Friends of the Irish Night returns to Jarrow for January 2023

The Friends of the Irish Night is back for 2023, with its first installment taking place on Thursday, January 26, with regular hosts Shamrock Street, described as ‘one of the liveliest Irish party bands’ in the North East, 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.

There will also be additional performances from floor singers.

Friends of the Irish night organiser Eddie Mcintyre said: “Shamrock Street will once again be performing, fresh from their Yuletide tour of Midlothian.

"Floor singers are also a very popular part of the Friends of the Irish Night, and last year there were an average of nine floor singers each month.”

The Friends of the Irish Night takes place on the last Thursday of each month at the Alberta Club in Jarrow.

There is no cover charge for the event at the venue, in Railway Street, admission is free, with proceedings getting under way at 8.15pm.

January’s event will be the first for two months, as the event did not take place in December owing to it falling withing the festive period.

The Friends of Irish Night is one of South Tyneside’s longest-running regular events, dating back to 1962.

The event originally took place at the Bede’s Club, but moved to its ‘new’ home at the Alberta Club more than 25 years ago, with the new hosts promising organisers at the time ‘we will look after you’.

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.