Watercolor

( Dúchas Gaelach Átha Leathan )

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

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