HAMMERSMITH IRISH CULTURAL CENTREMost of these pictures belong to my now well know theme - the forgotten Irish migrants of the 50s and 60s. People seem to like them, but I am struggling to move away from merely recording the emigrating process towards trying to create images that say something about what it meant to the individuals involved. Migrants arrive in a developed society - hence one looking for labour - from one that is only setting out on that path, and therefore getting rid of its surplus labour. Those that remain at home benefit from the assets the departing are forced to leave behind, as well as from the remittances they send back. This continues until such time as some kind of economic equilibrium between the two societies is reached. It is a harsh process, but it is currently happening all over the world. Better to recognise the process than pretend it didn't happen, or that it is not still happening to other societies.
What is the above picture Murphy's Men about? Well most Irishmen came from a society where women were not then tolerated in pubs (except in discreet little side rooms known as the' snug' ), while in Britain women had won important freedoms during the WWII, as they increasingly took on male roles that had been previously done by the men now fighting in the war. There was nothing, therefore unusual about seeing them in bars. In many of the pubs, though it is often commented upon adversly by writers like Donal MacAmlaigh. . in the rougher areas of London, women of a certain sort frequented the public bars - see the painter Edward Ardizzone's celebration of 'floozies' - and their tawdry glamour threw the otherwise very macho Irishmen into some embarrassment and they were forced to take refuge in their drinks.
Very enjoyable opening to the exhibition, well covered by local papers. An old acquaintance who was a regular at a poetry and folksong club I used to run in London's Camden Town in the late 1960s, Daniel Clery, turned up out of the blue. He had come all the way from Chicago and sang two songs to the assembled gathering which, I swear, brought tears to the eyes of many in the room. We hadn't seen each other in over forty years - but the decades melted away except for the indelible lines etched our faces.
What is the above picture Murphy's Men about? Well most Irishmen came from a society where women were not then tolerated in pubs (except in discreet little side rooms known as the' snug' ), while in Britain women had won important freedoms during the WWII, as they increasingly took on male roles that had been previously done by the men now fighting in the war. There was nothing, therefore unusual about seeing them in bars. In many of the pubs, though it is often commented upon adversly by writers like Donal MacAmlaigh. . in the rougher areas of London, women of a certain sort frequented the public bars - see the painter Edward Ardizzone's celebration of 'floozies' - and their tawdry glamour threw the otherwise very macho Irishmen into some embarrassment and they were forced to take refuge in their drinks.
Very enjoyable opening to the exhibition, well covered by local papers. An old acquaintance who was a regular at a poetry and folksong club I used to run in London's Camden Town in the late 1960s, Daniel Clery, turned up out of the blue. He had come all the way from Chicago and sang two songs to the assembled gathering which, I swear, brought tears to the eyes of many in the room. We hadn't seen each other in over forty years - but the decades melted away except for the indelible lines etched our faces.
Labels: exhibitions
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