THE EARLY YEARS
In 1850 over 10% of Bradford’s population was made up of native-born
Irish people. The first significant groups of Irish people coming to settle
in Bradford were hand-loom weavers, who brought their skills to be
applied in the newly burgeoning textile industry of the district following
the suppression of the Irish textile industry subsequent to the Act of
Union in 1801.The Great Hunger in Ireland caused by potato blight in
the 1840s saw a much larger influx of people from Ireland. As they came
to the city they joined relatives already here in different districts of
the city – the Nelson Street area, Wapping, Broomfield, Princeville.
These groupings were representative of migrants from different parts
of Ireland. Those who managed to reach Bradford were poor, disease-
ridden, malnourished and ill-educated. They were met with hostility at
every level. They were considered to be potentially subversive, held
in deep distrust and generally excluded from mainstream culture.
They suffered the indignities of reductive stereotyping and prejudicial
discrimination. What sustained them was precisely the very thing that
attracted such disdain on the part of many in the host community –
their difference. What was it that made them different and distinctive?
In the first place their faith – they were Catholic. This was followed
closely by their native cultural traditions; their music, songs, stories
which together with their language afforded a means to express
their identity as Irish. Led by Irish priests, they built churches and
schools to serve their communities across the Bradford district. At
one time in the 1860s, St Patrick’s Church in Westgate was looking
for Irish-speaking priests to hear the confessions of those who had
no English. Within a generation they were producing their own
professional class – teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc. The pattern has
been repeated many times since by other immigrants to the city.
TRANSITIONS
During the period of settlement in Bradford following the Great Hunger
in Ireland, the Irish began to consolidate their presence and sought
to achieve social and economic respectability. Through the education
system they were able to provide for the next generation of Irish, born
in the city and with little direct encounter with Ireland, the means of
establishing themselves as citizens with a stake in the city and its growth.
Very soon their names began to appear in the
roll-call of leaders in the Trade Union movement
and eventually on the City Council. By the mid-
twentieth century the names of the Labour Party’s
front bench at City Hall would read ike those that
could be found in any Irish telephone book.
Culturally, the Irish were very active indeed. Not alone were they
playing their native music, dancing their dances and singing their songs,
but because they were for the most part Catholic, their presence as such
was made evident in customs and practices associated with their faith.
The earliest Irish migrants to Bradford came from the Irish midlands
that had been the location of Ireland’s native textile industry. Laois,
Offaly, North Tipperary with towns like Mountmellick, Maryborough
(Portlaoise), Roscrea and Birr providing Bradford with numbers
of artisans whose skills found ready employment in the city
and so it was for the later arrivals. But many of the men also
sought employment in public works schemes and on construction
sites; while numbers of women sought jobs in service.
Towards the second half of the nineteenth century the campaign for Home
Rule and the Land League movement for a more equitable distribution of
land took off in Ireland. These movements had their support among the
Irish in Britain reflected in the development of social initiatives such as the
Democratic League Clubs inYorkshire and Lancashire. The Irish Democratic
League Club was founded in Bradford adjacent to St Patrick’s Church.
Together with the John Dillon Club and the Michael Davitt
Club in other parts of the city, the IDL as it was known became
an established social centre for recreation and meetings.
With the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that brought an end
to British rule in 26 of Ireland’s counties, there was a shift of
focus within the Irish community and a now serious engagement
with the progression of Irish people within the English context
took the place of Ireland’s domestic politics as a main concern.
At the beginning of the twentieth century then, the consolidation effort
assumedmajor importance andwith the establishment of the two grammar
schools,StJoseph’sCollegeandStBede’sGrammar,theroadtoadvancement
was clear for numbers of second and third generation Irish people.
HERE AND NOW
Today, some 50,000 Bradford people can claim Irish ancestry. Many of the
customs and practices handed down are still around, but are in danger of
disappearing. There is still an element of the ‘plastic paddy’ syndrome
here and there and the 30-year war in the north of Ireland did present
difficulties for Irish people in Britain, but transcending that, some of us are
nowmaking theattempt to revive real traditions that aredistinctively Irish.
The celebration of St Patrick’s Day when we recall the great patron saint
of Ireland responsible for winning the Irish people for Christianity, has
always featured in the lives of the Irish. The old ‘Irish Quarter’ as it was
once known bounded by Grattan Road, City Road, Sunbridge Road and
Westgate has come alivewith people onMarch 17th over the last few years.
It will we hope be even more populated this year on Saturday, March 17th.
Just now, an attempt is being made to re-assert Bradford’s Irish
dimension. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Association of Irish Musicians)
has had a branch in Bradford since 1988 and down the years at what is
now the Irish Club, formerly the IDL, has taught musical instruments
of the tradition and Irish set-dancing as well as the Irish language.
Without a break for the last ten years the weekly radio programme
‘Echoes of Ireland’ has been broadcast on BCB 106.6 FM and online
and now entirely in Irish on the last weekend of the month. We carry
on that cultural tradition handed down to us by our forebears and in
turn hand it on to our children. Our roots in Bradford are nourished
by the love of our heritage and in and through its unique cultural
expression we gladly contribute to the richness of this great city.
Beannacht Dé ar Áth Leathan
Joe Sheeran
(
Dúchas Gaelach Átha Leathan
)
9
