THE importance of Liverpool's Welsh heritage will be celebrated at a new exhibition launched today.
The city's Irish links are well-documented, but the Welsh also came to Liverpool in their thousands.
The Eloquent Suitcase exhibition is the result of a year-long initiative by Liverpool Community Spirit whose members have interviewed almost 100 people either with Welsh roots, or those who live in the city's Welsh streets.
Their stories are told through a new book, Welsh Roots/Welsh Routes, and the exhibition produced in partnership with Welsh photo-grapher and designer Phil Cope and composer Andrew Griffiths.
It was being launched in the 08 Shop in Whitechapel today.
Matthew Thompson, co-ordinator of Liverpool Community Spirit, said: "It provides powerful inspiration to all who reallycare about the future of our city's community roots."
The Welsh have been part of the history and development of Liverpool for centuries, and at one stage it was called the Capital of North Wales. Many came to the city to work in the docks.
The Welsh Presbyterian church in Toxteth, opened in 1868, reflected the success of the 19th century Welsh community and was known as the Welsh cathedral.
At the start of the last century Liverpool, Bootle and Crosby had a larger Welsh speaking presence than Cardiff, Wrexham or Newport and some of the largest Welsh non conformist chapels anywhere in the UK.
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Many Welsh people lived in the Everton and Toxteth areas in what have been dubbed the 'Welsh Streets'.
Patagonian girl learned English as newly-wed
ELAN Jones only learned to speak English as a newly-wed in Liverpool.
The grandmother has lived in the city for 50 years with husband Richard.
But her roots lie neither in Liverpool nor in Wales, but in South America.
Mrs Jones's great-grandfather was one of the earliest Welsh settlers in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina.
He preceded even the SS Mimosa, which in 1865 sailed from Liverpool with more than 150 Welsh migrants bound for a new life in Latin America.
They helped establish a Welsh settlement which has survived to this day.
Former nurse Mrs Jones, 80, from Mossley Hill, said: "People wanted their independence and a place for the Welsh.
"I was born in Tirhalen, which means salty land. We had a farm with cattle, and alfalfa grass which grew 3ft tall. My first language is Welsh and my second Spanish."
Mrs Jones was working as a nurse in Buenos Aires when she had the chance to travel to Wales half-a-century ago.
There she met her future husband and they have lived in Liverpool since October 1956.
She said: "I've been back to Argentina a few times and it's changed like anywhere else.
"We speak Welsh at home here - you don't forget your Welsh heritage."
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