An Irish Navvy: The Diary of an Exile

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He is reputed to have said: 'If the men wish to honour my death, allow them two minutes' silence; but keep the Big Mixer going, and keep Paddy behind it.'

The establishment of towns like this encouraged migration of workers and their families from all over the country, many travelling long distances to find work on and around the railways. A high proportion of Great Western Railway workers in Swindon had come from furthest away, from birthplaces in the north of England and Scotland—it was in the coalfields of the north that much of the early expertise in railway locomotives was to be found. Artist Matthew Rosier is working with the local community in Salford to create "a unique audio-visual installation and a programme of supporting events including the creation of a community garden within MediaCity’s gardens, all of which explore the links between the past and present of Salford Quays and MediaCity." Archway has been the home of a vibrant Irish community since they began to arrive in the 1830s, prior to the Irish famine. As time went on The Gresham Ballroom, which is now a branch of Sainsbury’s, and the Archway Tavern became hotspots for Irish people to meet each other and find community after leaving home.

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In fact, reports from railway contractors, and census data, reveal that there were only large concentrations of Irish navvies in the areas where there was a significant Irish immigrant population, such as northwest England, Glasgow, Edinburgh, the southwest of Scotland and other areas close to the ports of entry. Irish involvement in railway construction was negligible in the eastern and central parts of England, where Irish immigration was uncommon during the 19 th century, and although many Irish did settle in the southeast, in and around London, there was a greater variety of unskilled labouring job opportunities there, and so railway navvying could be avoided. Apparently McAlpine's Fusiliers was written by Martin Henry of Rooskey, near Doocastle in East Mayo, sometime in the late 50s. Martin, like other labouring men over several generations in that part of Mayo, had for many years been a spailpín or seasonal harvester in England and again, like many others, had gravitated into construction in search of better-paid employment. Nor was that an end to the 'firsts' on which they worked. When the Forth Bridge in Scotland was opened in 1890, it was the largest ever at that time and the first bridge with an all-steel superstructure many Irishmen helped build it.

The new additions will bring the Irish Naval Service fleet to six after several ships were withdrawn from service in recent years due to crew shortages and Naval Service management hope the small crew numbers required for the two new IPVs will mean they can be at sea more consistently. By 1900 over 620,000 people—nearly 5 per cent of the population—worked for the railways. In some larger cities, entire areas evolved to serve the railways, with ancillary workshops springing up to provide parts for major manufacturers in places like Hunslet in Leeds, Gorton in Manchester or St Rollox in Glasgow.But the bankers comprised only a minority of the men who built the first canals. The rest were largely tradesmen turned contractors, or local agricultural workers seeking more money or a change of work.

It is a matter, however, of immediate practical importance whether the swarms of Irish labourers who pour into this country should be in any way encouraged when it is too plain that they bring with them a moral and social plague, which cannot fail to produce the worst effects upon the mass of the population.” (Edinburgh Post, April, 1841) Sir Robert McAlpine - Concrete Bob - head of the Scottish engineering firm that bore his name, once said the Scots made the best gangers, the Irish the best labourers and the English the best customers.In June 1940, an Irish Marine and Coastwatching Service MTB returned to Haulbowline after making two trips to rescue British and French soldiers during the Dunkirk evacuation. [22]

Their monuments endure – the dams, canals, roads & railways, but the men themselves are largely either ignored or despised. This book, generously illustrated with striking pictures, many never previously published, tells their story for the first time in its true context. A NEW mosaic celebrating Irish navvies and nurses is an important reminder of the impact immigrants have on a community. Railway contractors were well aware of the likelihood that similar violence would occur between the English, Scottish and Irish navvies and did their best to keep the nationalities apart. Each nationality was assigned its own section of line to work upon, and they generally lived apart from each other and the local communities, in the temporary shanty towns of tin and wooden huts that sprang up near the construction works. In some areas of the country, therefore, almost the entire workforce on a particular stretch of line might be Irish and this helped create the impression, which has lingered until today, that all of the railway navvies were Irish. The Ian Campbell Folk Group song "Here Come the Navvies" which was a song frequently taught in UK schools in the 1970s. [26] Panorama looking down the Manchester Ship Canal taken from the Moore Lane Swing Bridge in Cheshire (Image: Getty Images)Navvies often lived in disease-prone shanty towns of temporary huts, erected near the project in hand, where they earned a reputation as fierce men who liked to brawl between shots of Charley Frisky (whiskey) and pints of Pig’s Ear (beer). Every aspect of the resulting artwork, comprising music, a garden, and an audio-visual installation, is a community collaboration. Above all else for me, the most powerful part of this project is the sense of connection and comradery, between this community that has formed around the navvies' story and those 17,000 men and their families who toiled here over a century ago.”