The Labour Party Irish Society held its AGM on 8th May; its best attended AGM of recent times. LPIS member Cllr Alice Perry has blogged about the occasion and puts the case for joining us here. We also elected a new National Executive.
LPIS is one of the Labour Party’s fastest growing Socialist Societies; join us online today and get involved!
The Irish community in Britain is a community in its widest sense. It’s Irish immigrants, their children, their friends and anyone with an interest in Ireland whether it’s the country’s literature, music, dancing or politics.
Today, St. Patrick’s Day, is a great day for the community to come together.
Irish people have been moving to Britain for centuries. Mass migration began with the Irish Famine in the 1840s and has continued since. One million people moved from Ireland to Britain in second half of the twentieth century alone. They lived, they worked, they had families and contributed to all aspects of British society.
The great building programmes of the post war years relied on Irish labourers. Just take the reconstruction of Coventry. The already large Irish comminity doubled in the 1950s as it helped rebuild the city from the ashes of the Second World War.
For decades the wards of the NHS, one Labour’s greatest achievements, have been home to the familiar sound of the accents of Irish nurses.
That Irish people worked as builders and nurses was so typical it became a stereotype. But Irish people contributed, and continue to contribute, to all aspects of British public life. The image of Irish immigrants began to change in the 1980s as a new wave of skilled immigrants crossed the Irish Sea.
For many Irish people the journey to becoming settled in Britain may have been tough at times and the story of the Irish in Britain can’t be separated from the story of the labour movement or the Labour Party.
Given the struggle many Irish faced when they moved to Britain it’s not a surprise that many found a natural political home in the Labour Party.
This wasn’t lost on the Tories. In the 1950′s Consevative Central Office discussed restricting Irish immigration, one of the reasons being that the ‘Southern Irish element was automatically an almost fanatical addition to the socialist following’.
From the 1960s onwards there has been a strong Irish presence among Labour activists and trade unionists. The causes the Labour movement fights for and the causes of the Irish community have been deeply intertwined for decades and will be into the future. This is especially worth remembering as this August we commemorate the centenary of the Dublin Lock-out, the most significant fight for workers’ rights in Irish history.
Not only has the Labour Party helped the Irish community in Britain it was also the party that helped deliver peace in Northern Ireland. Tony Blair and Labour’s contribution to peace cannot be understated. While tensions still exist, Northern Ireland is a far better place now than it was when Labour came to power in 1997.
But we also need to remember that many of the problems facing the Irish community in Britain today are the ones that impact the many communities that Labour represents across the UK. Low pay, lack of quality housing, high unemployment and cuts to public services damage all of us.
If you’re from the Irish community or just interested in Ireland and the issues affecting Irish communities in Britain you are welcome to join the Labour Party Irish Society.
The Irish community in Britain is large and we need to ensure that it remains strongly connected to the Labour Party. You can play your part, even if it’s just by attending events and having some fun.
It’s only £10 (£6 concessions) to join. Among the events we hold are a great St Patrick’s Day party in Parliament. It’s on Monday 18 March this year so please do join and come along.
Beannachtaí Lá Fhéile Phádraig daoibh go léir and you can join us online.
John Clarke is a member of the Labour Party Irish Society Executive and blogs at johnmichaelclarke.wordpress.org.
In this week’s Irish Post, Labour Party Irish Society Chair Brian Duggan gives his take on what Cameron’s Government re-shuffle means for the Irish in Britain.
Last weekend the Prime Minister started off the autumn with his first major Government re-shuffle following its formation in the Rose Garden days back in summer 2010. How long ago that seems now. Since then Britain has been plunged back into double dip recession, the Lib Dems ignored their manifesto on tuition fees, we saw unwanted, unnecessary and damaging changes to our NHS and youth unemployment went past the one million mark. A lot for the top table to think about.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor could have used the summer to do some thinking on how to get Britain back to work, back to growth and how to ease the quiet crisis hitting families across the country, who see bills and prices going up and not keeping pace with wages. Instead they have come back from their summer holidays with no new ideas and no new vision.
Cameron has three major problems which played out in his reshuffle this week. First, he has no clear plan. Second, he is easily pushed by the right of his party. Thirdly he has poor judgement and little understanding of how tough it is out there.
His first and primary problem is that he has no real idea of why he wants to be the Prime Minister. When he was planning the re shuffle, did he sit down to map out a vision for how to take Britain out of its economic difficulties and then place the best team around him to help achieve that? Or did he look at what he had and think maybe it could do with a tweak? The latter strikes me as more likely! Leaving his old pal George Osborne in the Treasury means their failed economic plan will continue to make things worse not better. This re-shuffle does nothing to change the fundamentals because fundamentally Cameron lacks a clear vision of what he wants to do with the office he holds.
Second, he has allowed himself to be pushed right by a party he doesn’t control. When he won the Tory leadership election, back in 2005, he failed to do the graft to make his party ready for office. He failed to initiate any process of moving the Tory party to the modern world. He hugged hoodies, huskies and rode the bike to work but the green sheen wore off pretty soon. Pretty soon it became clear that that the intolerant and the ignorant that carry sway on the back bench of the old guard Tory party still call the shots. Moving Euro-sceptic Chris Grayling to Justice and giving Owen Patterson, a climate change denier, the Environment department sits alongside his inability to move Iain Duncan Smith and shows us just who is putting the pressure on the PM. And he is caving in to it. We know who calls the shots behind the Prime Minister. The question remains, how long will they let him hold the top job before they start sharpening the knives?
Third, Cameron lacks judgement. The decision to promote Jeremy Hunt to the Secretary of State for Health smacks of poor judgement. As anyone who relies on the NHS knows, getting it right can be the difference between life and death. That’s why promoting Jeremy Hunt who showed poor judgement during the phone hacking scandal is potentially hugely damaging for our NHS.
So it falls to Labour to be the government in waiting. Labour needs to continue to respond to government attacks on the vulnerable and their failure to deliver growth. Labour will continue to challenge when the government need to be challenged and be constructive in offering a way forward that is fair and just. Labour Shadow Ministers are working to make a real difference on issues that are vital to the Irish community. Vernon Coaker, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, takes on the post with real responsibility, getting to grips with the challenges and sensitivities of a vital brief. On the economy, on the NHS and on welfare, Labour’s team are working to set out how Britain would be better under a new government and the Irish in Britain will play a vital role in helping Labour get it right on many of these issues. I hope the readers of the Irish Post will help the Labour Party Irish Society keep Labour looking out for the Irish in Britain.
With Cameron and Osborne in charge, no amount of re-shuffling the deck will bring about a change in course for this damaging, discredited and very Tory government.
Brian Duggan- Chair- Labour Party Irish Society
The Labour Party Irish Society will be holding its prestigious annual reception at Parliament to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday 7th March, from 6.30pm. There will be a speech from a senior member of the Shadow Cabinet. The event is for members only, but you can join online today – see the Membership section for further details.
We have a number of events coming up:
Irish Londoners for Ken phone bank
The second Irish Londoners for Ken phone bank will be held from 6pm on Monday 27th February at Labour HQ, 39 Victoria Street. We will be speaking to Irish Londoners about Ken’s support for the Irish community and his plans for London. To attend, please RSVP via the Facebook event or by emailing christinequigley[at]gmail[dot]com.
LPIS St Patrick’s Day reception
This will be held in the Jubilee Room of the House of Commons on Wednesday 7th March from 6.30pm. Full invite details will follow shortly.
Save the date! Campaign Day 10th March
We will be campaigning in Camden for the London Mayoral/GLA elections on Saturday 10th March with GLA candidate Christine Quigley, before retiring to the London Irish Centre to watch the Ireland vs. Scotland match at 5pm that day. More details to follow.
St Patrick’s weekend campaigning
As part of the Irish Londoners for Ken campaign, we will be distributing leaflets to the Irish community in the week leading up to the St Patrick’s Day celebrations. Get in touch by email (christinequigley[at]gmail[dot]com) if you would like some leaflets to distribute. We need volunteers to get leaflets out at the St Patrick’s weekend celebrations in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 18th March – let us know if you can spare a few hours!
As always, you can keep up to date on LPIS activities here on our website, or by joining our Facebook group or by following us on Twitter.
LPIS have passed a motion in support of workers in Cork who were made redundant with immediate effect and without pay in December. Since then, they have been staging a continuous sit-in protest. Read our letter of support and the motion here.
The AGM of the Labour Party Irish Society will be held on 30th January 2012 in Committee Room 13, House of Commons, Westminster SW1A 0AA (map) from 7:30pm. Elections for the 2012-13 executive committee will be held and we are pleased to welcome as guest speaker Vernon Coaker MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Nominations for Executive posts should be submitted in advance of the AGM to the Secretary by January 27 2012.
Executive Posts:
For more information, to submit a self-nomination for an Executive post or to put forward a motion for debate at the AGM, please email LPIS Secretary Denis Calnan.
We would like to invite you to join us for a Christmas Social with a night at the theatre. Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock is on at the National Theatre and Labour Party Irish Society members will be getting together on December the 15th to watch it and have a festive drink.
Details of the production and how to buy tickets are available on the National Theatre website.
Just buy your ticket for the 7.30 performance on December 15th and reply to let us know that you’re coming and we’ll reserve a table for a few drinks and nibbles before and after the show. Friends, partners and non-members are very welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you and discussing the show!
Join members of the Labour Party Irish Society for our summer social on Tuesday, 5 July 2011at the Barley Mow, 104 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2EE from 6:30pm until late.
For more information, email cquigley@lpis.org.uk.
Bígí linn!
