Gaeilge sa Tír Dhubh: the Irish language in the Black Country

25 May 202025 May 2020

It's been a while since a post here, and I'd presumed that being furloughed from work would provide me with tons of spare time to write a blog. Reader, it…

The teens

2 Jan 2020

I've been meaning to write an update here for ages - my last post was, unbelievably, over a year ago. But now I'm here, I'm twiddling my thumbs a bit…

After Carribee Island: the Black Country’s long migration history

29 Nov 201829 Nov 2018

I've been looking for a way (and time) to wrap up my after-life of Carribee Island series (see 1880s, 1890s, WW1, 1939) for a while. I'm going to start this…

No-go zones, racism and the press in British history

28 Oct 20182 Nov 2018

One of the advantages of balancing a PhD with research at the Black Country Museum is that I get to compare and contrast over time. My PhD work is about…

Towards a bibliography of Black Country history

20 Jul 201820 Jul 2018

I've just added a new page to this website: a bibliography of Black Country history. This region is, as any scholar who tries to research it will tell you, tremendously…

After Carribee Island: the eve of destruction

7 Jul 2018

This post follows some preceding ones on the continuing history of the area once known as Carribee Island in Wolverhampton. This area, designated a slum, was pulled down in the…

After Carribee Island: the Great War

12 Apr 2018

This post follows on from these two about the afterlife of Carribee Island, for forty years the assumed - and stigmatised - home of Wolverhampton's Irish population in the nineteenth…

After Carribee Island: 1891

22 Mar 2018

This post follows the period of my research into Carribee Island, and an earlier post looking at the space in 1881. By 1891, The Space Formerly Known As Carribee Island…

After Carribee Island: the persistent Irish quarter?

14 Jan 201821 Mar 2018

My PhD research on the Stafford Street area of Wolverhampton finishes, pretty much, in 1877: the date that Parliament approved the Wolverhampton Improvement Scheme which led to the demolition of…

Maps for the National Plan

28 Dec 2017

Over December I was the very fortunate recipient of a book advent calendar from my lovely wife. I could rhapsodise about some of the books but to avoid losing the…