A free app (for Apple and Android) is now available offering a self-guided, one hour walking tour highlighting the city of Sydney’s rich Irish heritage.

Twelve destinations are covered in the sixty minute tour. Historical moments are frozen in time including The Irish Famine memorial in the Hyde Park Barracks which commemorated the dislocation of the Irish community by famine and emigration plus the St Patrick’s Day Riot, which took place in Hyde Park in 1878. The tour can be walked in 1 hour or broken into two, half hour walks. Each tour is simple to follow with a GPS-enabled map of the route and its stops. Detailed text, audio commentary and stunning historical imagery reveal the stories of the Irish characters, events and architecture that have transformed the city of Sydney.

The app content has been developed by staff at the Dictionary of Sydney. The tour contains over 40 images (historical and contemporary) and 13 audio recordings written and narrated by local Irish actors Aine de Paor and Maeliosa Stafford. Members of the Aisling Society contributed to the historical content of the app and one of the sites included in the tour is Pfahlert’s Hotel in Margaret Street, where the Aisling Society was established in 1954. Alas, the pub is no more, having been demolished in the 1960s.

The app has been funded by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Program. “I am really delighted that the new Irish Walking Tour app will be launched during the Sydney St Patrick’s Festival this year” said Caitriona Ingoldsby Consul General of Ireland in Sydney. “I am also very pleased that the creation of the app has been funded by a grant from the Irish government’s Emigrant Support Programme. Our aim is that, through this app, more people will become aware of the very strong Irish heritage and history of this wonderful city.”

Download the app from – trust.dictionaryofsydney.org/projects/old-irish-syd-walk