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Other
Irish immigrants to Manchester also found national
fame for differing reasons; Fergus O'Connor and Bronterre
O'Brien lead the Chartist movement, whilst another
Irish Chartist, Mary Burns, had a secret live-long
relationship with the sociologist Frederich Engels. |
Frederick
Engels was guided around Manchester by Mary Burns
who lived in the slum district around Deansgate. She
was the local-born daughter of Michael Burns who had
emigrated from Ireland to Manchester. So many Irish
immigrants lived in similar conditions near Oxford
Road that it became known as Little Ireland; another
such place off Rochdale Road was called Irish Town.
Engels
portarit of the average Irishman living in Manchester
did not paint a favourable picture though: "He builds
a pigsty against the house wall as he did at home,
and if he is prevented from doing this, he lets the
pig sleep in the room with himself. The Irishman loves
his pig as the Arab his horse, with the difference
that he sells it when it is fat enough to kill. Otherwise
he eats and sleeps with it, his children play with
it, ride upon it, roll in the dirt with it, as anyone
may see a thousand times repeated in all the great
towns of England." [Buy
Engels 'Condition of the Working Class'] |
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On
11th September 1867, the police arrested two men for
behaving suspiciously in a doorway. The two, Colonel
T.J.Kelly and Captain Deasy, were leading figures in
the Fenian Rising. |
A
week later, the prison van that carried the two handcuffed
from court to Belle Vue Prison was ambushed by a crowd
of thirty armed Fenians who had been lying in wait
for it. After fatally shooting a police officer, the
Fenians escaped with Kelly and Deasy (still handcuffed)
never to be recaptured. Three of the ambushers were
later executed for the murder of the policeman and
went down in Irish Republican history as the "Manchester
Martyrs.
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After
many previous attacks, the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.),
returned to Manchester in June 1996 to plant the biggest-ever
mainland bomb, ironically in the area previously dubbed
"Little Ireland". Amazingly nobody was killed although
the city was destroyed. |
Nobody
was more shocked and upset than Manchester's Irish
Manc Rant. Everybody asked the question, "Why Us?
Why Manchester?", a question all too poignant with
the city's massive Irish connection.
Weeks later in
Northern Ireland, the brutal contract-killing of Veronica
Guerin also tragically had its connections with Manchester;
Veronica, a journalist and mother, was buried with
her beloved Eric Cantona Manchester United shirt draped
over the coffin.
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Manchester
United are by and away the most popular sporting club
in Ireland, bringing together fans of all religions.
One Irish banner at the 1999 European Cup Final in
Barcelona read : "MUFC - The Only Religion!".
Why United are
so popular in Ireland is a complex question. The most
popular belief links the Munich Air Crash of 1958
in which the gifted Irish player, Liam Whelan, was
tragically killed at the age of 22.
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Many
of Ireland's finest have worn the famous red jersey
including George Best, Shay Brennan, Harry Gregg,
Sammy McIlroy, Norman Whiteside, Frank Stapleton,
Denis Irwin, Roy Keane, John O'Shea and Liam Miller.
Even Sir Matt Busby was born into an Irish family. |
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Manchester's
Irish Manc Rant has produced its own style of traditional
music. A fusion between the traditional 'back home'
and the more rocky surroundings here 'in town'. |
Groups
like Toss The Feathers, Flook and Culainn play their
own brands of Mancunian celtic music, whilst All-Ireland
Champions, Michael McGoldrick and Dezi Donnelly keep
"Little Ireland" alive and very much jigging. [See
our Manchester Irish music pages].
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