Liverpool Communities - Irish

 

A 'Coffin Ship'

 

Liverpool s widely known for having the strongest Irish heritage of any UK city - perhaps alongside Glasgow and is often dubbed the 'second capital of Ireland' because of its large Irish émigré population. Liverpool’s history is built on the back of immigrants and refugees who have helped build the incredible city that stands today. Although the historic Irish immigrants to Liverpool were not, strictly-speaking, refugees, many of those who arrived in this city came to our shores because of economic or political strife at home, such as the 1798 Rebellion. Facing severe poverty and even starvation they are a perfect representation of how migrants and refugees from all over the world can shape and improve our cities for the better. Although many pin the influx of Irish to Liverpool from the Great Famine of the 1840s, prior to this, there was already an established Irish community here. Liverpool had long been a staging post for Irish migrants travelling to North America and contributed to around 17% of the population of Liverpool even then, with roughly 49,000 Irish migrants already living in Liverpool by 1841. By the 1930s there had been a substantial Irish community in Liverpool for over a hundred years. Irish immigration into Liverpool had grown steadily from the 1790s expanding rapidly with the onset of famine in Ireland in the 1840s. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, years of economic depression, there was a renewed wave of Irish migration to Britain in general, and to Liverpool in particular, as migration into the United States was choked off, and between 1927 and 1929, 18,000 Irish had come to Liverpool. Relations between the Irish community, largely Catholic, poor and unskilled, had been notoriously difficult in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the history of the city was scarred by incidents of sectarian violence. The increase in migration in the 1930s was accompanied by growing tension between the majority of people and the Irish community. An article of 1931 in the paper 'The Liverpool Review' reported that the influx of Irish immigrants was causing "grave injury… to the prosperity of Merseyside and to its population." Job opportunities in the city were scarce and Irish immigrants took heavy low-pay labouring jobs on the docks or in the processing and refining plants that surrounded the waterfront. For Irish women work was even harder to find as many locals were reluctant to employ Irish women as domestic servants, often advertising for roles with the caveat ‘No Irish Need Apply'. Many of the fears that dominated popular opinion about the Irish in Liverpool in the 1930s was when the city, dependent on the trade of the port, suffered greatly and Irish migration into Liverpool was increasing. Claims were made that the Irish came for the dole offered by public assistance and others that, if they did not come for the dole, they came to take jobs which should have gone to local English people and would in time exercise political control of the city. In 1936 it was believed that 87% of the average amount of public assistance distributed in Liverpool in three recent years had been spent on people of Irish extraction, some of them born in Liverpool plus others who had recently arrived. The Irish population in Liverpool concentrated near the docks kept to themselves and mixed marriages were discouraged and it was alleged Irish gangers were using their influence to give work to newly arrived immigrants in preference to resident English workers. Irish-speaking districts at this time were around Crosbie Street (now the Baltic Triangle) in the south and around Lace Street in the north.

 

When the Irish potato famine began in 1845, an estimated 1.5 million desperate people crossed the Irish Sea in what were called 'coffin ships' as often, by the time they arrived in Liverpool, a third of passengers had succumbed to disease and hunger. While a large amount escaping the famine went on to Canada and North America after stopping shortly in Liverpool, many eventually stayed, gravitating to the already established Irish communities such as around St Anthony’s Church on Scotland Road where there was a large Italian community, and the already established Irish enclaves in the south end area of Park Road, Park Lane and St James Street and in the north end area of Vauxhall, Scotland, Everton and Exchange. During the Famine years though, more than 1.5 million Irish people came to Liverpool (for comparison, that's around 400,000 more people than the entire population of Cyprus). The influx of Irish migrants into Liverpool faced harsh prejudices from local Liverpudlians fearing that they would exercise significant political control over the city by voting in Irish representatives. In Liverpool in 1847 there were 35,000 people, mainly Irish, living in cellars in the Vauxhall and Scotland Road areas while some 5,341 inhabited cellars described as 'wells of stagnant water'. Typhus, dysentery and cholera were rife. Known for having a large number of Irish-Catholic residents, the Liverpool Scotland UK Parliament constituency was represented by an Irish Nationalist MP for 44 years until 1929, becoming the first and only constituency outside of Ireland to continually vote for an Irish nationalist. During the same period there was a large Irish nationalist party in Liverpool City Council. The most famous was 'Dandy' Pat Byrne, a publican, 'The King of Scotland Road'. The Irish became heavily involved in the dock construction on the Mersey, eventually becoming employed as stevedores on the vessels, as quay porters, sailors and ship's firemen and by the early 1870s, 2500 Irish held positions as Stevedores, Master Porters and Warehousemen. Many of the jobs held by the Irish on the Liverpool docks were labor intensive with a significant risk of injury. The growing Irish community in the twentieth century gradually began to establish its own cultural centres and associations. In particular, a number of organisations and venues in the city gave support to Irish music and dance. From the 1930s onwards various venues and parish clubs hosted regular céilí nights. One such popular draw for young people within the Irish community was the Shamrock Club on Lime Street which opened in the late 1940s and held weekend céilís and dances. In 1964 a dedicated Irish Centre opened on Mount Pleasant which became a base for Irish dance classes, the highly successful Liverpool Céilí Band and the Comhaltas Céoltoirí Eireann branch. Such was the strength of music and dance in the city that the Liverpool Céilí Band went on to win the All Ireland competition in 1963 and 1964 and later released two albums for the Decca label, 'Champions Twice' (1965) and 'We're off to Dublin' (1966).

Free 'Live Irish music at The Caledonia pub on Caledonia Street.

 "If you're Irish come into the parlor,
There's a welcome there for you;
If your name is Timothy or Pat,
So long as you come from Ireland,
There's a welcome on the mat".

You can find Liverpool's memorial to the victims of 'The Great Famine' at The Church of St. Luke, 'The Bombed Out Church', as it's known. Today, an estimated 75% of Liverpool’s population have some Irish ancestry. They've played a major role in our city, from helping name our streets to building some of the most iconic landmarks in Liverpool. Michael James Whitty, born in Wexford, Ireland in 1795,  founded the Liverpool police force in 1833. He later founded the Liverpool Fire Service, and went on to start up his own newspaper, the Daily Post, sister paper to the Liverpool Echo in 1855. Alhough many became vulnerable to exploitation due to their lack of finance, many workers were to eventually become an integral part of Liverpool’s progress over the next century, whether they knew it at the time or not. They have contributed to Liverpool’s success in football, culture and music (three out of four Beatles had an Irish grandparent and John Lennon bought a home there). Liverpool today still very much feels like an Irish city as when you walk through the City Centre you will find dozens of Irish bars playing traditional Irish music and serving up traditional Irish food and beverages.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/03/liverpool-communities-black-african.html