Irish immigrants unleash wave of British bigotry

ANTI-IRISH sentiment in 1970s Britain made its way to the Taoiseach’s office in letters written by British citizens disgruntled at the number of Irish immigrants arriving to work there.

One particularly irate correspondent, a Mr H Whitfield from Cheshire, wrote several times in 1973 during Liam Cosgrave’s time in office, to urge him to stop “sub-standard peasant type Eirean immigrants flooding into Englande”.

Mr Whitfield was critical of the Catholic Church’s role in Irish affairs, expressing alarm at the number of “rosary beads and virgin mary statues” the “Eirean peasants” were bringing into England.

He didn’t say what he did for a living but went on: “As one who has had the job of clearing up Paddy’s lodging houses, the standard of living in Eire must be medieval.”

Mr Whitfield said he yearned for an Oliver Cromwell in ‘Englande’ to drive the Irish out and mentioned various other methods of controlling immigration. “I personally would prefer some mode of action like flooding Eire from end to end with foot and mouth disease and colorado beetle.”

Another correspondent sent a flyer for a Coventry-based group, called British Movement, which had as its slogan “Make Britain A No Go Area”.

The primary target of the movement was Ugandan Asians (thousands of Indians living in Uganda were expelled and fled to England following the Idi Amin’s take-over of the country in 1972), but the correspondent claimed to be keeping an eye on one million Irish as well — a dramatic overestimation of the numbers actually in England at the time. “England’s no trash can,” he wrote.

An Irish woman living in Blackburn, meanwhile, wrote of the problems she was having securing work despite an apparent shortage of nurses and her excellent record in nursing. She believed her nationality was to blame.

“This is a nice part of the country, but the natives are very narrow-minded and bigoted and anti-Irish,” she wrote. “The British press gives plenty of publicity to Irish families living on the dole, especially if they have a lot of children to keep.”

Documents show the government of the time was well aware of the difficulties facing the Irish in Britain, but was slow to commit funds to assisting those falling on hard times.

There were numerous meetings in Leinster House with the Catholic Church’s Episcopal Commission for Emigrants, during which Bishop Eamon Casey was a key advocate for the emigrants. Papers reveal the Commission sought £270,000 in 1974 to help provide social workers and run advice centres in London and Birmingham.

A memo of one meeting states: “It was thought that in this year of financial crisis, to seek a total immediate grant of £270,000 would be unfair.”

The memo reveals the influence the bishops had with the government as both Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and Minister for Foreign Affairs Garret FitzGerald met with them.

However, that didn’t necessarily open purse strings as the bishops were given no commitments.

Picture: Bishop Eamon Casey: Advocate for emigrants.