How Irish helped

From clippies to builders, hard-working

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THOUGH once a sizeable and significant minority in Birmingham, by 1911, the city's Irish-born had dropped substantially to just 3,161 people.

This was less than it had been in 1841, and made up just 0.6% of Birmingham's population of 525,000. A sense of Irishness declined amongst many second, third and fourth generation Irish Brummies, but for others their Irishness was maintained.

In 1919, the Irish Institute was set up in Martineau Street, with Denis Lyons as its secretary, and an annual Irish ball was instituted. Its members were determined that the Birmingham Irish would live their lives in the open and 'remove the stigma which has marked their activities in the past'.

The overriding aim was 'to preserve and develop the higher characteristics of race among the Irish people of the city' through the study of the language, literature, music, history and drama of Ireland. There were strong discussions within its membership about the desirability of providing a bar in the premises, but these disappeared with the Institute itself in the 1920s.

Then, towards the end of the 1930s, Irish migration to Birmingham picked up again. In the forefront were young women coming to train and work as nurses. They were soon needed playing a vital role in tending the wounded during the Blitz on Birmingham from August 1940.

By then, so many local men were in the Forces that there was a severe labour shortage, a problem of real concern because of the need to produce munitions in one of Britain's most important war effort centres.