Uncategorized Ag labhairt Gaeilge sa Tír Dhubh – speaking Irish in the Black Country 14 Jul 2020 Digbeth Coach Station, Birmingham - its familiar "A Hundred Thousand Welcomes" sign is a traditional Irish greeting (Dreamstime) This post follows on from this one about the use of Gaeilge,…
Black Country… 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…
Black Country 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…
History… 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…
Black Country Slavery and the Black Country: lords and ladies 22 Aug 2017 This post, and possibly the next couple, is about the Black Country and the slave trade. Historians have had a busy few weeks lately, with the flag controversy, debates about…
Black Country… That particular articulation of social relations which we are at the moment naming as… Doulton Brook 5 Dec 20167 Apr 2017 A break from the Irish this week. I've been mostly reading Doreen Massey this week - if you're not familiar with her she's an urban geographer of major importance, who…
Black Country… Black Country Irish: Red-headed Kilcoign 19 Sep 201628 May 2018 Irish Rows If there’s one thing you learn researching the Irish in the Victorian city, it’s that 19th century newspaper editors love an Irish Row. Roger Swift wrote whole papers…
Black Country… Black Country Irish: N. Hingley Ltd., Netherton 22 Aug 201627 Apr 2018 Identities can be a complicated thing. Each of us have several - I don't mean like Norman Bates, I mean that each of us are different things in different ways,…
History… Coming over here, taking our jobs… 25 Jul 201627 Apr 2018 Crowds of miserable Irish darken all our towns. The wild Milesian features, looking false ingenuity, restlessness, unreason, misery and mockery, salute you on all highways and byways... He is the sorest evil this…
Black Country… A Black Country Brexit 27 Jun 201628 May 2018 I was going to post another bit about the navvies of Elan Valley today, but it seems a bit strange to be discussing late-Victorian municipal water schemes when we're living through…