Green ribbons: the Irish in Birmingham in the 1860s, a study of housing, work and policing

Davis, Patsy (2003). Green ribbons: the Irish in Birmingham in the 1860s, a study of housing, work and policing. University of Birmingham. M.Phil.

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Abstract

This study of material conditions and policing found that the Irish often shared accommodation, with families of lodgers and concentration in Irish streets or Irish ends of streets shared with the general population. Community continuity and stability from the 1820s was compromised by the demolition of many Irish or part-Irish streets in the 1870s and 1880s. Within Birmingham's low wage economy, Irish people worked in a wide variety of occupations with men more likely to work in casual irregular employment and women more likely to work in factories than was general in Birmingham. Irish men's irregular work and Irish women's factory work supports the general Irish experience of employment in low-paid work specific to a town and challenges the assertion that Irish women preferred domestic work. There was a disproportionate number of Irish men in Birmingham's police force, yet Irish people shared the general experience of the Irish in England of being more likely to be imprisoned than the indigenous population. The Murphy riots encapsulate this inequality An English mob rioted, Irish homes were sacked, the police joined in the riot yet the majority arrested and tried for riot were Irish.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Phil.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Phil.

Supervisor(s):