Black Country… Telling family stories 2 May 20172 May 2017 As part of my research I will inevitably have to tell you some family histories. I say have to - it's a vital, fascinating and relevant part of my research.…
Black Country… Black Country Irish: Wednesbury 19 Oct 2016 The town of Wednesbury was home to probably the most significant Irish population in the Black Country, after Wolverhampton. The nationalist journalist Hugh Heinrick reckoned that in 1872 there was…
History… Legitimate concerns? 6 Oct 2016 There's been a lot said in the last few days about migrants - how they should be listed and categorised, how people's "legitimate concerns" over influxes of labour should be…
Black Country… Black Country Irish: Wolverhampton, 1851 8 Aug 201627 Apr 2018 I'm starting my series on the Irish in the 19th century Black Country by looking at Wolverhampton. This is familiar ground for me, or at least should be - so I'm…
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…
Housing… The Other immigrants of Carribee Island: Wolverhampton’s Jewish community 1 1 Feb 20161 Feb 2016 My PhD research focuses on a small section of Wolverhampton town centre in the nineteenth century that was well-known - perhaps notorious, even - for it's substantial Irish immigrant population.…
Black Country… “Slums” of the Black Country: The Mambles, Dudley 12 Oct 201521 Dec 2015 I've had a wonderful time speaking on my research at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Archives recently - I've met tons of new people, heard anecdotes and stories and generally had…
Irish Genuine asylum seekers or economic migrants? 4 Sep 20154 Sep 2015 If I were to write about large groups of desperately poor families travelling long distances by unsafe boat or on foot, risking their own and their families' lives fleeing poverty and…
Irish… First as tragedy, then as farce 20 Apr 201520 Apr 2015 History can be a depressing mistress sometimes. Most people will be familiar with an expression attributed to Marx, that history repeats itself "the first as tragedy, the second as farce." In…
Politics We learn from history that man can never learn anything from history 5 Nov 2014 It's a bit un-nuanced to simply say "history repeats itself". I'd be arguing with Marc Bloch ("it is impossible to find two events that are ever exactly alike, because the…
