To begin the month-long celebration on Tuesday 4^th March is a screening of the film ‘Agnes Browne’ at the smallest cinema in the North of England. The cinema at Armley Mills Leeds Industrial Museum has vintage fittings rescued from the old Palace Picture House in Armley, which closed its doors back in 1964 and boasts positively roomy capacity of 24 seats! Based on the book ‘The Mammy’ by Brendan O’Carroll of Mrs Brown’s Boys fame, this 1990 film is a sentimental character study directed by and starring Anjelica Huston, about a feisty Irish widow struggling to raise seven children in 1960s Dublin.

On Wednesday 5th March Conrad Koza Bryan talks about his new book ‘Irish People of Colour: A social history of mixed-race Irish in Britain and Ireland‘ and his own experience as a mixed-race Irish person. This event is in collaboration with Leeds Irish Health & Homes is part of the Leeds Art History Group and Northlight Arts Centre talks.

On the morning of Saturday 8^th  March at The Swarthmore Centre, Yorkshire Archaeological & History Society  present  ‘Untold Stories: The Leeds Irish Community’. This event features a verbal presentation using the Untold Stories website and documentary as well as live traditional Irish music. The Untold Stories project looks at the experiences of the emigrant Irish community in Leeds in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly their settlement patterns and cultural traditions such as music, dance, song, and sport.

To celebrate International Women’s Day on Saturday 8th March, Irish Arts Foundation will be hosting a Traditional Irish Music Afternoon featuring local musicians Siobhan Rouse (Wooden Flute) and Éabha Gaughan Quinn (Concertina) at Northlight Arts in Potternewton starting at 1.00pm. Café open, coffee and cake, licensed bar, pop in and enjoy some live Irish tunes. All musicians welcome.

On Wednesday 12^th March Hyde Park Picture House shows ‘The Wonder’ in collaboration with Films at Heart. Set in the Irish Midlands in 1862, the story follows a young girl who stops eating but remains miraculously alive and well. Tourists and pilgrims mass to witness the girl who is said to have survived without food for months. English nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh) is brought to the tiny village to observe eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell. Is the village harbouring a saint ‘surviving on manna from heaven’ or is something else going on?

A morning of traditional Irish music hosted by local singers and musicians takes place at Richmond Hill Community Centre in East Leeds on the morning of Thursday 13th March. The area of Richmond Hill, historically known as ‘The Bank’, was the first area of settlement for the Leeds Irish community who arrived in the city during the Irish famine between 1845 and 1849.

On Friday 14^th March Chapel FM screens ‘Men at Lunch’, the 2012 documentary on the history behind the iconic photograph taken in 1932. The film is set during the construction of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, its Irish connections, and the story of immigration in New York at the turn of the century. With live music, food and refreshments.

The weekly quiz on Sunday evening 16^th March at Seven Arts takes on an Irish theme!

On Thursday 20^th March, Screen Seven presents ‘That They May Face The Rising Sun’. Based on the internationally acclaimed Irish author John McGahern’s award winning novel of the same name, ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ is a vivid evocation of nature, humanity and life itself, set in a 1980’s rural community in Ireland. Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to live and work among a small, rural, lakeside community in Ireland near to where Joe grew up in County Leitrim.

On Saturday 22^nd March at Roundhay Parochial Hall, Oakwood Community Cinema will be screening ‘Small Things Like These’. It is 1985 in the run-up to Christmas in County Wexford, Ireland. Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) toils as a coal merchant working to support himself, his wife and his five daughters. Early one morning while out delivering coal at the local convent, he makes a discovery that forces him to confront his past and the complicit silence of a town controlled by the Catholic Church.

This film will be preceded by a short presentation from Ant Hanlon CEO Leeds Irish Health & Homes about the work of the ‘Fréa Renewing Roots’ project, reaching out to former residents of Mother and Baby & County Homes in Ireland, now living in the North of England.

On Thursday 27th March, Northlight Arts Centre will be screening ‘Phil Lynott: The Long Goodbye’. Philip Parris Lynott took the world by storm when he dominated the stage with his most notable rock band Thin Lizzy. The Irish frontman battled his way to the top whilst fighting prejudice. He achieved fame and fortune whilst being a member of the band. Their hit songs such as ‘Whiskey In The Jar’, ‘The Boys are Back’ and many more solidified their names in musical history. Philip was a consistent member of Thin Lizzy and was arguably the driving force for its success. Despite the fame and fortune, Phil found himself heading down a dark path that would ultimately jeopardise his career.

Throughout the month Irish Arts Foundation will be continuing our ongoing work with schools and community groups across Leeds and our Irish educational and cultural exhibition ‘Timeline,’ can be viewed at The Welcome In Community Centre & Café in the Tinshill area of the city.

Christy Herron Irish Arts Foundation ICT Development Officer said ‘Irish History Month 2025 will have a particular focus on an eclectic mix of Irish cinema – a Leeds Irish film festival – across a range of historical and social themes at some of the more unusual venues in the city.’

Organised by the Leeds St Patrick’s Day Committee, the Leeds St Patrick’s Day Parade will take place on Sunday 16th March, leaving Millennium Square at 10.30am. On the same day is also the neighbouring Huddersfield St. Patrick’s Day Parade starting at 1pm at the Open Market.

For further information about Irish History Month events please visit:

https://www.irisharts.org.uk/events.html

All details are correct as of 1st March 2025. Check our Facebook page for any last-minute updates and changes.

https://www.facebook.com/irishartsfoundation

We would like to offer our sincerest gratitude to the National Lottery Community Fund and all our funders, sponsors, and supporters for making the work of the Irish Arts Foundation possible.

https://www.irisharts.org.uk/funders.html