THE Irish have been coming to Britain since before St Patrick was captured by Irish raiders in the sixth century.

However, they didn’t start to settle in Britain in any numbers until after the 1798 rebellion.

Mass emigration to Britain did not occur until the aftermath of the so-called “famine” in the late 1840s, when starvation drove the Irish from their homes to London and the industrial towns of the north of England. 

Many of these Irish immigrants found work in Huddersfield as navvies on the roads and the canal, local mines and in the town’s fast-growing textile mills.

The major contribution of this workforce to the development of the town was recognised by the local businessmen and mill-owners who even contributed to the cost of building a Catholic Church in the town 1832. Clearly they saw that the church would motivate the Irish to stay in the area. Later a Catholic school was built and as the Irish community grew more churches and schools developed.

The industrial revolution in Britain had sucked the workers from the land into the mills, mines and factories. These people had to be fed and as many of the agricultural labourers had moved to the towns, the demand could not be met by the indigenous agriculture alone.

The solution was to import dairy and other food products from Britain’s market garden, Ireland. That is why, when the potato crop in Ireland succumbed to the blight that swept Europe, the Irish starved while millions of tons of food was removed under armed guard to feed the workers in British towns and cities. Without this food resource it is debatable whether the industrial revolution would have been so successful.

The Irish established a lasting community that thrives today in the town and still retains strong ties with their communities back home. The Huddersfield Irish return to their native land for holidays on a regular basis. The Gaelic football team, Bros Pearse, based in the Irish centre, has a tradition of exchange visits with teams from Kerry and Connemara that continues today. These cultural links are of vital importance to the Irish in Huddersfield and the Irish centre is vital to the maintenance of these links.

Following the third reading of the Home Rule Bill on May 25 1914, large numbers of Irishmen marched in support through the town the following night. They had 1,000 handbills printed for distribution and purchased 300 torchlights. Their hopes were dashed however, when shortly afterwards, war was declared and many young men from the Irish community joined up. Over 140 members of the Irish centre died and many more were injured.

In Huddersfield, it seems, Irish people were not met with the same suspicion and open hostility that they encountered in other places. The story of the Irish in Huddersfield is typical of many English towns and the effects of their presence cannot be ignored. They have contributed in a major way to the success of the town, as have immigrants from other places.

Since the first invasion of Ireland by the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century, the Irish have resisted by force at every opportunity, as any free people are entitled to do. This resistance to the biggest empire in the world at the time, where the sun never set and the blood never dried, continued throughout the centuries. 

Finally, in 1916 the Rising sowed the seeds for the independence of Ireland. The British ruling elite resisted Irish independence at every turn. Only a small minority had the vote and so no democratic way of achieving independence was available to the people.

Every attempt to gain freedom and independence by the Irish was met by the authorities with extreme violence and draconian legislation. The brutal tactics that were the norm in Ireland are too numerous to outline here, but they contributed to the feelings of resentment that grew steadily and repeatedly in every generation of Irish men and women down the ages.

Ireland was Britain’s first colony, and even today she continues to occupy part of Ireland against the wishes of the majority of its population.

Revisionists continue to play down Britain’s role in causing the rebellion. The rebels have been described by people like Sir Bob Geldof as “terrorists.” Critics ignore the democratic deficit that led to 1916. Only a third of men and no women had a vote.

In the 1911 census, unionists had a majority in only four counties out of thirty-two, so they had no mandate for opposing home rule. Young men were encouraged by John Redmond to join the British army to free small nations, but they could not fight to free their own. Free “galant little Belgium” was the cry. Gallant little Belgium that was slaughtering millions of Africans in the Congo?

The dishonesty and hypocrisy employed to distort and deride the intentions of the 1916 rebels has caused deep divisions in public opinion in both countries. In any other country these men and women would be regarded, rightly, as heroes. They were right in in almost every regard. No-one need apologise for their actions.

They knew that the British understood no language but violence. They were heroes and martyrs and inspired people not only in Ireland but across the planet. They shone like a beacon of light to all the oppressed of the world. The people of India and Vietnam were inspired to follow their example.

The 1916 rebels died in an attempt to free their country. Many young Irishmen died in Flanders for no good purpose at all. We must remember all those who died tragically during this period of history but we must surely distinguish between those who died in the cause of freedom and those who died needlessly in an imperial war of aggression that was really a crime against humanity.

The population of Ireland is less now than it was in 1841. Every generation loses its children to emigration. Irish men and women have helped build almost every country in the world. Their genius was lost to their mother country which remains divided and unable to develop its potential because of British interference.

Britain continues to foster sectarian division and opposition to unity. This centenary is an opportunity to reflect upon our history and perhaps to fix the problem permanently. A democratic vote in the British Parliament to withdraw from Ireland totally would be a fitting tribute to all those who died during our shared history.

• Eddie Mulligan from Co Down is chair of Huddersfield, Bradford and Calderdale branch of Unite Community, and a TUC delegate. He has lived in Britain since 1966.