The Irish in Birmingham

1960 to 2010

Irish in Birmingham, has been serving the welfare and

cultural needs of the Irish community since 1957. We were

delighted when the Heritage Lottery Fund agreed to fund

our oral history project which we launched in May 2011.

We wanted to explore the childhood memories and

recollections of Irish people, and those with Irish descent,

resident in Birmingham during the five decades of 1960 to

2010. The theme of the decade, with its resonance within

the Irish community informed the process of oral history as

we captured the childhood memories of five people born in

each of the five decades. We were keen to discover how

each decade’s cohort related to their Irish heritage and

what influenced them in their sense of belonging to the

Irish community.

“The project has been a fantastic opportunity to explore

Irish history in the city during the last 50 years through

the personal experience of many people. It has been

a hugely participative and enjoyable project, led by

Michelle Aucott from Irish in Birmingham, that’s involved

superb and committed volunteers, artists, teachers and

most especially those who have shared their personal

histories and memorabilia with us. The project outcomes

will help influence future learning and greatly extend

the archive material of the Irish in Birmingham held by

Birmingham City Council.”

Hugh Tibbits, CEO of Irish in Birmingham

This project has done more than ensure than the collective

memory of the Irish community is preserved for posterity.

It also represents a journey of discovery for the many

volunteers involved. Motivation for joining the project

varied, some were themselves of Irish descent and wanted

to find if their own experiences were shared by others.

Some wanted to ensure that the project went further than

the usual stereotypes “the men on the building sites and

the women all nurses”. Some just wanted to know more

about the community they have lived as part of for many

years “before the people with the stories are gone”. All felt

some trepidation about what they were undertaking and

whether they would be up to the role, the interviewing in

particular. Fears were dissipated though by the training

programme.

“For the volunteers there are many other benefits;

the learning of a new skill, new friends made and the

knowledge that they have been part of the only project

that has tried to examine what binds the Irish community

in Birmingham together. Like the project itself, the impact

on those who volunteered will be positive and long

lasting”

Liz Daw, Volunteer

“I am truly grateful for my opportunity to be a part of

this project. Listening to the stories of Irish immigrants

and their children has been such an indulgence and a

privilege, I have thoroughly enjoyed my explorations into

my Irish heritage, the skills I have developed and the

fabulous people I have met in the process”

Fiona Dunphy, Volunteer

The Autumn of 2011 was occupied by the gathering of

precious memories. The quality of the interviews testifies

to the commitment and ability the volunteers achieved.

However, the volunteers contribution doesn’t stop there.

Many have been closely involved in the development of

the exhibition along with the other main output from this

project, the production of teaching packs which will be

distributed to schools to promote Irish culture.

“Quite simply this project wouldn’t have happened

without the dedication, passion and vision from our

volunteers. English Accent Irish Soul is testament to the

Irish Community for all their hard work, commitment and

integrity . We have been very fortunate to capture some

fantastic memories. We will now finally have on record

the contribution that both Irish and Irish decent people

have made to the city of Birmingham, which will be

stored for future generations to hear. “

Michelle Aucott, Project Coordinator, Irish In Birmingham

This project has been produced and delivered by Irish In Birmingham and funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund

1

‘English Accent, Irish Soul’ is an exhibition in which I find

myself acting as both a participant and a proud champion.

When asked to record my experiences of growing up in an

Irish household in East Birmingham I jumped at the chance.

As I let loose with details of drinking fizzy pop in the corner

of now long-closed Irish clubs or standing shivering on the

sidelines of Glebe Farm watching grown men try to hit each

other with sticks, I realised that relatively little attention had

been paid to the shared experiences of the children of Irish

immigrants.

What I knew from the outset was that my experiences

wouldn’t be unique. That anyone who had been part of

an Irish family had experienced that moment when you’re

being asked to shush as some auld fella from some obscure

branch of your family starts to sing a mournful ballad from

the homeland. Like many from my generation Irish culture,

and religion, played a central part in our experience. From

Irish dancing to altar serving to Hurling, at some point

we’ve all been either reluctant participants or enthusiastic

advocates.

Admittedly, I was at the ‘reluctant participant’ end of the

scale and as much as possible tried to assimilate myself

into what we might call a ‘Birmingham’ culture only to find

that there was no such thing, for this is a City shaped by

the diversity of its citizens, Irish foremost amongst them.

This exhibition certainly has the city experience at its heart.

From memories of the clubs and pubs where we had our

first drink to the fear and worry caused by events such as

the Pub Bombings. From the annual celebration of our

heritage with the St Patrick’s Day Parade to the civic pride

we felt when the now-gone JFK memorial was erected.

Whatever decade the participants in this project are

from, it’s clear they share a feeling of protectiveness for

the cultural and economic legacy of their community. The

labour our parents did – as railways workers, builders,

bus drivers, factory workers, cleaners – goes some way

to define the class we associate ourselves with. For the

experience of the Irish in Birmingham has been largely a

working class experience. Many of the generation I am part

of may well find themselves in the professions but we rarely

shy away from an excuse to tell of the camaraderie we felt

as members of the extended Irish in Birmingham family.

During my teenage years, much to amusement of my

English friends, I would always refer to the annual trip back

to North East Galway to visit friends and relatives as ‘going

home’, just as my mother still does today. It’s a habit I find

hard to break. I hope like me you’ll find this exhibition brings

memories of ‘home’ flooding back and along the way helps

you reflect on what it means to belong to one of the most

vibrant communities we have in this city.

Dave Harte

Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications,

Birmingham City University

2

Helen

Sweeting

Helen SweetingI am a photographic artist from the West Midlands. Within

my practice I explore ongoing themes relating to the

intrinsic relationship between people and their surrounding

environments; how people’s treasured memories are

connected to places and how the identities of individuals

can be seen through the spaces they inhabit. My resulting

work is often a combination of both photography and sound

bites.

Within this project I was commissioned to create a

contemporary study of people of Irish heritage within

Birmingham, in response to the interviews recorded for the

Irish Oral History Project ‘Irish in Birmingham 1960 – 2010’.

I was attracted to work on this project because it offered the

ideal opportunity to combine the underlying themes and

interests of my practice, whilst also engaging with many

members of the local community, which I so enjoy doing.

I began by listening to the interviews. As you will hear in

the exhibition, they are reminiscences of childhood over

five different decades; memories of dancing classes and

competitions, recollections of having lodgers to stay in the

family home, as well as memories of keepsakes adorning

the walls of their childhood sitting rooms. Significant

religious events are also remembered, such as First

Holy Communion, with individuals fondly recalling details

from this special day, such as wearing white shoes for

the first time. Collectively the sound bites reflect many

individual’s real sense of belonging to the community. I

decided to explore and reflect upon these inter-connecting

recollections and began by approaching people from within

the community; including dance teachers, religious figures,

parishioners and proprietors of local public houses.

This soon led to making connections with people from

many different walks of life and I began to take photographs.

I found myself attending social events, clubs for retirees,

Irish Dancing classes, as well as enjoying traditional music

nights in Digbeth and being invited into a number of local

residents’ homes. On one occasion I began discussing

the project with a lady in a car-park and she very kindly

invited me to her home that afternoon to take photographs.

Photographing in people’s homes, I focused upon the

everyday objects we all have in our own personal spaces;

these are often overlooked as they become so familiar over

time, but so often they offer an intriguing reflection of a

person and their history to the outside viewer.

The further into the project I progressed, the more I

discovered connections between the people I had already

met and often one person would lead naturally on to

another. When photographing one couple’s home they told

me of a friend who had a ‘glowing Sacred Heart’, which had

been mentioned by many different people but had been

6

7

elusive to me until this point. They were happy for me to

visit that evening so I drove to the other side of the city and

they welcomed me in. We sat in their kitchen and chatted

about family life before I photographed their ‘glowing

Sacred Heart’, dated 1968 and hung high upon the sitting

room wall; they told me that the bulb illuminating their

Sacred Heart always remains switched on, even when they

go on holiday and rarely needs replacing. I often find my

work progresses like this, I rely on people’s generosity of

spirit and willingness to talk and spend time with me and

this often leads to the most telling images.

In my work my photographs refer to the many influences

people have upon their surrounding environment but rarely

feature people directly or individually. As a project about

a close-knit community and its collective experiences,

I was excited by the notion of portraying their memories

through my style of working; of creating photographs

mainly devoid of portraiture. First Holy Communion was

a strong theme within the sound-bites and I spent some

time thinking about how to represent this and create a

sense of reminiscence without it becoming directly about

an individual, the resulting image is featured here in the

exhibition and also as part of a triptych with the 48Sheet

billboard project, exhibited throughout the city.

I myself am an outside viewer and the resulting photographs

are my interpretations and reflections of the intimate spaces

and personal day-to-day experiences of the Birmingham

Irish Community. My aim is to share these glimpses into

the Birmingham Irish culture and its unique heritage within

the city, and to engage the viewer in both the visual and

oral testimonies featured within the exhibition.

helensweeting@hotmail.co.uk

Helen

Sweeting

Helen

Sweeting

“When we were practising for first holy communion, the priest gave us some practice bread and when we tasted it I said to my friend, this tastes like cardboard and everyone was going urggh like this because they didn’t like it and we said we hope it doesn’t taste like this in the future. And they had to give you a communion prayer and after you had to go to either Mary on that side or Jesus on the other so you got a Hail Mary or an Our Father and then you had to light a candle either under the big statue of Mary or Jesus and they do it because Jesus is the light of the world and that’s why they do it.”

13

Holy Communion

“I grew up in a Lodging house, my dad was in a

poorly paid factory job and my mother had the joy

of being the landlady of the lodging house so as

I grew up obviously I was moms little helper, my

brother and sister came along subsequently after,

so I was the main take the dinner into the lads

bring the dishes out, all of the lads that came to

the house were I would say were 100% Irish so

I got to meet a lot of lads from different counties.

They all went predominately into the building sites

around Birmingham, a few of the lads went into the

factories, British Steel and Dunlop as it was then.

We did that for a number of years.”

Lodging

14

Lodging

“It was fabulous where we used to stay more at my mom’s parents, they stayed over there and they had a big bungalow and it was a very small town then and that was just amazing we had so many friends to play with and I used to be quite upset when we had to come back to England again because I felt like I was at home and granny would have the chickens outside and it would be very kind of countrified and you know you get to know all of the neighbours and I remember walking up to the village and getting the water from the old water fountain and we would come back home and my uncle who lived with my grandparents, he would make bicycles and we would jump on the bicycles and go down the lanes and play in the haystacks, yeah, they were happy times”

Summer Holidays

17

“We would all pack up and go off to Ireland, get the train up to Holyhead, get on the ferry, I think my uncle used to come up and meet us and take us back down to my grandparents. We used to go back to my mom’s home place and we would be there for the six weeks and we just used to absolutely love it. You asked earlier about how you felt you were Irish when you were younger and that was one way because you would like go back to school and people would be talking about the holidays and they might have had two weeks in France which was exotic and you would say you had been in Ireland for six weeks or seven weeks I am sure the holidays were longer then.”

19

“Like many Irish households we had a JFK picture, had to have a JFK picture every house we went into on our holidays in Ireland had a JFK picture. So you knew the JFK story very early on in your life, as a person of Irish descent growing up, you knew full well who he was and what happened so happening on a big memorial of him, yeah I can understand that, people wanting to celebrate his life because he meant something to the Irish community.”

Irishman’sHero

21

“From then onwards if we weren’t dancing

we were singing and Ann King would come

around on a Friday evening and say there’s

a feis, which is a dancing competition, in

Manchester tomorrow can I take the girls

and my mom would say I can’t afford it I

haven’t got the money and somehow the

dancing teacher would provide the taxi or

the train fare but we always used to go and

we’d go to Manchester or Cardiff to dance

in these competitions and we’d have no

money for hotels we never stayed in hotels

then, it was a case of someone standing

up in the hall and saying we have a group

of children here from Birmingham who can

put a couple up. when you think about it, it

was really unsafe because we were going

into houses where we didn’t know the

people but nothing ever happened to

us we were well fed and looked after.”

22

23

DancingandMusic

“Mom & Dad were really heavily involved

with the Mayo association when it was

run in the Irish Centre. So I remember

like nights going down on a Sunday

evening after mass in St Anne’s or in

English Martyrs and then go down to the

Irish Centre, I think mom was the Treasurer

at the meetings and they would go in and

have all their Mayo association meetings

and me and Darren would be sitting out in

the bar like with crisps and some cordial

and you’d be allowed to have a few goes

on the machine but you weren’t going

to get too many more goes on the fruit

machine because we weren’t made of

money as they used to say.”

PopandCrisps

25

10

27

“Of course the St. Patrick’s Day parades in Birmingham were fantastic and still are they are just an amazing day out really, it’s where everyone Irish, English any nationality, any culture, meet up and just celebrate the day really you don’t have to be Irish you just have to enjoy the craic really I suppose as they say, so every March, that is fantastic I look forward to it, just a great day out I was always involved with playing music on floats, I played for bands, for irish dancers, competitions and stuff over the years so I was always involved with the parade rather than at the side of the street watching it, so as far back as I can remember, I can’t remember what year it restarted, I was involved in it, it’s just an amazing day, it really is, it just gets bigger and bigger and better and better and is probably one of the favourite times of the year where everyone comes out of the woodwork to be Irish.”

St PatricksDay

Project team

Michelle Aucott at

Irish in Birmingham,

Maurice Malone at

Irish in Birmingham,

Izzy Mohammed at

Birmingham City Council

Archives & Heritage,

Claire Farrell at EC Arts,

Sarah Nokes – EC Arts,

Ian Richards at Heavy Object,

Helen Sweeting – Artist.

Special thanks:

Dave Harte,

Gary Wood.

Interviewees

60’s

Mike O’Dwyer,

Eileen Sullivan,

Jim Foley,

Kevin Hayes,

Patricia Hayward,

Mary Nelson,

Carole Scanlon,

Patricia Riley,

Patricia Wright,

Marion Healy,

George Healy.

70’s

Dave Harte,

Annette Duffy,

Maria Millar,

Sean Reilly,

Gerry Creegan,

Colin Keogh,

Loraine O’Rourke.

80’s

Patricia Corrigan Reilly,

Mark McCabe,

Maria Cleary,

Iestyn Williams,

Kate Barry,

Amy Dixon,

Daniel O’Connor.

90’s

Daniel Green,

Kirsty Donovan,

Shannon Hynes,

Liam Jordan,

Niamh O’Brien.

2010

Saoirse Reilly,

Caoimhe Reilly,

Pupils from St Brigid’s RC

Junior and Infant School

Northfield:

Joseph Smith,

Michael Smith,

Mary Ellen Brennan,

Aoife Harley,

Orla Harley,

Bronagh Harley,

Mia Lynskey,

Patrick Minihane.

Interviewers

Liz Daw,

Fiona Dunphy,

Anthony Foley,

Margaret Farrell,

Elizabeth Barker.

Transcribers

Carmel Moffitt,

Jackie McDonald,

Patricia Riley.

Technical Advisors

Dave Harte,

Clive Duncan,

Mykal Brown,

Don Aucott,

Deidre Duignan,

Special thanks to Anthony

Foley, Clive Duncan, Mykal

Brown at South Birmingham

College.

Embroiderers

Bernadette Aucott

Sanj Kavanagh,

Helen Ludlow,

Dawn Williams ,

Eileen Simons at South

Birmingham College,

Carmen Burkett at South

Birmingham College,

Fiona Dunphy.

Special thanks to the

following for assisting with

this project in a variety

of different ways:

Mike Hopkins at South

Birmingham College,

Clare Haines at Heritage

Lottery Fund,

The Custard Factory,

Mary McGarry,

Michael & Anne Collins,

John & Ellen McGeoghegan,

Jim Ranaghan,

Dave Harte,

Gabrielle Scanlon,

Tessa Woodall & Kylie Morris,

Jonathan Reynolds

Rachel O’Brien,,

Anna-Maria McAuliffe,

Catherine Sullivan,

Anna Walsh,

Derek McDonagh and staff

at the Burlington Hotel,

John & Anne Tighe, proprietors

of ‘The Spotted Dog’,

Vince Jordan and musicians

from the Monday Night

Traditional Irish Music

Sessions, at ‘The Spotted Dog’,

Carole Scanlon,

Tricia Scanlon and students

from ‘Scanlon School of

Irish Dancing’,

Eddie Fitzpatrick, proprietor of

‘The Lamp Tavern’,

Marian Healy, proprietor of

‘The Old Crown’,

Very Rev Canon

Patrick Browne,

Parish of St Anne, in the

Archdiocese of Birmingham,

John McGuiggan,

Sister Mary Joseph

Sister Sabina,

Sister Teresa and all members

of The Tuesday Club,

Rose Mockler,

Anne Hollywood,

Rita Thewlis,

Management of the

‘Irish Centre Birmingham’,

Keith Sweeney and players

from ‘Sean McDermott’s Gaelic

Football Club’,

Rebecca Coogan at St Brigid’s

RC Junior and Infant School,

Maria Cleary at St Brigid’s RC

Junior and Infant School.

Extra special thanks to

Liz Daw and Fiona Dunphy,

thank you for making this

project everything it should

be.

This project has been produced and delivered by Irish In Birmingham and funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund

Irish In BirminghamSt Anne’s Parish CentreAlcester StreetDeritendBirmingham B12 0PH

T: 0121 604 6111F: 0121 604 6662E: info@irishinbirmingham.com