Tomorrow is St David’s Day, and while the celebrations may be a little bit more low key than the Irish equivalent, there are plenty of reasons why the city should mark the great event.
And the Sunday ECHO has looked into why we should think about proudling sporting a daffodil for the day.
The physical closeness of the city to the Welsh border has given connections dating back more than 500 years, with several Welsh communities here and many Liverpudlians moving to live - or at least holiday - in North Wales in particular.
And there’s no mistaking the influence of Scouse accent in many north Wales towns.
But other than geography, why do Liverpool and Wales have such ties - from Welsh streets, to choirs, churches and more than a few very decent footballers?
Areas like Anfield, Walton, and Vauxhall have all shown a Welsh influence, with terraced street names like Denbigh Road, Snowdon Lane and Barmouth Way, but it’s the Welsh Streets in Toxteth which offer the most obvious historical link. The 16 streets - including Ringo Starr’s birthplace Madryn Street - were all given their names because they were built by Welsh workers at the end of the 19th century.
Back in the early 1500s, Liverpool had a Welsh mayor and between then and the late 19th century thousands made the move from Wales, many to find work on the docks. Figures in the early 1800s showed around 8,000 Welsh people living here, but that number had increased to more like 50,000 by the end of the century.
With communities across the city, Welsh was the favoured language spoken in some areas and there were even Welsh language newspapers.
Welsh singers also made their voices heard. The Welsh Choral Union was created in 1900, with the merging of choirs from chapels around Merseyside, to perform at the National Eisteddfod which was held in Liverpool that year. and in 1884 and 1929.
Liverpool’s Welsh population started to drop during WWII, and continued to fall through the 50s and 60s, but familiar links remained. Owen Owen department store was owned by a Welsh family who began with a draper’s shop on London Road.
Both football teams have featured Welsh international players. At Anfield, John Toshack and Ian Rush became legends, while Dean Saunders and Craig Bellamy found the net countless times in red. Across the park, Everton captain Kevin Ratcliffe - who skippered the Blues to their European Cup-Winners’ Cup win, two League titles and two more FA Cup Finals - won 58 caps for Wales, while big Neville Southall and Dai Davies became fan favourites in goal for the Blues and their country.
