A fitting celebration of emigration

A MAJOR exhibition exploring five decades of movement between people from the island of Ireland and Britain—and their enduring connection to both places—is coming to Belfast for the first time this summer.

Look Back to Look Forward celebrates the lives, resilience and legacies of people from across the island of Ireland who moved to live in Britain over the last five decades, as well as the experiences of second-generation Irish families. It has been created by Irish in Britain, the national membership body for Irish community organisations in Britain, as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.

The acclaimed exhibition was seen by more than 120,000 visitors while in Dublin and has toured in cities across Britain.

It is being hosted in Belfast by Queen’s University as part of its Fleadh Cheoil na héireann Fringe programme. Running from July 28 to August 16 in the Elmwood Hall, viewing is available between 11am and 4pm each day, and admission is free.

Drawing on emotive oral histories, archival material, photography, film, and audio recordings, it documents people’s different experiences of leaving home behind, of setting up life in a new place, community activism, work, and cultural identity.

Several well-known faces have contributed to the exhibition, including actors Adrian Dunbar, Ardal O’Hanlon, and Jamie Beamish, who read moving excerpts from transcripts of interviews with Irish labourers who lived in Arlington House in London in the 1990s. Other well-known names featured include actors and presenters Siobhán McSweeney and Aisling Bea, broadcaster Terry Christian, Siobhan Fahey from Bananarama and Shakespears Sister, musician Jah Wobble, and poet Laurie Bolger, who wrote a specially commissioned poem inspired by the project.

Speaking ahead of the exhibition’s launch at Queen’s, Brian Dalton, CEO of Irish in Britain, said: “Irish in Britain is really pleased to be bringing our exhibition to Belfast for the first time, as the stories that feature belong to everyone from our island who’s stepped off a boat, train or plane to Britain, and to their children and grandchildren.

“Many of the stories featured have connections to Northern Ireland, and so we’re delighted that Queen’s is hosting the exhibition and enabling us to bring it to Belfast at a time when so many visitors are coming to the city for the fleadh and will have an opportunity to experience it.

“Movement between our island and Britain has connected families, communities, the arts and workplaces for generations, and this exhibition brings those connections to life in a way that powerfully reflects the many different reasons for those journeys, the experiences behind them, and the significant contribution they have made—and continue to make—in Britain today.

“This project is a window through which others can see us and understand us. It is inspired by our work with member organisations right across Britain over the last five decades. We want to acknowledge the stories of resilience, innovation, activism and kinship that our member organisations bear witness to every day. It has been a privilege to enable so many people to tell their very personal stories and to safeguard them, as otherwise they may have been lost to us all.”

For those who can’t make it to the exhibition in person, Irish in Britain has created an online version, which can be viewed at: www.irishinbritain.org