife, The Corrs, Van Morrison, Lord of the Dance, BBC Radio 1's Mark Radcliffe and The Family Mahone, Comedians Peter Kay, Tommy Tiernan, Jason Byrne and Dylan Moran, Kino Irish Film festival, GAA All Ireland rematch of Kerry v Mayo. Primal Scream's 'Mani', the award winning 'Young, Gifted & Green's' Irish Music & Dance show, Mary Black, Sharon Shannon, Donal Lunny, Eimear Quinn, Luka Bloom, Picture House, Hazel O'Connor, Stocktons Wing and The Oyster Band.

As well as the headlining major international acts it has never forgotten its community roots and actively encourages and promotes everything from storytelling to music and dance workshops.

In 2003 Cllr Pat Karney stood down from the festival as its chairman, but is still part of the committee and Cllr John Flanagan and Ester Dolan took over the role.

In 2009 Ester Dolan stood down as co-chair and Kevin Fitzpatrick from St Kentigern’s Irish club was appointed as its new co-chair along with Cllr John Flanagan.