Thanks to Christopher on About Brum for flagging this up. Professor Carl Chinn’s series about immigrant communities in Birmingham is being repeated on Radio 4 this week, with the option to listen through iPlayer available over the following few days. He interviews old and newcomers to Birmingham from local cultural community centres.
Interviewees in the Chinese Community Centre on Bradford St remember finding Brummie accents ‘scary’ (can’t say I blame them) and the report from the Polish Centre on Bordesley Street stiffened my resolve to eat dinner there at some point.
By far the most interesting was his piece about Birmingham Irish Club on Digbeth High St. ‘Old school’ Minstrel Music manager John Fitzgerald recalls the days when The Custard Factory made custard and worked in Fort Dunlop. He is nostalgic for the centre’s history as a haven the Irish community, whereas the young ‘new blood’ general manager Jason Hemming is keen to capitilise on other communities’ use of the centre. John and others have ‘reserved views’ about Jason’s management. Can the centre, soon to be rebuilt as part of the Irish Quarter’s regeneration, stay true to its roots whilst diversifying and keep the old customers happy whilst catering to new ones?
