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Pererin Wyf #5 Catherine Dunne ‘The Irish in London: An Unconsidered People’

Pererin Wyf / Is Oilithreach Mé / I am a Pilgrim is a participatory arts project seeking to connect with the Welsh and Irish diaspora with particular reference to Pembrokeshire and Wexford and a new cross-border pilgrimage connecting these places. The project takes its title and inspiration from an 18th century hymn by the prolific Welsh writer William Williams Pantycelyn. 

The fifth session of Pererin Wyf / Is Oilithreach Mé / I am a Pilgrim took place on the 24th November when author Catherine Dunne shared her decades long research project The Irish in London: An Unconsidered People. On a ferry crossing in 1986 Dunne fell into conversation with a woman who had left Ireland in the 1950s. She spoke of loneliness and the grief of the reluctant emigrant. That conversation led to hundreds more taking place in kitchens, and Irish centres and cafés, a series of interviews exploring the texture of daily lives lived in London, an unfamiliar city resulting in Dunne’s book length study. 

Pererin Wyf has been commissioned by the Ancient Connections Project led by Pembrokeshire County Council with partners Wexford County Council, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and Visit Wexford. It is funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Co-operation Programme.

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