August Irish Heritage: James Moran’s ‘Irish Birmingham – A History’

This month’s Irish Heritage really was a gem – Drama Lecturer James Moran gave a presentation around his book Irish Birmingham – A History, charting the rich political and cultural exchange between Ireland and Birmingham that’s been taking place since the early 1800′s, thanks to Birmingham’s many Irish residents. James wowed the audience with Birmingham-Irish historical highlights such as:

• The first organised St Patrick’s Day event in Birmingham was in 1869 in the Town Hall, organised by the church to try and discourage Irish congregations from fenianism.  The event, which had lots singing, dancing and speeches, became an annual event and was the seed from which Birmingham’s famous St Patrick’s Parade grew.
• The Old Rep Theatre on Station Street was set up on the model of The Abbey Theatre in Dublin by Barry Jackson and his amateur actor friends, fans of W B Yeats and Lady Gregory’s activities. Although initially encouraging, W B Yeats wasn’t always as big a fan of theirs.
• Brendan Behan was prompted to join the IRA by his granny, who moved to Birmingham in the 1930′s to live with an IRA bomb-maker who managed to blow up his own house.  When the police arrived, they found Behan’s gran trying to hide gelignite down her cleavage.  Her defiant speech in court inspires Behan to head over to Liverpool to become an IRA bomber, where he promptly gets caught and locked up in Borstal.
• The Dubliners’ Luke Kelly was a hopeless labourer in Birmingham whose landlady kicked him out for singing too loudly.

There’s loads more obviously, but I could never fit all the great facts James poured out into one post! You can view some of James’ presentation in the video above and, if that tempts you, buy his book on Amazon.

The next Irish Heritage event will be at 7pm in The Irish Centre on Weds 1st Sept.  If you’re going, be sure to check out Irish Heritage’s book collection whilst you’re there – they’ll be available for borrowing library-style soon!