Britain’s second city is teeming with multicultural energy that’s long enriched its streets and scenes. Inviting people from around the world to help establish and grow the city has only emboldened Birmingham to become the powerhouse that it is today, with one of its enduring sources of immigration being Ireland.
People born on the Emerald Isle began flooding into the city from the mid-1800s through to the mid-1990s and onwards. Now, there’s a distinct Irish infusion that endures in the local culture. We can see it across events, locations, and the evolution of locally-formed entertainment, much of which still ties back to Ireland.
In celebration of this distinct facet of the Brummy community, we’re checking out the influence of the Emerald Isle on the city and how Birmingham and Ireland continue to hold strong cultural ties.
Diaspora in Digbeth Forming the Irish Quarter
Irish people have been coming to this side of the British Isles for centuries. For people in Ireland looking for work, the closer cities of Liverpool and Birmingham often proved preferable to the trek to London. During the famine of the mid-1800s, Irish immigrants came to Birmingham in waves to find better opportunities for themselves.
Later, in the 1940s and 1950s, with Birmingham in need of redevelopment and the population having taken quite the hit, the Irish were welcomed in droves. It was at this point that Birmingham truly became a hub for the Irish diaspora, and particularly in Digbeth. It’s because of this that, since 1952, the city has held among the biggest parades for St Patrick’s Day in the world – although the latest, scheduled for 16th March 2025, was postponed indefinitely.
With around 80,000 people across Birmingham and the UK arriving for the festival annually, it’s said that the parade had for the longest time stood as the third-largest in the world, trailing only Dublin and New York. The parade’s certainly the largest in the UK. In 2024, the 50th edition of the event started in 1952 took place, and in 2025, with the parade not viable, Digbeth instead held a grand festival featuring language classes and a green tie ball.
Irish Foundations for Entertainment
The acts and Birmingham’s entertainment scene around the Irish quarter have continued to evolve, following the trend of Irish culture and entertainment, in general, continuing to develop and being increasingly embraced by purveyors of modern media. For instance, Irish slots are among the most popular in the iGaming sector today thanks to the many instantly recognisable cultural symbols available to developers, such as charms, mythical creatures, and the Irish countryside.
You can now see it in games like Emerald Frenzy, Irish Lucky, and Rainbow Jackpots, all of which boast a strong player base. This is no new phenomenon, either, having been this way since the culture was first found in online casinos in the 1990s. It’s a display of how Irish culture and its influence on entertainment has long been able to evolve with new settings and trends, both in Ireland and on other platforms available in Birmingham.
Of course, the greatest Irish performers of Birmingham’s decorated entertainment scene do hail back to the classic Irish themes. Folk singer Luke Kelly’s musical beginnings were formed in Birmingham, and he went on to form The Dubliners, which was later joined by now-legendary composer John Sheahan. Now, the likes of Cleary’s Scruffy Murphy’s and Nortons Digbeth remain hotspots for Irish talents riding the trends of modern music.
Ireland has contributed a great deal to the ever-bustling, multicultural city of Birmingham, and even when the centrepiece celebration of the Irish calendar can’t be held in full, Digbeth’s on hand to amp up the festivities.