Date set for final Friends of the Irish Night of 2022

The next convening of the Friends of the Irish night takes place on Thursday, November 24, with regular hosts Shamrock Street taking to the stage.

The experienced group is comprised of Ged Cuscin on electric fiddle and flute, Kevin Campbell on guitar and mandolin, Martin Finney on percussion, Paul Lucas on mandolin and banjo, and Mick McCormack on guitar.

Friends of the Irish night organiser Eddie Mcintyre: “This will be the final session of 2022.

"We meet on the last Thursday of each month, but people tend to have other commitments between Christmas and New Year so we don’t have a night scheduled for December.”

The Friends of the Irish Night takes place at the Alberta Club in Railway Street, Jarrow, which has been its home for more than a quarter of a century. Admission is free and events get under way at 8.15pm.

The night, however, dates back to 1962 – making it 60 years old this year. It previously took place at the Bede’s Club, moving to the Alberta when the original venue closed.

The Friends of the Irish Night may have been running for some six decades, but South Tyneside, and Jarrow and Hebburn, have been alive with the sounds of music from Ireland for more than a century, thanks to the settlers who came over to work in the heavy industries on the River Tyne.

The Irish workers’ influence on the area is well documented, with the area having been dubbed ‘Little Ireland’ due to the large population of people from Hibernia who came to know Tyneside as home.