Irish in Britain's "Look Back to Look Forward" exhibit will be touring the UK in November and is also available to view online.Irish in Britain
"Look Back to Look Forward: 50 Years of the Irish in Britain" is an oral history project telling the stories of Irish people who have emigrated to Britain over the past half-century.
The free exhibition opened at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith on Wednesday, November 1, and will travel to spots in Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham later in the month.
"Look Back to Look Forward: 50 Years of the Irish in Britain" is also available to view as an online exhibition.
The exhibition, which is organized by the Irish in Britain charity in celebration of its 50th year, helps to document and preserve the life stories of people of Irish heritage living in Britain over the past 50 years.
The project aims to educate the public on migration and the modern history of Britain and Ireland and additionally aims to allow future generations to learn about the experience of the Irish in Britain.
It also charts the progress of the Irish in Britain, highlighting how the Irish went from a widely discriminated-against group in the 1960s and 1970s to the highest earning of all ethnic groups in the UK in 2021.
The "Look Back to Look Forward: 50 Years of the Irish in Britain" exhibition features 50 oral histories from Irish ex-pats living in Britain,
Ahead of the launch of the exhibition, Irish in Britain shared some of the interviews recorded by its volunteer oral historians.
In this interview, Maureen Heaney, Patsy Jordan, and Alice Delahunty reminisce about traveling from Ireland to settle in Newcastle, and what the Tara Club meant to them.
In this video, Co Leitrim native Pat Salmon, who moved to London in the 1960s, discusses managing the bar at the Portsmouth Irish Club and nights out at the Galtymore in Cricklewood.
In another, John Giltenan, from the Council of Irish Counties (CICA), London describes the send-off his neighbors gave him when he left Limerick 35 years ago.
The exhibition additionally features contributions from cultural figures such as Irish actors Aisling Bea, Siobhán McSweeney, and Adrian Dunbar.
Bea said in part: "Irish people have helped build Britain; its communities, cultures, roads, music, arts, health services, entertainment.
"I am over the moon to know that these stories are getting acknowledged."
According to RTÉ, the project also includes testimonies from Breda Power, the daughter of Billy Power, one of the Birmingham Six, and a woman who was instrumental in organizing gay and lesbian cèilidhs in London.
Many contributors note that the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was a transformative moment for the Irish community in Britain.
Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain, who is a patron of the Irish Cultural Centre, told RTÉ that the Irish have become "woven" into British society over the past 50 years.
"It's actually very much not remarked upon, which is such a journey from no blacks no dogs no Irish in the 60s, that to arrive over as an Irish person is almost neutral," Ó Briain told RTÉ.