Welcome to SundIRELAND!

Ireland’s adopted 33rd county, Sunderland, will be celebrating its first ever Irish Festival in the city’s beautiful Sunniside cultural quarter on Saturday 30th August.

The North-East, and Sunderland in particular, is an obvious choice for such a high-profile event. With a huge number of people of Irish descent in the region, the North East Irish Culture Network (NEICN) is growing from strength to strength. This is coupled with increasingly strong links with Irish business, not to mention the Irish connections at Sunderland AFC of Niall Quinn, Roy Keane and the Drumaville Consortium.

Organised in part by Dr Alison O’Malley-Younger and her NEICN team from the University of Sunderland, this free festival is designed to strengthen these links and celebrate the rich contribution the Irish have made to the region.

The Festival will kick off at 1.00pm with a rousing performance by ‘The Funky Buddhas’ Irish folk band followed by traditional Irish music by hugely talented musician and ex-Beggarman, Peter Desmond. An open air céilí performed by the Robert Whitehead Céilí Band at 3.00pm will be guaranteed to get the crowds rocking. And if you still have energy after all that, dancers from the Inchigeela Academy of Irish Dancing will get everyone’s feet moving with a performance of world-famous Riverdance. This feast of entertainment will draw to a close with a performance by Alan Kelly and the Dogs of Tralee from 5.00pm to 6.00pm.

There will also be events for children such as drama workshops, storytelling and face-painting to name but a few.

Getting into the spirit of the Festival, one of Sunderland’s favourite restaurants, Sunniside’s Eauzone, will be preparing a special Irish menu featuring oysters and Irish stew. The restaurant will also host an evening of Irish food and music by Aos Dana.

Mick Thurlbeck, proprietor of Eauzone said: “The festival was the brainchild of Sunderland’s local Strategic Partnership to strengthen Irish links and raise the profile of Sunderland’s Sunniside Gardens area”. Professor Peter Fidler, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sunderland, added: “The University’s extremely successful Irish conference has raised the profile of Irish culture in the City over the past few years. Our Irish Festival will raise that profile further and will also highlight to the people of Sunderland the importance of Irish culture and its people to the City.”

Ben Hall, director of Sunniside Partnership, the organisation leading Sunniside’s regeneration, said: “We are delighted that Sunniside will be hosting the city’s first Irish Festival. It is the perfect setting for such an event as it builds on the area’s strong relationship with the Irish and will showcase this beautiful, up and coming city quarter.”