TICKETS have been sold for only half the 1,600 seats at tomorrow's Famine commemoration concert in Liverpool. The leaders of the city's Irish Centre say this is mainly because the local Irish community has been virtually excluded from the preparations.
The event at the Liverpool Philharmonic venue features Charlie Lennon's extended suite of his acclaimed Flight from the Hungry Land. It is being hosted by the Minister of State, Ms Avril Doyle. The British ambassador to Ireland, Ms Veronica Sutherland, and the Irish ambassador, Mr Edward Barrington, are expected to attend the concert, which features Ireland's latest Eurovision Song Contest winner, Ms Emer Quinn.
It is being hailed as the precursor to an international tour next spring, which starts in Boston. According to Ms Doyle, Liverpool was chosen to launch the programme because the Government wants to acknowledge the city's historical role in the Famine, when more than one million Irish emigrants passed through its port, while many settled there.
Ms Sheila Coleman, chairwoman of the Irish Centre, explained: "We are very angry, as our members are the real descendants of the people forced to flee Ireland. We were asked to help when it was first suggested but have been ignored in the months that followed. We are upset, as this centre should have played a major role in supporting the concert, which we were all looking forward to."
Ms Alice Kearney, who has helped organise the show from the Famine Commemoration Office in Dublin, admitted that there may have been an oversight by not involving the Irish Centre in Liverpool. "We are sorry that the Irish Centre and its thousands of members feel excluded. We have spoken to them and apologised, but they say it is now too late to rally the population. We regret any offence that has been caused."