Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59906 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 243 pages

Customer Reviews

Real life stories of life in 1950's England for the Irish
These are absorbing real life stories of Irish immigrants who moved to England mainly in the 1950's and 1960's. Displaced from their homes, coping with the culture shock of the new world and the trials and tribulations that lay before them.
Each story is told in a real and honest way, without resentment of what might of been, just an acceptance of that was the way things were. These are the stories of our fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, real people still alive today.
This is a part of Irish and English History which has not been spoken about in detail before and I am richer person now for having picked up this book. The admiration I now hold for my own parents, who moved to London in the late 50's only to be one of the lucky few it would appear, to secure work in Ireland in the early sixties and return home to settle. I now see them in a whole new light.
Every Irish person of this new generation accustomed to money, full employment and the riches of the world, would learn a lesson in life from these brave stories of these young people trying to make a life for themselves and the unlucky ones who were left to squaller, often by their own people.
This a well balanced and not over sentimental read, and a real page turner. One of the most enlightening books I have ever read and I just did not want this book to end. Well done Catherine Dunne, and I just hope their is a volume two !

London: green under the surface!
My wife is a Dubliner and has lived in London for fifteen years. This book details the experience especially of those who came before her, mostly during the 1950s and 1960s.

The immediate post-war period (typically the time from total independence, as Eire became the Republic of Ireland in 1949) to the early nineties was a time of great economic and cultural hardship in Ireland. Many thousands emigrated to the UK, the US and Australia to escape the religious and socially-stale state that DeValera had striven to create since partition in 1921.

This then is their story, that of the ordinary men and women who 'took the boat' to Holyhead and settled in the suburbs around the road to the capital, the A5: Cricklewood, Neasden, Wembley, Stonebridge Park etc. London's population is ever-changing and the streets are not paved with gold. The Irish who came faced prejudice and ignorance but this is a story of determination and humble cultural life.

An excellent read.

So Far..........
Loving this book so far (three chapters in) Im absolutely hooked, so much so I fell up the stairs at work today because I was still reading whilst walking!