1955 - 1990 contributed by
Frank Horan
Why did I decide to come
to England as opposed to America, Australia or further a
field? A lot of people I grew up with had already come to
England, because England was close to hand. There were
lots of brothers, sisters and cousins there, to form
contacts and find jobs. Also it wasn't final, you could go
back if you wanted to. There wasn't an air of finality
about it. You half convinced yourself that this was a
temporary move.
...
The vibes coming from England were positive. Loads of
money to be made on the building sites and factories
there, we were told. So why hang about in this land of
no hope. ...
I came to England in
1955. Along the West coast of Ireland there was an air of
hopelessness in the fifties.
The vibes coming from
England were positive. Loads of money to be made on the
building sites and factories there, we were told. So why
hang about in this land of no hope. Emigration seemed to
be the only solution and many thousands of Ireland's youth
took the emigrant boat, for what they hoped would be a
better life beyond the sea.
You arrived with damn all
in your pocket, but it was expected that you'd send money
home when you started to earn. Many mothers and fathers
waited patiently for the envelope with the few pounds
inside. They used to think in Ireland, that if you went to
England you were loaded in no time!
The Irish person as an
individual has fairly broad interests and we were
encouraged when we were being educated, to find out about
the rest of the world. Trouble was our education in those
days was pretty limited. Coming to England for most of our
generation was a major culture shock. Our history had made
us well aware of the devious 'Sassenach' and now here we
were asking to earn a living at his table! It was not easy
to get rid of the baggage accrued over 500 years. You were
ill prepared for your new life, but you had to change, and
life became a continual process of adaptation, trying to
make yourself understood and acceptable.
But the work was here in
abundance, and that was our reason for being here. Mother
Ireland's politicians could do little for us. In fact they
were glad to see the back of us. Out of sight, out of
mind, - no dole to pay! Of course the Irish question was
only half solved with partition of Ireland in 1920 and the
formation of the Irish freestate, and the establishment of
NI as a separate entity under Great Britain and the 26
counties becoming a republic.
The conflict in Northern
Ireland had a major affect on the lives of the Irish who
emigrated here because there was frequent political
agitation. From 1969 onwards the situation became more and
more fraught with the frequent bombings in Ireland, and
here too in the UK. Massive explosions in Hyde Park,
Birmingham, Guilford, Warrington and others in the early
seventies, worried the Irish community intensely. The
effect of those campaigns was deep, take for instance the
Birmingham and Guilford bombings. People were arrested
fairly quickly but then it became clear that people that
were arrested weren't those responsible. Eventually they
were released after 17 years in prison. A whole series of
cases like this rattled peoples' confidence and they
retreated, kept their heads down and tried to keep their
noses clean. You've got your job, do your job don't bother
with anything else as you could easily be picked up for
being involved in something you had nothing to do with. In
the 1960-1990s we felt there was a cloud over our
existence and involvement in any active way in any
politics and we just became anonymous.
The British are a very
tolerant kind of people. They don't point the finger
towards you, it was never made that obvious to you, but
there was no doubt about it there was antagonism towards
you. You might see your next door neighbour who might not
talk to you for a week or so after a bombing. Where I
worked there wasn't that many Irish people, all though
there was times when I felt it, I wasn't really persecuted
for what I was. On the whole considering how things were
it wasn't too bad, but it did have an affect on peoples'
attitudes deep down.
For any more information
why not contact me at m.horan@ntlworld.com
