An Irishman From Longford To London, 1969
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 เม.ย. 2021
- ‘Horizon: The Other Man’s Grass’ examines the lives of Irish immigrants in Britain. This excerpt from the programme is narrated by Jim Fallon, a young Irish immigrant from County Longford who has moved to London in search of work and a better life.
‘Horizon: The Other Man’s Grass: A Change, A Challenge Or A Cheque’ was broadcast on 26 March 1969. - บันเทิง
I know Jim very well, still living in Newtown Cashel Co. Longford.
Really? Hope he's well 🙏
How is he??
Did Jim Stay for while? $9:12 after paying the queens her share. Hope he’s keeping well.
Please say hello. Lovely man.
Such a humble soul.
He seems a gentle soul, I hope life worked out for him.
Yes,youre right ,I hope he did good,as sometimes the big cities can eat you up inside.I Know, London Toronto ,New York all added to me but took a piece of my soul too at times.
What a sincere and lovely thing to say. Well done
@@baronbomburst01 You got some name baron,you must be a unique sort of chap.I really liked that video about the Irish bartender on Holloway Road.I went from Ireland to London at 19 to work in a pub up in Wembley so this guy is a kindred spirit of sorts.
I've been down many roads since,in Western Europe,Canada and coast to coast in the USA. I'm 63 now and I want to move again . America is going downhill fast.
Anyway ,I liked your comment about somebody saying the young kid was a gentle soul.All the best to you and yours .Hope things work out all right for us people with heart and soul.Cheers!!
@@joekavanagh8997 I lived in Wembley in the late eighties, what pub did you work in? dog and duck on the high street?
@@patrickglennon6834 ,I worked in the Windermere in South Kenton which is 2 stops north of Wembley Central on the Bakerloo Line and in between is North Wembley where EMI were a big employer.A guy called Tommy Mangan from Achill Island was the guvner.Busy place and a fine Saloon bar.
Worked in Ford Motor Co in Dagenham for a year. Good money and holiday pay there and saved up and went to America for a few months,and loved the place back then.Worked in The Brondesbury and The National in Kilburn too.Then went to Canada for a year and a half .Safe country but not as exciting as the States.
So I went back to the States in 89 and have been here since.Its not the country it used to be and I'm leaving here next year .See what happens ,maybe back to Ireland for a while.and figure it out from there.
Where do you live now?It's good to travel but overall your own country is the best if you can make a fair living and settle down and have a family.
All the best to you and thanks for the reply.
Ah he's a lovely chap - softly spoken and kind - this film is wonderful as it really captures a real moment in life - I can relate as I came to London in the 80s when I was 18 and I'm still here - It was yet another one of those stories getting the boat over and never looking back - I was also amazed at the wonder of it all - Within a week I had 3 part time jobs via the Job Centre in Wardour Street and I had a lovely room in a flat share with all bills included for £25.00 a week - I wrote letter home to tell them all I had landed on my feet - Happy days...
Good man.
Thanks for sharing.
I worked in pubs in London in the late seventies and believe me it was no bargain .Long hours .Yes you're kept and fed but it's like the "guvner" and his missus owns you.Youre just "staff" Worked the bars in New York too for a few years and you're treated with more respect.Left the bar trade 30 years ago to work for myself selling books and vintage comics.Did ok but I always missed the bar work in NYC Met some great characters and met a few nice women too who I wined and dined and I miss those times greatly.
The bar trade is different now and this virus really put the kibosh on it.
Worked in the busiest dance hall in England too,The National in Kilburn which is long gone and used to drink in the Old Bell,Biddy Mulligans and the Brondesbury, and The Crown in Cricklewood.Some hard drinkers around those places but all in all I had some good times and an unusual ,non conventional education!
Work in a bar in London and New York and you can work ANYWHERE! Cheers and slainte to all Irish bartenders wherever they may be!
Quite a journey - in all senses of the phrase! As you said, unconventional education, but an unrivalled one all the same. There's probably a book in you. Would be good to jot down some if your experiences.
Wow...Thank god I didn’t have to leave old Eire. I was supposed to go to America in the early 80s , but managed to get work. I stayed working for the same company for 30 years ,,,till one day they said we don’t need you anymore.
Great Post Joe, I'd say you have some great stories.
@@connienail4013 You know ,you may have said something there.I had a few University professors who used to buy books and comics from me ,tell I should write something.
I don't know if there's a book in me but definitely there's a long ,short story!
Thanks for the encouragement ,all the best to you and your at home and abroad.
@@mick3001 I do indeed.From both sides of the ocean.Had glasses thrown at me, by a bunch of Glasgow Rangers supporters when working in a pub in north London.
Had a guy pull a gun on me in one of the Blarney Stone Bars in downtown Manhattan at 2 o clock in the morning.I believe in Guardian Angels I can tell you that!
Met some great people overall , especially in New York in the 80's.But NYC is not the same anymore.The people are bland and boring now .I blame television and Facebook and everyone is afraid saying something so called politically incorrect.
I was 63 last month and I want to find a new country and a young lady .Am I asking for too much do you think!
Thanks for the reply,God bless you and yours!
Britain became home for many Irish people over the last couple of centuries. It's why Irish surnames are so prevalent among contemporary Britons. The ties of culture and ancestry across our islands are deeply embedded.
And a lot of British don't realise that.
@@johnmc3862 It's appreciated by more Britons than it is by republican types here in Ireland.
@@andrewdevine6333 Republican types are hardly going to appreciate it.
@@andrewdevine6333 not true
They reckon a quarter of Londoners are of Irish descent. It's even higher in Liverpool and Manchester.
My dear mother left a home in Boyle, Co. Roscommon without gas, electricity or water to start a new life in 1950's London. It was a tough life but she was tougher. I so miss her love & wisdom!
Down the glen came McAlpine’s men . . .
Good turf fire and the sound of the rain on the window pane.
@@neilrafferty2097 As a kid in the 1960's I'd walk across the 'bog', with toilet paper in hand. My dad would dig the turf & leave it to dry before my gran stoked up the old Stanley Range. When the ceilidh came on the transistor radio, my gran would step it out in the kitchen. Poor as church mice but rich in love!
711honved Always loved a drive up to Roscommon.Foot to the floor on the straight to Tulsk.
My dad was from rosscommon, Cullenboy kiltevan. He came over in the early 50s, meet my mum ,a kerry girl. Worked hard all there lives, bought there own home. And reared 3 lads, Godbless them,I miss them. Erin go bragh ☘
What a decent young chap, modest and hard working, I wish him well.
That young chap would be in his 70's or 80's now. I hope he is well.
I used to see many Irishman in Hammersmith in 1971..tough life..many came from rural Ireland and couldn’t read or write...they were good men and often turned to the drink. A,lost generation of souls
Grew up in Shepherd's Bush from Irish parents. When I saw the queue outside the Japanese Artesian Bread shop in Askew Road last weekend in realised how things have changed in 50 years
@@isaythis959 For the worse in my opinion, London is a feckin cesspit,worked there for sixteen years,and more intermittently,glad to see the back of it.Good Luck,Mick Gaskell,(birthname O'Donovan.)
I hoped it all worked well for this guy. Seems like a kind gentle soul. Best Wishes.
ENGLAND WAS A GREAT COUNTRY IF U WERE A GOOD WORKER The english man had respect for a good worksman
Jimmy played harmonica in the pub where I was born
What a great lad.
He pours a good pint. Such a lovely gentle soul. Beautiful.
But he didn’t even let it settle, assuming it’s Guinness
Jesus, the times gone bye eh. My family, Irish, were in London at this time. I was born there in 1966 and we left in 1973.
Thanks as usual for the vid
A good man , let's hope he did well.
Thank you 🤗 i hope it all worked out for him
This is a perfect example of why different nationalities used to stick together in the past. In the time before social media is was very difficult to keep in contact with family left behind. Irish would almost exclusively socialise with other Irish people, through Irish Clubs and the GAA. Not so much now a days, I live in the UK now and rarely ever meet another Irish person. If I need to I can be back in Ireland in a couple of hours.
Went to London 35years go stayed in neasdon behind the three barrels lovely pub was lovely girl working there mary from achill used have our pint ready when she see us come in door hope shes keeping well I stayed in neasdon bout 2years they were good old days when young
Brilliant story like a lot of Irishmen went through 💪🏻🇮🇪👍🏻☘️☘️☘️
If anyone knows of Jim, please leave a comment below. Cheers.
I live in Lanesborough, Longford. I’ll show my neighbour. She knows lots of people.
He's sound like sure hey!
He’s a tout got expelled from IRE
@@heaveauhu1335 like yourself
@@seanpadraigobrien1260 shit you’re on to me
A bit of googling tells me this is the old Nags Head, 456 Holloway Road, Islington. The area is now called after the pub, which is now closed.
Evidence: a shop in the previous shot is number 454
The post box directs late posters to Kentish Town Road nearby
The distinctive triple window on a building in the background at 1:00 is there in Google Street View.
Can anyone familiar with the area confirm this?
PS The clip is on the RTE archives, and the fella's name is Jim Fallon.
Used to live just around th corner from it Michael ,your spot on
Thanks Michael. You had more perserverance. My digging to find out where it was failed
I was a Barman in London in 1983 and I certainly think that Nags Head and Holloway Road ring a bell with me. I spent a lot of time in Kings Cross and the road went up to the Angel Islington and along the Euston road in other direction. Holloway and and Camden Town were to the North and Kentish Town was near (i cant quite recall without looking at a map)
The pub I worked in was in the City and The long hours and the day and half off a week was the same. I used to go for long walks all over London on my day off and that's how I got to know the place.
The chap who taught me the trade in the Pub was Charlie Byrne from Longford, who I remember distinctly as a decent chap..
Sure now that's proper journalism good man urself
I think you nailed it. Here is a photo from flickr from the 1950s. Pub is on the right:
www.flickr.com/photos/warsaw1948/5476071793
Compare with Google Street view:
www.google.com/maps/place/456+Holloway+Rd,+London+N7+6QA,+UK/@51.557699,-0.119179,3a,75y,344.57h,85.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-xuGSAX-VrNJ38AZ-Go24g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x48761ba00f970c0f:0xafddd13df0f56ad4!8m2!3d51.5578347!4d-0.119081
Good man...I picked up on that quiet unassuming Longford accent straight off..
I love looking at the cars and vans of that time.
That's Niall Horan time-travelling.
I drank there in '74. Did Jim know the "Horse and Groom" on the Holloway Road near Highbury Corner? Murphy's people used go there in my day, mad place on Friday nights.
Aw,the longford accent anyway,story of thousands,some much younger,hope he done well for himself.
My dad was from Longford many moons ago his name was Joseph drumm I married a Kerry man 50 yrs ago got rid of him yrs ago went back to my maiden name of drumm yrs ago
@@brendadrumm9708 Brenda, my granny was Drumm , from Longford. She was Bridie, passed away a few years ago. My mother's mother.
I reckon there's a good chance we're related. 😉
Not a Longford accent today Charles 😑
@@tomellis4324Still is the accent for much of the county. Someone said in another comment that he was from Newtown Cashel. Still plenty of people in that part of the world with that soft, flat accent.
Fair play to him, just ur every day hardworking man, no airs or graces. Looked up the bar and its still running.
what an innocent young man he was .. hope he made it home safe
Young irishmen in london during the 70's were viewed with suspicion due to the terrorist situation. Not their fault of course,just the way it was in those days.
Aww I hope he found a friend 😢
Still there by all accounts, made it as far as Edgware Road..
So long as he didn't go to Watford 🤣
Didn't know Tom Waits was from Longford.
Thankyou. You saved me writing a comment! lol
Did you see the postbox? Nine collections every weekday, 3 on a Saturday and one on Sundays and Bank Holidays!
He reminds of the character Chris Reilly in "The Wind That Shakes The Barley"
I wonder what this young lad’s life played out.
He probably owns all the Nags Head Pub's in London by now lol
Does anyone remember Wards Irish House in Piccadily ? Down a couple of flights of stairs to a great pint of Guinness at the correct temperature so you could get the most out of it.
A barman in Ireland used to be a trade....one trained barman in Ireland could serve a dozen customers in one go... remembering all the drinks prices and change ...with mental arithmetic..
True. My brother left Ireland for London in the mid 1960's after 4 years as an apprentice barman in Cork. I believe the full apprenticeship then lasted 7 years which is the same length of time it takes to become a priest. Similar to this chap he found live in employment as a barman in a pub in Kentish town. The landlord couldn't believe his luck that a professional barman had landed on his doorstep. The other bar staff remarked that the quality of food had suddenly improved. This must have been an effort by the landlord to hold on to his new recruit.
He only stayed long enough to find his feet before moving on to more rewarding employment.
Yeah, I witnessed this in Dublin in the early 90s, went over when my aunt died. A dozen, more like 20. Remembered the lot. I'm like, how can you possibly remember all of this. He was correcting me.
And a talent for the fiddle.....
I love these videos eventho they make me sad…
About same age as myself then ...72 now. He's probably done well by working hard. But I'd guess moved out of London after a while. Midlands or North ?
He's back in longford
Who made this clip? Was not so easy with the technology those days.
Good ol’ Jimmy!
Sad part they all went for a while and stayed always dreaming of home I can talk for my own family and 99% of Irish emigrants in London I know and have met, even sadder some never went back home again always believing it was temporary. Very sad.
I'm English , lived in a shared house with 3 older Irish guys in London last year. I thought it was sad they never went home but they all said they were happy enough . Got a lot of respect for those guys and Irish in general .
what year was that?..i was there too. ..danced in the galty..oh for the memories..😑
About 7 collections daily from the post box
Such an easy ascent on the ear
Beautiful smile.
He looks so cool.
My parents
Came over from Longford in 1964 to London. Brought up in Harlesden NW10. Still remember the the place we lived in. In today standard it would be classed as unliveable. Not like people who come to this country today wanting 3 bedroom house with all the benefits.
I knew harlesden well, rough place, drank in the fiddler's on the main Street.
@@patrickglennon6834
Many the nights spent watching live bands at the Mean Fiddler. Today it a block of apartments.
@@johngill7776 pity that, the old Irish bars are a dying breed in London.
@@patrickglennon6834
Good old Irish pubs Like in Kilburn Camden ,Cricklewood all gone now.
How'ya John
I lived in Harlsden Gardens & Tubbs Road between 1988 & 91, Green Man, Wilsden Junction etc
Liked Harlsden
Take care Lad's
Jack
Tipperary
Irish guys sooo 😍. Very easy on the eye!
👋
good video , few of the boyos in the nag head those times , do u know del boy trotter ,
Are we looking at Finsbury Park here?
No thank Buddha .Holloway road .2 miles of Ireland in London,from Islington to Highgate .
The Nags Head pub was on the corner of Holloway Road and Seven Sisters Road, it was still there (just about) when I moved to Holloway in 1997, but has now been turned into an arcade.
The British love the Irish their our family, it's only the big knobs that course the trouble between us ! without them we'd be grand !
We should especially stick together now in these times that are upon us.We should both be firmly on the side of Christian Civilization.
The acrimony of the past should be dead and buried .All Christian nations from Ireland in the west to Russia in the east should be on the same page against the forces of Cultural Marxism and their proxies of nihilism and barbarism.
@@joekavanagh8997 too right Joe , take care mate
@@mooncoolpix6496 I forget which American patriot said ,"We should all hang together or we will surely hang separately!" It's as true now as it was over 200 years when it was written or said.I think it was Benjamin Franklin.If not Thomas Jefferson.We need men like them now but I don't see any on the horizon .All we have are politicians and what we need are statesmen on both sides of the wide Atlantic.
(Thanks for encouraging reply)
On which channel was this originally broadcast?
Does anyone know that fella
Where in London is the Nag's Head? Is it still there, so many pubs have closed?
456 Holloway Road
Building there but pub no more
Nags Head is also the name of the fictional pub in Only Fools and Horses
An innocent fella.but he learned the craic as all Irish do.london is great for Irish people
But we were all innocent we fellas then I went to eng 69 , never seen a coloured man double /decker bus , roundabout , in our little irish village (like most ) 1 street light , and then overnight your in a big city , talk about a wake up call , took some getting used to , but u had to . stayed 28 years , and finally came home for good I was one of the lucky ones thousands made the same promise but never got back
@@glossalth Many stayed too long in bed sit land in London .Headed into old age and poverty .
I was sworn to keep this a secrete since 1969 but now it the time to let the cat out of his bag, This fine young man is none other than the very great and most holly Thomas Alan Waits who was born on the 7th December 1949, the same month as the baby Jesus, he is now better known as the great recording artist and bar piano player Tom Waits, You should listen to his music and story songs, they are the best. He now resides in the good old USofA
"The darkies". Jaysus that caught me off guard
my irish dad called them darkies most did them days
"I walked into this pub and I bumped into two blokes one from Scotland and the other was English and I thought to myself Deja Vu!"
£12 a week would be about £212 in today's money. Not a bad disposable income for a young barman really as the job likely came with a room upstairs.
I doubt there is a bad bone in his body, but I nearly spit my coffee out when he said this: "Nearly all Irish...you get an odd Englishman and a few of the darkies" None of that pc stuff back then. lol
don't get him started about the south Asians.
Like my Grandad said after the Bishopsgate bombing, 'we built London, we can take it down and sure its jobs for the boys again'.
Niall Horan anyone?
Tom Waites
Yes ,you are absolutely right he looks like Tom Waits .But I doubt he can sing like him.Who does ,come to think of it.
Got the head on him of him alright
You're spot on with Tom Waites
grand lad
Is he from Granard?
0:48 Corvette Stingray! :0)
Jesus. The young little fella !!! Probably know him (ill let yaz know like lol). Clearly advertising back in day as to WHY its a good idea to move uk. Not sure about that now like! But people are people. My family is from Longford... We say "take ppl as ya find them" 🍀💪
Oliver Hardy @3:00
Niall Horan’s uncle😂😂😂🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
Which uncle you talking about
He came out colder than he went in sure
Didn't break a sweat in that pub slacken c#$£ haha
Clever not to wander too far. You would get lost. i would.
There's no cultural marxism in these comments.
£9.12 is roughly £160 quid today. Sounds pretty shite for the hours he did
A quick google shows the average weekly wage in London in 1969 was 32 GBP per week. He was paid 9 pound, 12 shillings AFTER tax, ie net take home pay, AND he worked 68.5-79 hours a week, depending on whether that 2 hour gap between 3-5 p.m. was a lunch break for him or if he still had to work when the customers left between 3-5 p.m. By all available accounts it was a fucking dreadful wage for the hours put in compared to what people would make just for an ordinary 40-45 hour week, but maybe coming from levels of near third world poverty in 1960's Ireland, and seeing a loaf of bread cost just 9 p in pre Oil crisis Britain, it might have seemed like an ok deal. I am sure he saved money living in the pub's upstairs too, but I hope he was not working there long and not when the prices went up massively in 1973 lol.
I don't know. For a single man with no rent and no dependents, getting 9 pounds a week, at a time when fish and chips cost 5 shillings, and a loaf of bread cost one shilling, seems liveable.
It was but it was psychological in that he didn't have any bills at all.. How much would he have needed to buy his food, rent, electric, gas, a double edged sword.. 😫
@@apjpisared It was ok for the Start .He got some experience and a safe place to live .
They took full advantage of the uneducated paddy in England at that time.
i am sorry he got lonesome.
The suitcase is empty
He can't pull a pint of Guinness thats for sure
What part of the Longford
Does it matter ?
@@anthonydowling3356 yes it does. It could be my relations
@@seanpadraigobrien1260 OK ,i get it .
Any idea of his second name?
@@joannephillips1364 Fallon.
His description of black people 😱😱 but I suppose that was the norm of that time.
Nowadays you could be sent to the Gulag for saying "darkie",but it's quite ok to say ,"paddy","Mick" ,"greaseball " or "dago".
@@joekavanagh8997 So now you`re showing your true colours, no pun intended.
@@Parseenfroo Well Said.But I firmly believe we should ALL be treated the same
@@joekavanagh8997 Then please accept my apology for jumping to the wrong conclusion, I wish you well Joe.
@@Parseenfroo That's ok my friend, if everyone was like you and me,all the policemen would be firemen and sanitation workers because they wouldn't be needed!
Happy Easter to you and yours!
He should have gotten a role as a barman in The Shining in fairness.
Meaning ?B.T.W ,I saw you coming .Done a dive ,and so you never saw me .
What language is he speaking?
What language are you typing?
@@mariamoyles189 😁😁😁 that put the prick in his place Maria
@@tomellis4324 haha. Ye. I hate them random bullshit txts stay away from Ireland with them
It is ignorance that English suffers from and Gay Byrne asked them ‘why do you think they are like that’ and the English man say’s don’t know. Well that was a long time ago.
He's lucky he didn't end up in broadmore prison for being Irish at the time.
I'd say he left roscommon for London to find himself....... If you get my drift
And please God he did and found someone to share his life with.
Oh yes I'm sure he did alright....... In soho
It's fun to stay at the YMCA.
@@greenwater7508 did he not remark he never went too far so Soho would have been out of his circumference 🙄
9£ as a salary per week after tax!!!!
Jaaaaaaaaaysus!!!
would build a 3 bedroom bungalow on your own site in the country for about 2000 at that time .........
About £150 a week in today's money, his lodging & food were included...
Yes but it was about 15p for a pint.You could get half plastered for a pound and have enough left over for a bag of chips!
Jesus, that young lad works 80 hours a week.
Casual racism 1969: "a few of the darkies"
Everything's Rrrracist 2023: Roads, school, air conditioning, white t-shirts........
Thats a sloppy pint of Guinness he pulled
He didn't pour the full pint. He would have let it stand for a minute or two, then topped it up.
I’d rather to be digging spuds with my bare hands in Longford instead of bar work in London, then again Jim looks like a chap the didn’t like to get his hands dirty.
In 52 years our country has been wrecked by way way way too many foreigners, we don't and never have seen Irish as foreigners, look at all those lovely white faces in this video, it's a horrendously different picture now and it doesn't work sorry
Really ,the Irish were treated worse than any foreigners as you put it.I was there and lived it.
You clearly did not or you are just plain moronic.
All those years of Irish self-determination and you view the Irish as British. Embarrassing on so many different levels
@@isaythis959 The Irish nation is dead I don't know how you don't see the writing on the wall. Petty squabbles like this make you look like a fool. When Julian sees the same thing happening to his own country...
An insight into a racist who can't pour a pint and doesn't want to go anywhere. Inspirational.
a racist?. give over u mug
Educate yourself you moron
Brave words boys
@@TheGombeen A woke, virtue signalling know it all from 2022 comes to condemn and castigate a young Irish lad in 1969 for using language that was commonplace for that time period. A young lad away from home trying his best to make it in the world.
Congratulations, I hope you sleep easier tonight.
@@TheGombeen The name suits you.