Ep 292 – Black Swan Re-Opens in Luton and the Annual Birmingham Bombing Memorial Service.

In Part 1… We’re in Luton for the re-opening of the Black Swan pub. A syndicate of fourteen friends got together to bring new life into one of the oldest pubs in the area. The pub has a distinctive approach, having an Irish bar and an English bar running side by side.
At a time when so many pubs are closing down, the team have revitalised the old tavern and given it a new lease of life and on the opening night, you’d be hard pushed to squeeze any more people in and plans are in place for it to be the community hub.
With chats from some the syndicate, it proves just how well Anglo Irish projects can work.

In part 2… Every year, the Birmingham bombings of 1974 are commemorated at the Memorial adjacent to New Street Station. The event is organised by Maurice Malone of the Birmingham Irish Association.
On this cold and rainy evening, we pay tribute to those that needlessly lost their lives, hearing a moving tribute from Paul Bridgewater whose father died at the scene, along with his friend in 1974.
Twenty-one people died in an act of terrorism during the height of the Troubles. Six Irishmen were immediately arrested and then sentenced to life imprisonment, but in 1991, their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory, and quashed by the Court of Appeal. Nobody has ever been found guilty of the atrocity.
With contributions from Andy Street, Mayor of West Midlands, Professor Gavin Schaffer, Reverend Canon Dr Mark Pryce, Maureen Slattery-Marsh and Rick Sinclair.
We also talk to Tony McDaid, Birmingham President of the Law Society, about growing up as a second generation Irishman in Birmingham after the bombing.

If you also watch on Sky, we’re now on channel 186… same time, just new channel.
Watch the Irish in the UK every Thursday night at 7.30pm on SKY 186 or Freesat 162. Repeated on Tuesday at 1 pm