The Mickey Mickey Shake
- 5 Dec 07, 12:02 PM
Well it was all swinging at the Drill Hall in Gainsborough, back in the groovy Sixties. Perhaps not if you happened to have an Irish accent, as this would have effectively barred you from said venue. This staggering example of cultural apartheid was advertised without shame in the Evening News on January 14, 1964.
It was acceptable to have the Irish over to dig your roads to build your underground and train systems. But let΅―s not have them in the dance halls, talking to the English Roses and diluting the blood line. We might shrug and believe that this was an isolated incident, but sadly not. The title of John Lydon΅―s autobiography, ΅®No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs΅―, alludes to the bad old days, when an Irishman had little chance of lodgings in Finsbury Park, north London.
I rediscovered the Gainsborough listing by accident in a cuttings folder and it seems quite relevant in the week that the Morrissey debate continues to rage. The author of ΅®Irish Blood English Heart΅― yearns for an era when Albion was quaint and apparently unpolluted by immigration. In reality, the cities were busy with Irish migrants, like Morrissey΅―s parents, who worked hard and were rewarded by chronic discrimination. Back to the old house? I think I΅―ll pass.
Stu Bailie presents The Late show on Radio Ulster, every Friday from 10pm until midnight.
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