There will be a Celtic fizz in the air when storyteller, writer and historian, David Charters returns by public demand to St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, on St. Patrick’s night.

The man, affectionately known as the Bard of Birkenhead, will be giving his second talk in the series – Mysteries on the Other Side: Wirral the Enchanted Peninsula.

This follows the success of his first Wirral talk in the concert room at St. George’s Hall on January 21st.

“My main ambition is to unite people on both sides of the Mersey in celebration of Wirral and some of its wonderful stories,” said David. “In deference to the spirit of the shamrock, I will be telling of the well where Ireland’s great Patron Saint quenched his thirst – and there will be other tales about Irish contributions to Wirral but there will also be much to satisfy the souls of the English, Welsh and Scots.

It will be a grand old mix and we might even have a song or two, so have a gargle before you come,” added David, who was for 25 years a columnist on the old Liverpool Daily Post and now writes the Bard of Birkenhead column, which appears every Tuesday in the Wirral edition of the Liverpool ECHO.

Some of the stories will be sad, others funny. All will be in praise of the peninsula he loves.

Joining the parade of people, in addition to St. Patrick, will be the great Welsh poet of Birkenhead Park, the young Irish writer who headed for Birkenhead and ended up in Borstal, the world’s greatest railway engineer, the superb actress who lost her theatre, the wise priest and the folk singer who met our Barnacle Bill, as well as the pop singer, who didn’t make a fortune.

There will be tributes to the diggers who died joining the banks of our river and to the little known heroes of a terrible dock disaster. Talking of digging, David will also speak of the peninsula’s forgotten mining community.

Last year, David, who lives in Birkenhead, was made an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for services to writing and communications.

Other presentations he has given at St. George’s Hall include his play, A Dream of Wilfred Owen, and his talk on the American Indian wars, Ghosts in the American Dream.

The second Mysteries on the Other Side starts at 7pm on March 17th in the Concert Room at St. George’s Hall. Admission is £5 on the door.