About Basingstoke Irish Society

Our Beginnings

Basingstoke Irish Society was established in 1970 by a group of like minded Irish emigrants to foster community spirit within the Irish Community in Basingstoke through social and sporting activities. Over the years this diversified into cultural and education activities to promote Irish Culture and Goodwill among the Irish Community, something which later expanded to promoting the same within the wider community of Fairfields and Basingstoke itself.

The early days of the Society revolved largely around Hurling matches (an Irish Gaelic Sport) and organised dances in a number of different Basingstoke locations, including St Peter’s Hall and St Joesph’s in South Ham, the Carnival Hall adjacent our current premises, Oakley Village Hall and Bishop Challoner School to name just a few.

Throughout the 1970’s the popularity of the Society and their events grew, continuing to do so into the 1980’s when Bolton Lodge, in Norn Hill (since demolished to make way for housing) became a regular meeting point for the Society and it’s members. In 1982 the first three day Irish Festival of music and dance was hosted at the Bolton Lodge Club and became a regular event well into the 1990’s.

January 1990 saw the Society sign a lease agreement with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to become custodians of the disused leisure building in Council Road after many years of lobbying by the late Ken Higgins, the building was renamed The Irish Centre and in turn became The Irish Centre & Fairfields Community Hall in 2022. The building at the time of the agreement didn’t fit the full needs of the Society, having an open first floor balcony overlooking the ground floor leisure hall, lack of dance floor, bar area and general lack of maintenance and decoration. The Society rallied the members and a large group of varied skilled trade volunteers as well as the Committee members set about converting the space, building a bar, infilling the first floor void with a dance floor and constructing a stage.

The Society continued to grow and continue its work through 1990’s and while many of the founding members have since passed, the Society still continues to do its good work to the present day.