Promo: The Men Who Built Britain

The Men Who Built Britain: Veteran's Edition

THE MEN WHO BUILT BRITAIN - SPECIAL VETERAN'S EDITION

Re-published by Potter's Yard Press after several years out of print, and featuring a new specially commissioned jacket design, The Men Who Built Britain is a large-format book, measuring 250 X 210 mm., containing 272 pages and many original black & white illustrations. It is regarded as the definitive history of the Irish in British Construction.

The book retail's in hardback at £25/€26.99 or £15/E16.99 in paperback, excluding shipping. Order directly for a signed copy!

Reviews of The Men Who Built Britain:

‘FASCINATING AND INVALUABLE’ BOOKS IRELAND

‘THE AUTHOR’S DISTINCTION IS TO HAVE SOUGHT THESE VOICES OUT AND PLACED THEM ON RECORD…THIS IS AN IMPORTANT AND IMPRESSIVE BOOK WHICH DOES THE IRISH IN BRITAIN A GREAT SERVICE’ IRISH POST

‘TOLD WITH UNBLINKING HONESTY’ IRISH INDEPENDENT

'A STUDY OF OUTSTANDING QUALITY AND BALANCE’

JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION HISTORY

PERSONAL LETTER:

‘Congratulations on your book. You told it as it was. It brought back anger, sadness, and tears. It also brought back memories of pride, joy, and laughter; of men who earned their bread by the sweat of their brow. God rest those who are gone’.

McAlpine’s Men: Irish Stories from the Sites

Based on first-hand accounts taken from personal interviews and correspondence over the last decade, and illustrated with black and white photographs, this insightful and entertaining collection spans the decades from World War Two through to the Nineteen Eighties.

I am currently in the process of identifying each of the men featured in the wonderfully atmospheric cover photograph, which was taken around 1958, and I hope to publish a short biography of each of them in an effort to bring what is fast becoming an iconic image back to life...

This book has been produced in association with the Ireland Fund of Great Britain and a percentage of the profits from each copy sold will be donated to the IFGB’s Forgotten Irish Campaign.

The Ireland Fund of Great Britain’s Forgotten Irish Campaign supports the vulnerable and elderly Irish community in the UK. Your support will be greatly appreciated.

McAlpine’s Men is available on Amazon. For a signed copy please telephone 00 353 (0)51 563377, email ultan.cowley@gmail.com, or write to:

The Potter’s Yard
Duncormick

Co. Wexford

The Men Who Built Britain on Amazon

I have a seller's page on Amazon. McAlpine's Men: Irish Stories From The Sites, and The Men Who Built Britain, Veteran's Edition are currently available

See it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/shops/A1WD76Q6R314M7

OLD CAMPAIGNERS

In the coming months I will be recording the memories of people who worked on a number of landmark post-war civil engineering projects across Britain. If you know anyone, of any nationality and across all skills levels, who would like to put their experiences on record, get in touch...

The five decades following the end of World War Two saw building and civil engineering projects undertaken in housing, transport, energy, and communications on a scale not seen in Britain since the pioneering days of the Railway Age. Fuelled by a major capital injection from the Marshall Plan enthusiasm compensated for lack of experience and at every level the construction industry’s labour force demonstrated an unprecedented degree of commitment and consensus. This resulted in the completion of a series of strategic infrastructural projects which completely transformed Britain. The men who built them – the engineers, architects, construction managers, and operatives, are now elderly and, like many of their major works - such as the first generation of nuclear power stations, are unlikely to be with us for very much longer.

It is imperative that we catalogue these works and record the memories of the men who executed them without further delay.

This is a unique opportunity to put on public record, in a form accessible to all, the voices of The Men who built Britain. It may not come again...

Camaraderie of Pain: Excerpt from Joe McGarry interview

This is an excerpt from a recorded interview I conducted ten years ago in Camden Town with Joe McGarry, an Irish recovering alcoholic, survivor of homelessness, and veteran of the British construction industry who has since become instrumental in helping many men with similar experiences to reassess their lives and recover (even discover) their sense of self.

Joe is perceptive, poetic, straight-talking and self-aware, to an enviable degree. I publish this short piece to demonstrate the depth and complexity of difficult lives which are often dismissed by others as wilfully wasted and unworthy of serious consideration...To such I say, Listen to this - and Think Again!

Click here for the mp3. If your web browser doesn't play it for you, you can right click on the link to bring up a menu that includes the option to save the mp3 to your computer.