Was Birmingham ever a sectarian divided town?

Unlike many other British cities, Birmingham is generally not known for having a significant history of sectarian division along the lines of English Protestants against Irish descended Catholics. There were of course a number of events and incidents in the late 19^th century which gained infamy, such as the Murphy Riots of June 1867 in which gangs of English ‘roughs’ attacked the residents of Park Street, an area of central Birmingham with a high Irish population.

The brutal disturbances were largely caused by the presence in the town at that time of William Murphy, a bigoted anti-Catholic orator whose antagonistic rants about the Catholic Church quickly gained him a following of local supporters.

In his book Birmingham Irish Making Our Mark Carl Chinn writes of the Murphy Riots:

Park Street was so devastated that almost all the houses ‘were wrecked, every window broken, the frames generally torn out, the contents of the shops thrown out amongst the mob, and the furniture taken and destroyed’.

 No protection was given by the police who reportedly joined the robbers in breaking into Irish houses, beating women, children, old men and old women, stealing their clothes and food and driving people into the streets almost naked.

It seems that ethnicity based tensions may well have continued for some years after the Murphy Riots, in his book The Gangs of Birmingham, Philip Gooderson suggests:

Ethnicity seems to have been one of the bases of the slogging gangs of the early 1870s, at least in the Digbeth area, although it receded as the Irish were assimilated. The lingering echoes of Murphy were heard in continued vendettas and street-fights.

Gooderson describes an occasion in August 1872 when the annual excursion by St Chad’s Roman Catholic School to Shustoke in rural Warwickshire, turned to violence after a local gamekeeper began shooting at unruly youngsters. Whether intended or not, the gamekeeper named Thomas Booton shot a sixteen-year-old boy named James Carter in his arm.

A mob of some 200 people including pupils, family members and assorted friends became infuriated by the shooting and pursued Booton as he ran back to his cottage. Booton was badly beaten and several weeks later a Saltley iron-worker named Patrick Cunningham was charged with assault and intent to murder the gamekeeper. Cunningham had allegedly struck Booton over the head with the gamekeeper's own gun, fracturing his skull. The ironworker was eventually acquitted when the judge was told that Booton had fired his gun into a crowd of youngsters.

Whilst Irish men, women, boys and girls continued to appear in front of 19^th century Birmingham courts, their misdemeanours were generally no different from their working class English peers and neighbours – slogging (stone throwing and street fighting), brawling in public houses, passing counterfeit coins, burglary and robbery. If there was a higher proportion of Irish criminals being convicted, it could be explained by the fact they lived in the poorest areas of the city with the least opportunities.  

Philip Gooderson writes extensively about the ‘slogging gangs’ of Birmingham in the 1860s and 1870s. These were huge local gangs of mainly youths who caused mayhem in the narrow, impoverished streets of Birmingham, fighting one another, menacing shop keepers, fighting the police and assaulting innocent passers-by. Slogging was an epidemic of street violence. Irish boys and men were frequently in court for slogging, sometimes they were even the gang leaders, but the gangs were more likely to be comprised of members on the basis of their local district or even their trade rather than on ethnic or sectarian grounds.

Carl Chinn endorses this impression: “In such disorder, some second generation Irish Brummies were involved, but it would seem they were alongside English troublemakers and not part of Irish gangs”.

Birmingham’s overall lack of historical sectarian tensions between Protestants and Catholics is different from the experience of other major cities in the UK. Glasgow is well-known for the sectarian division existing between its citizens which, mainly though not exclusively, takes the form of the fierce rivalry between supporters of Celtic F.C. and Rangers F.C. Where deaths and serious assaults have been directly linked to sectarian tensions in Glasgow, many of these have occurred after Old Firm football matches. Liverpool has also had its share of sectarian violence, though its worst outbreak was back in 1909 when the city was dubbed ‘the Belfast of England’ following a riot between Catholics and Protestants. In spite of theories which suggest that Everton is a Protestant club whilst Liverpool is Catholic, many modern day fans of both clubs say that this is nonsense.

Whilst a fierce rivalry exists between the football clubs of the city of Birmingham, this could never have been described as sectarian. Aston Villa were founded by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel with several Scots taking a prominent role in the early days, whilst Birmingham City were founded by a group of cricketers from Holy Trinity C of E Church in Bordesley. However, both clubs have historically attracted supporters from their respective local Irish communities, Villa from the old Irish of Newtown and Aston, Blues from the more contemporary Irish districts of Sparkhill and Small Heath.

As Birmingham became a more diverse city in the second half of the 20^th century and as new waves of Irish migrants continued to contribute to the infrastructure, social economy and cultural vibrancy of the region, the Irish community have gradually become more confident and increasingly proud of their dual-heritage of being Irish and Brummie. Long may the city’s reputation for tolerance and diversity flourish.  

Article in the June 2016 edition of The Harp - William Mulready : The Irish man who invented the envelope

“Did you hear about the Irish fellah who invented the envelope?” might sound suspiciously like the start of a Frank Carson joke, but actually it’s a true story and, ironically, one which once again challenges negative, historical stereotypes of Irish people in Britain.

A former work colleague of mine, Deborah Slater who now works as a fundraiser for Acorns Children’s Hospice told me about an ancestor of her mother named William Mulready whom Debbie told me ‘invented the envelope’. Any claim like this just had to be worth investigating further!

William Mulready was born in Ennis, County Clare on 1 April 1786 and before anyone jumps to any conclusions his date of birth has no relevance to the story. When William was a child his family moved to London where his gift for drawing and painting was spotted and encouraged. At just 14 years old William was accepted at the Royal Academy School where he developed into a brilliant artist.


In 1802 William Mulready married Elizabeth Varley, who was a landscape painter and their three sons, Paul Augustus, William and Michael also became artists. Mulready became a very popular painter of landscapes, but then started to build a reputation as a genre painter from 1808 on, painting mostly everyday scenes from rural life. Mulready also began to illustrate books, including the first edition of Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare in 1807 and a poetry book for children by Catherine Ann Dorset. The book was very popular as it was a sequel to The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast by William Roscoe.
Mulready became a hugely popular painter from the early 19th century into the Victorian period. His first painting of importance, Returning from the Ale House, now in the Tate Gallery, London, under the title Fair Time, appeared in 1809.

In 1815 William Mulready became an Associate of the Royal Academy (A.R.A.) and R.A. in 1816. In the same year, he was also awarded the French "Légion d'honneur".

His most important pictures are in the Victoria and Albert Museum and in the Tate Gallery. In the former are 33, among them Hampstead Heath (1806); Giving a Bite (1836); First Love (1839); The Sonnet (1839); Choosing the Wedding Gown (1846); and The Butt (Shooting a Cherry) (1848). In the latter are five, including a Snow Scene. In the National Gallery, Dublin, are Young Brother and The Toy Seller. His Wolf and the Lamb is in Royal possession.

But what of the claim that William Mulready invented the envelope?

There are a few histories online concerning the origins of the envelope. Obviously people had been writing letters for centuries, especially the upper classes, but the main method used for sending a letter was a piece of paper containing the message on one side, that was then folded and sealed, probably with wax and a personalized stamp, then hand delivered by a messenger. This was called a letter-sheet.



In 1840 the British Government introduced important reforms to the postal system, led by Sir Rowland Hill. The first postage stamp, also introduced in 1840, was the famous Penny Black. The Government also commissioned William Mulready to design a standard letter sheet to go with the new stamp. It seems that Mulready was commissioned more for his artistic skills than his inventiveness and he went about designing a lozenge-shaped letter-sheet with beautiful artwork of Britannia and a reclining lion amongst other figures. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II still owns the copyright to his original design.

The innovative thing about Mulready’s letter-sheet was that even though it followed the age-old design of a single piece of paper which contained the message on the inside and when folded allowed the outer side to be used for an address and of course the new Penny Black stamp, his new design allowed the paper to be completely sealed on all sides, thus creating an envelope into which additional sheets could be placed. This became known as Mulready stationary, or even as ‘a Mulready’ as opposed to being called an envelope. 

Unfortunately for William Mulready, his beautiful illustrations were widely lampooned by newspapers and satirists who scoffed at their ornamental extravagance. Stationery manufacturers, whose livelihood was threatened by the new letter sheet, complained to the Government and only six days after their introduction, on May 12, Rowland Hill wrote that; I fear we shall have to substitute some other stamp for that design by Mulready ... the public have shown their disregard and even distaste for beauty, and within two months a decision had been made to replace the Mulready designed stationery.

William Mulready’s paintings continue to attract acclaim and reverence from professional art scholars and the viewing public alike and he joins a long-line of Irish men and women who excelled in the creative arts. But in answer to the question “did you hear about the Irish fellah who invented the envelope?” we can give the resounding answer “yes, it was William Mulready!”

Article in the May 2016 edition of The Harp - Pat Roach the Brummie Irish Giant

Pat Roach was a professional wrestler from Birmingham who was also well-known for his television and film career. First appearing in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange in 1971, Pat Roach’s film career involved parts in Clash of the Titans (1981), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Conan The Destroyer (1983), Superman III (1983), Never Say Never Again (1983), Willow (1988) and Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves (1991). He is also fondly remembered as the character Brian ‘Bomber’ Busbridge in 26 episodes of Auf Wiedersehen Pet alongside Jimmy Nail (Oz) and Tim Healy (Dennis).

At 6ft 5in, Roach was a towering man both in the wrestling ring and on screen, though in real life people remember him as being for the most part, a gentle giant. That was certainly the character of Bomber in Auf Wiedersehen Pet – a father figure in the midst of English builders behaving badly in West Germany.

 

I remember meeting Pat Roach on a number of occasions when I worked at Moseley Hall Hospital in the late 1980s and he would come into the Hillcrest Unit on a regular basis initially to support our fund raising efforts but subsequently because he wanted to personally support people with acquired disability such as brain injury by talking to and motivating them.

On a few occasions he arranged for the Moseley Hall patients to go and watch him wrestling. I remember seeing not just Pat but the likes of Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy at places like West Bromwich Town Hall and Cocksmoor Woods Leisure Centre in Kings Heath and when he wasn’t in the ring himself, Pat would keep us company in the audience. It was at the latter venue that Pat came out of the centre still attired in his wrestling garb to wave us off and on discovering that an insensitive motorist had blocked in the hospital bus on a cold winter night, he proceeded to physically move the offending vehicle, picking up one end then the other until he had nudged it out of the way. Had I not witnessed it with my own eyes I’m not sure I would have believed it possible!

Pat Roach was a dedicated Brummie, growing up in areas like Ladywood and Balsall Heath, his working life in the city included shovelling coal from barges at Hockley Brook, running a car sales business on Alum Rock Road and owning a Gymnasium & Health Club on New Street. He was also a boxer and one-time British Judo Champion. But with the real name Francis Patrick Roach and looking, with his red hair and beard, every bit the iconic Celtic giant, there just had to be some Irish blood in there somewhere?

Pat Roach’s autobiography, If - The Pat Roach Story, co-written with Shirley Thompson and published in 2002, two years before his death from cancer on 17 July 2004, gives only a few references to his Irish roots. This is probably because Pat’s childhood, in his own words had been “dis-jointed”. In the book Pat’s mother Dolly recalls that his father Frank Roach could be cruel and difficult. She soon left Frank, to bring up Pat as a single-mother. Moving from one part of the city to another, meaning that young Pat lived in many different houses and attended different schools. Pat Roach described how growing up in a single-parent family meant he experienced ‘several traumatic incidents, which were to have a profound effect upon him’.

There is one memory of Pat’s father, Frank, which suggests that the Celtic elements in his character were because “his ancestors were from the Ross Common and Galway Bay areas of Southern Ireland”. There are also several references to the Roach family attending Catholic churches and schools in the city such as St Chad’s. Shirley Thompson, well known for her meticulous research (she has also co-written biographies with Eddie Fewtrelll and Alton Douglas), provides a helpful family tree going back to Pat’s grandfather Walter Roach and grandmother Nellie, who lived at 3, back 90 Tower Street in Newtown in the early 20th century.

In these articles in the past I have researched other Irish Brummie families who also had their roots in the Newtown, Hockley and Ladywood areas of Birmingham. Whereas we might think of Sparkhill and Small Heath as the neighbourhoods where many Irish migrants settled in the 1950s and 1960s, a hundred years earlier they were more likely to settle in the back-to-back court houses of the inner city, especially those neighbourhoods close to Catholic churches – St Chad’s being a veritable magnet for poor people from the western counties of Ireland, fleeing the Great Hunger of the late 1840s.

The Roach family first appeared in Birmingham in the 1861 census, living in court housing at the back of 2a Hanley Street. Michael Roach is a 29 year old bricklayer from Galway and his wife Mary, aged 22, is also from Galway. They have a son of 5 months old, Peter, who was born in Birmingham. The couple also have four male lodgers, three of whom were Irish. All around them in Hanley Street are other Irish families, perhaps showing just how much this congested area was favoured by the new wave of migrants.

Michael and Mary were the great grandparents of wrestler Pat Roach. They appear again in subsequent census records, slowly building their family of nine children. One of those children, Pat’s grandfather Walter was born in 1874. He married Nellie Woodcock and they lived in Tower Street, not very far away from Hanley Street where the Roach family first settled. We have learnt from previous stories of the Newtown Irish of the 19th century that they fitted right in with their new working class English neighbours and within just a couple of generations were producing great Brummie icons like the gentle giant of a man that was Francis Patrick Roach.