We Built This City uses oral histories recorded in conversations with 35 Irish immigrants, photographs, archive footage and reconstructions to convey the experiences of the Irish immigrant population that flocked to the city to work on building sites, in road construction, on railways and buses, and in hospitals and factories.

A former employee of Birmingham Irish Association Yvonne Price, was a project co-ordinator for the exhibition, she was born in Birmingham to Irish parents who came to the city from Kildare.

The Heritage Lottery-funded project took 12 months to put together, and the exhibition, which opened on 11 March 2017, was extended to run until 4 June 2017 at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Birmingham Irish produced a documentary named 'We Built This City' which is available to watch on YouTube, Click here.

The Birmingham Irish Association website has a dedicated section to this project in which you can read the background and find extracts from stories by contributors. Click here.

Welcome to another Birmingham Irish Association news update

We publish news and project updates keeping you up to date with details regarding our services and events, as well as other local developments and other news that will be of interest to our clients as well as other visitors.