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Birmingham Irish

mikejee

mikejee

Super Moderator
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Tonight on BBC 4 is a program about the Birmingham Irish Community. It presumably will later be on i[layer
 
It's already on BBC iPlayer, I watched it several nights ago. As it was previously broadcast on the 3rd February on BBC 1 West Midlands. Was good. The other programmes in that series are already on iPlayer, the next one is on the Chinese, then Bangladeshi communities in the UK.

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC Four - A Very British History, Series 2, Birmingham Irish I Am

The story of the Birmingham Irish told through film archive and personal memories.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
I was recently at a funeral in Melboune and struck up a conversation with another mourner whilst we were getting a bit of fresh air and he picked up my Brummie accent.
He was Irish and had lived and worked in Birmingham and asked where abouts I came from. When I said Sparkbrook he said he knew it well due to its Irish pubs such as The Mermaid and Angel. He then reeled off the names of the pubs all up the Stratford Rd and how if challenged to drink along it choose the ones on the right as the majority are on the left hand side ie The Ship,Black Horse, Mermaid Antelope.
Just another example off what a small place the World is.
Cheers Tim
 
Sugar said:
I am sure it was the Garyowen club on wordsworth rd smallheath which is no longer there I think it shut down in 2005 .I never went there but I had heard about it .In the later years it became a very rough club.
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The Garry was on Wordsworth road. When I started going there it was small. It had a small dance floor and bar and you went there after the pubs closed. It was expanded into a fairly large club but Brendan still sat on the door with Con and Vince turning people away he didn't like the look of. Preferred the old garry. There was also the Emerald and yes there is a new Emerald and an old Emerald. The old Emerald was on the corner of Green Lane and Prince Albert Street and was mainly (almost exclusively) respectable Irish. The new Emerald is across the road on Green lane and its no longer an Irish Club club but it lives off the name of the old club.
 
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oldbrit said:
In the 1950s our band played at an Irish Club in Small heath anyone remember the club?
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oldbrit said:
In the 1950s our band played at an Irish Club in Small heath anyone remember the club?
Click to expand...
tim eborn said:
I was recently at a funeral in Melboune and struck up a conversation with another mourner whilst we were getting a bit of fresh air and he picked up my Brummie accent.
He was Irish and had lived and worked in Birmingham and asked where abouts I came from. When I said Sparkbrook he said he knew it well due to its Irish pubs such as The Mermaid and Angel. He then reeled off the names of the pubs all up the Stratford Rd and how if challenged to drink along it choose the ones on the right as the majority are on the left hand side ie The Ship,Black Horse, Mermaid Antelope.
Just another example off what a small place the World is.
Cheers Tim
Click to expand...
 
In the 60's we lived above a shop on stratford road. The area was full of Irish. The main pubs were he Bear and the Mermaid. The Angel and Antelope were smaller pubs. These pubs were popular with the Irish because if you arrived in Birmingham and wanted work these were the pubs where gangs were picked up. If you didn't know a soul you went to a pub, stood outside and when a gang was a man short, you got a shift.
 
All the pubs in Sparkhill and Sparkbrook (on the Stratford Road) have long since closed down. Many are now Asian restaurants.

The Bear is still vacant.

The Mermaid is now a Portuguese restaurant (was closed for years after the last fire).
 
ellbrown said:
All the pubs in Sparkhill and Sparkbrook (on the Stratford Road) have long since closed down. Many are now Asian restaurants.

The Bear is still vacant.

The Mermaid is now a Portuguese restaurant (was closed for years after the last fire).
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Sad Days, rather glad I'm not there to see it. Have been back in the past but there is nothing or nobody to draw me now.
 
My father came over from westmeath in Ireland with his 3 brothers in 1953 they all ended up in lime street station liverpool where I was told thousands of Irish people went to when they first came over it was probably the liverpool docks for work that drew them there.one of my uncles ended up in London and my dad and his brother ended up in Birmingham.Yes and like three quarters of all Irish ended up working in the building trade and I'm sure many of the buildings in brum were built by the irish and not forgetting the motorways . Nearly all the Irish men worked hard but unfortunately they drank hard as well so that's why there was so many Irish pubs in brum to cater for them.My uncles always said they were the best years of their lives but their wives would definitely not agree !!!!
 
tim eborn said:
Sad Days, rather glad I'm not there to see it. Have been back in the past but there is nothing or nobody to draw me now.
Click to expand...

Lots of take aways, sweet shops, Asian women's clothes shops etc. You should see the litter from the bus. There is the odd Council litter picker, but they need volunteers to pick it all up.

Oh and the fly tipping on the old Vale Onslow demolition site (hoardings broken into).
 
jim1uk2001 said:
In the 60's we lived above a shop on stratford road. The area was full of Irish. The main pubs were he Bear and the Mermaid. The Angel and Antelope were smaller pubs. These pubs were popular with the Irish because if you arrived in Birmingham and wanted work these were the pubs where gangs were picked up. If you didn't know a soul you went to a pub, stood outside and when a gang was a man short, you got a shift.
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I remember the Commando group cleaners would pick out men for casual work.at around 7am.out side the mermaid pub:)
 
mw0njm. said:
I remember the Commando group cleaners would pick out men for casual work.at around 7am.out side the mermaid pub:)
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We used to pick people up outside pubs because that's how we used to navigate. A man may not know a street or shop, but the chances are he would know one of the pubs on the way to the job. If you asked someone for directions, pubs were a good landmark. I remember picking up a very well known guy at the Malt Shovel on the Coventry Road. He came to work with a bottle of cider in his pocket. People turned a blind eye, but I remember once when he was questioned, he said 'does that compressor run without diesel'?
 
Sugar said:
I am sure it was the Garyowen club on wordsworth rd smallheath which is no longer there I think it shut down in 2005 .I never went there but I had heard about it .In the later years it became a very rough club.
Click to expand...
The Garryowen didn't open until around 1968/69. Before that the building it was originally housed in (a large nissen hut)was a club called the Iron Curtain.
 
My Dad wasn't Irish but worked for a couple of demolition companies in the 60s and 70s, in particular one that was around the corner from where we lived in Small Heath, J Regan in Green Lane. Those connected to this trade tended to be Irish, and as my Dad was very sociable we got to know a lot of these fellas. One thing that always struck me was how strong their accents were, even those that had come over just after the 2nd World War as a lot of them had. They never seemed to lose that lovely lilt! As a side note my Dad's birthday was 17th March so we always celebrated St Patrick's Day!
 
I am not Irish. They say everyone has an Irish relative. My nan's gran or great gran came over from ireland, Nan used to have the sea chest as a blanket box.
I have a lot of Irish friends. I used to be called English Paddy when I used to go over, which was often. My mate's parents passed away. His dad was a great historian so I learned a lot. And he took me to see what he was on about. Some pubs he would say don't speak, Nico, in Dubin. In the republican ones. He worked on the Coventry ring road and the Matchborough Estate in Redditch. There were loads of good singing pubs and folk pubs till about 30 odd years ago. Lots of irish or Irish frequented ones. The Four P's (Provinces) The Four Masters etc. The Standard Triumph club. There was always a hoolie at their house. No Irish history taught at school here of course. My mate was slated sometimes by certain teachers for being Irish. He came here aged 4 and he used to say things the Irish way, his brother was 8 he has never lost his accent. We have his late auntie's shamrock spreading all over. We have the two little china cups his dad gave us. On them is written
May the roof of your house never fall in.
And those within it never fall out.
Several tea towels with and fridge magnets with irish blessings like
Love and great joy to you,
Laughter and wealth to you
A child every year to you
And may you die in Ireland!
And many others.
I remember when Coventry had a Irish Mayor Nick Nolan and parades and music were all over the town that year. I was oppressed at work, and I chanced to sneak out for a coffee, we had to sneak out, to the vending machine, 4 of the artists were there, myself and a rep, and we jigged to the music outside till somebody came.
I never heard about "No irish need apply till my mate told me."
My family mustn't have heard it either, Grandad was a bus driver and he had a clippie and 2 bus conductors who couldn't get digs so Nan put them up, then we did. The lady from Galway always came back to see Great Gran till she passed away.
I remember being locked in the Irish pub behind the Coventry Telegraph, The Old Stag run by Larry and Bridie Wynne. Then the same night being chucked out for singing rebel songs, at a leaving do, and we were all English bar my mate.
I can't read what Old Brit put but I can curse in Irish - at those like myself, imagine that!
 
Nico said:
I am not Irish. They say everyone has an Irish relative. My nan's gran or great gran came over from ireland, Nan used to have the sea chest as a blanket box.
I have a lot of Irish friends. I used to be called English Paddy when I used to go over, which was often. My mate's parents passed away. His dad was a great historian so I learned a lot. And he took me to see what he was on about. Some pubs he would say don't speak, Nico, in Dubin. In the republican ones. He worked on the Coventry ring road and the Matchborough Estate in Redditch. There were loads of good singing pubs and folk pubs till about 30 odd years ago. Lots of irish or Irish frequented ones. The Four P's (Provinces) The Four Masters etc. The Standard Triumph club. There was always a hoolie at their house. No Irish history taught at school here of course. My mate was slated sometimes by certain teachers for being Irish. He came here aged 4 and he used to say things the Irish way, his brother was 8 he has never lost his accent. We have his late auntie's shamrock spreading all over. We have the two little china cups his dad gave us. On them is written
May the roof of your house never fall in.
And those within it never fall out.
Several tea towels with and fridge magnets with irish blessings like
Love and great joy to you,
Laughter and wealth to you
A child every year to you
And may you die in Ireland!
And many others.
I remember when Coventry had a Irish Mayor Nick Nolan and parades and music were all over the town that year. I was oppressed at work, and I chanced to sneak out for a coffee, we had to sneak out, to the vending machine, 4 of the artists were there, myself and a rep, and we jigged to the music outside till somebody came.
I never heard about "No irish need apply till my mate told me."
My family mustn't have heard it either, Grandad was a bus driver and he had a clippie and 2 bus conductors who couldn't get digs so Nan put them up, then we did. The lady from Galway always came back to see Great Gran till she passed away.
I remember being locked in the Irish pub behind the Coventry Telegraph, The Old Stag run by Larry and Bridie Wynne. Then the same night being chucked out for singing rebel songs, at a leaving do, and we were all English bar my mate.
I can't read what Old Brit put but I can curse in Irish - at those like myself, imagine that!
Click to expand...
Sorry I meant I couldn't read what John James said
 
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