St Patrick's Day Community Party 2025

Our community party for St Patrick's Day is the highlight of our year - and this year we had even more to celebrate than usual.

In case you missed it, last month we moved into our very own premises - our first permanent home in our 29 years of service to the the Leeds Irish community.

We were also riding high on the huge success of Fréa's first St Patrick's Day ball in Manchester on Saturday 8 March. The Irish community across the north of England came out in droves to support us, and raised an incredible £57,000 for our three partner charities, Irish Community Care, Irish Community Care Manchester and Leeds Irish Health & Homes (LIHH).

And we were also celebrating some support closer to home. John Hourigan, founder of Allied Plant Ltd, was honoured at our St Patrick's Day community party with a certificate and a speech from Ant Hanlon, LIHH CEO. Since 2018, John has helped raise a staggering £150,000 for LIHH through events as well as corporate and personal donations. We are incredibly grateful for this support and the strength of our Fréa partnership, particularly in these challenging times for the small charity sector.

Speaking of thank yous, we have so many people to thank for helping us organise such a fantastic event.

• Leeds CCE, DJ Tommy K and St Patrick's Primary School for providing the music

• Leeds University Union Irish Dancers for putting on a great show

• Our friends and VIPs Vice Consul Deirdre O'Flaherty from the Consulate General of Ireland in The North of England, John Hourigan and Leeds Jamaica Society

• Our incredible staff and volunteers from Leeds Irish Health & Homes, Leeds Building Society and Sagars

• Lynne Gilboy and team for the fabulous food (and to our very own Christine for feeding our staff and volunteers)

• Karen Rangeley Photography

We hope you enjoy the photos!