Ultan Cowley: August 2013

Monday 26 August 2013

THE CRAIC WAS GOOD IN CRICKLEWOOD:

Songs & Stories of The Men who built Britain

PRESENTED

ULTAN COWLEY

with music by

Joe Giltrap

upcoming dates: Luton Library Theatre Saturday October 19th

Newcastle Irish Festival Sunday October 20th

THIS STIRRING BLEND OF SONGS OF THE NAVVIES’ HEYDAY AND ANECDOTES OF LIFE ON SITE AND IN THE PUBS, BED-SITS, AND DANCEHALLS OF CAMDEN TOWN, CRICKLEWOOD, AND ELSEWHERE PROVOKES AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE FROM AUDIENCES EVERYWHERE.

This was the world of Tunnel Tigers, Heavy Diggers, and McAlpine's Fusiliers; of Hen Houses, Cock Lodgers, and The Landlady’s Breakfast; of Dead Men, Walking Pelters, and Murphy's Volunteers; of The Shamrock, The Galtymore, The Buffalo and The Crown.

What other migrant labourers experience today is but an echo of what Irish men endured in Britain years ago. Anyone who lived through those days and sees this show will recognise that world. It will be a delight to those who were there and a revelation to those who weren’t...

‘You told it as it was. For me 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’.

‘Entertainment – With a Sting in the Tale’ The Irish Post

The story so far...

'Paddy and the Big Ditch: Irish Labour on the Manchester Ship Canal, 1887-1893, was commissioned by the Irish World Heritage Centre, Manchester, in 1993 to mark the first centenary of the opening of the Ship Canal.

It was followed by The Men who built Britain: A History of the Irish Navvy, in 2001. This book was researched in Britain over three years, from 1994 to 1997, and writen over the following two years in Ireland. I amassed over sixty hours' of recorded interviews with labourers, tradesmen, middle management and family members. The black and white illustrations, many never previously published, were collected from public archives, company records, and private individuals.

It puts the history of Irish male migrant labour in Britain's contruction industry in the 19th and 20th centuries in the contexts of Irish emigratiion and British civil engineering, in the written histories of which the navvy had been no more than a footnote.

I still collect first-hand accounts of that way of life on an on-going basis and, as the older veterans get fewer, men from the 'Eighties exodus come into greater prominence and a new chapter takes shape.

At the same time musician Joe Giltrap and I continue to tour our Show, The Craic was good in Cricklewood: Songs & Stories of the men who built Britain.

This features songs and poems of the navvy life, together with first-hand accounts of life on site and in the dancehalls, pubs, and bed-sits of Camden Town, Cricklewood, and elsewhere.

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Monday 26 August 2013