The Irish in Leicester Trail.

On your way to work over the next few weeks, or on an evening stroll, look out for the symbol below. To celebrate St Patrick's Day key streets in Leicester will be adorned with QR coded posters telling the story of where the Irish lived when they came over from Ireland. Each poster will link through to this blog  and will tell the story of a different person each time; why they came to Leicester and where they lived. Many Irish lived in and around Highfields in those early days of the 50s but some ventured out along Melton Rd and others up to New Parks, Clarendon Park and Eyres Monsell. 

The posters will up on the streets by St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

You will need a QR reader on a Smart phone or tablet and you're set to go. 
Take a stroll around Leicester and see some of where the Irish in Leicester lived when they first came over.

                                                 The Irish in Leicester

  In and around Highfields: 
Bakewell St, Berners St, Brookhouse St, Dronfield St, East Park Rd, Evington Rd, Evington Valley Rd, Gopsall St, Gotham St, Haddon St, Hartington St, Hobart St, Kent St, Kimberley Rd, Laurel Rd, Lincoln St, Maidstone Rd, Medway St, Mere Rd, Myrtle St, Porter St (as was), Saxby St, Severn St, Shellard St, Sparkenhoe St,St. Peter's Rd, St. Saviour's Rd, St.Steven's St, Tichbourne St, Upper Conduit St (as was), Upper Tichbourne St, Vulcan Rd.

                                     …around Leicester Prison and New Walk:
                                            Lower Hastings St. Princess Rd, Tower St, Turner St, 

                                              …around Clarendon Park:
                                               St. Leonard's Rd, Cecila Rd, Victoria Park Rd.

                                                   …Fosse Rd North, Biddle Rd

                                            … Harrison Rd,Moira St, Bardolphe St.

                                                        …and Henray Avenue.

                               
                       Not to mention other areas and various places of work across the city.

If your family are not yet represented here on the blog and you would like to tell their story please do get in touch.

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 

or pop in to: The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester or join The Irish in Leicester group on Facebook.

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester. 

St Leonard's Rd.

Alice McCreesh outside the Victoria Park cafe.

Alice McCann came over to Leicester in 1957. Her boyfriend, Gerry McCreesh, was already over here working on the building with his two brothers.Alice and Gerry were both from South Armagh. Alice was 17 ½ and Gerry was 25. Although there was a bit of an age gap Gerry was a neighbour and the families knew each other well. 

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As they were not yet married Alice first shared a house with Donegal people in Leicester. She had gone to the Tourist Information office looking for accommodation and they’d given her a list to choose from. One advert said “Irish preferred” so that made up her mind! The house was on St. Peter’s Rd and she shared a room with 2 Donegal girls and shared a bed with one of them. While she was living here she worked first at Woolworths and then at John Bull. 

“You could look in the Leicester Mercury and have your pick of the jobs.”

Gerry was living on Lower Hastings St and they went home to Armagh to get married in 1959.

Gerry McCreesh working on Newmarket St near The Craddock.

After they were married they lived together in a top floor flat on Saxby St: it had a living room, bed room, kitchen and bathroom and they paid £2 a week. Their eldest child, Caroline, was born while they were living here. Alice remembers dances at St Peters where they had great bands. However they didn’t have dances on a Sunday night like they did at home and this made her very homesick.

Alice and Caroline at De Montfort Hall Gardens

For a while in the 1960s, Alice worked with Etta Grady selling tea towels, mist clothes soaps etc on behalf of the blind and disabled. The work was door to door, 6-9 in the evenings: they were paid £3 a week but had to, at least, sell that amount of stuff. After that they were on commission. 

“We would call to the council houses at the weekend, when they had money, and the private ones in the week.”

St Leonard's Rd

 Alice and Gerry later moved to St. Leonards Rd. Their 3 children Caroline, Collette and Barry went to St. Thomas Moore school and then to English Martyrs.

Caroline McCreesh (left) and her friend making their Holy Communion at St. Thomas Moore's school.

Barry McCreesh (left) and his friend making their Holy Communion at St. Thomas Moore's school.

 As Leicester got bigger new shops began to pop up. Alice especially remembers Brierly's on Belgrave Gate which was the first of the "pile 'em high" type shops that we are so used to now.

For more pictures of Alice see Victoria Park

 If you'd like to tell your own family's story contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to:

The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.

Border Drive

William Patrick O’Keeffe (known as Bill) from Birr, County Offally came to Leicester in 1956 and stayed with his sister Kathleen.

Kathleen already lived in Leicester at the bottom of Border Drive, Mowmacre Hill. Bill’s mum was over too, also living with Kathleen, along with two brothers Eugene (known as Paddy). The other brother, Bob, followed soon after.

Bill’s father, also called William, was a barber by trade and had died when Bill was just 11. Bill’s mum, also called Kathleen, was a District nurse and as she was out a lot working the elder sister, Kathleen, became a mother figure to the children. The Irish would call such young girls who behaved like a grown up ‘Buddy’.  She is still today known in the family as Aunty Bud.

The children remember their Dad saying he was told”Boots or no boots, you’re going to school! ” - there were no excuses.

Bill had been in the Irish Army and had also worked as a mechanic, a trade he learnt in the army. When he came to Leicester he worked as a bus driver for Midland Red Buses.

Joanie O'Keffe, Border Drive.

Joan Elaine Carlisle, known as Joanie, came to Leicester in 1956 from Nagpur in India to stay with her eldest sister Eileen who was already here living with her young family at 80 Border Drive, Mowmacre Hill.

Joan’s father had been adopted and changed his surname to that of his birth mother, Mary Carlisle.  Joan’s mother was of Dutch descent.

Joan and Bill met one night at the Palais de Dance. In those days men and women would stand on either side of the dance hall: the women waiting for the men to ask them to dance. Joan has spotted William and turned several fellas down before he plucked up the courage to ask her. It was only when he walked her home that they realised they both lived on the same street!

She next saw him getting off the bus they were both on and prodded him in the back with her umbrella to get his attention. Bill didn't sat much when they first met so Joanie thought he was the silent type. Actually he was a bit embarrassed as girls didn't usually understand his Irish accent!

They were both Catholic and got married in 1959 at Our Lady’s Church on Moira Street. They were both well educated: Joan worked as a secretary at the tax office, and later as a medical, then, legal secretary.

The new Mr. and Mrs.O'Keefe

Although from an Anglo-Indian background, Joan embraced Bill’s Irish culture and was known for her fantastic curries and Irish coffees. When they moved up to Stonesby Avenue the kids remember people coming round after a night out at The Eyres Monsell club, their Dad rolling back the rugs and everyone enjoying a good dance.

After they were first married Bill went back home for work and Joan and their two sons, William John (known as Billy) and Paddy stayed with Joan’s sister, Eileen.

The plan was for Bill to call the family back home but things changed and he came back to England instead.

Bill and Billy, Border Drive.

 The family then moved into a flat on Clarendon Park Rd where their third child, Suzanne was born. Their landlord was a Mr Singh.

Just before their fourth child Jacqui, was born they moved to Stonesby Avenue, Saffron Lane. Four years later the family was complete when Siobhan was born.

Bill was reinstated on the buses on his return to England. However he later picked up his old trade of mechanic and worked for Hanger’s Motors on Welford Rd where Homebase now stands. In 1979 he began working for himself at 503 Saffron Lane, next to Burrows and Smiths.

Tom Cullen and Bill O'Keefe, 88 Stonesby Avenue.

All the children attended the new Holy Cross School on Stonesby Avenue in the 70s, where they all made their Holy Communion. Suzanne O’Keefe was in the same class as Marie Byrne. Jacqui was in the same class as Helen Considine and Billy played football with Helen’s brother Timmy. Billy O’Keefe was in the same class as Sandra Callaghan and remembers John Mullholand and Mick Tansey.  Along with the above, other family friends include the Brady’s, the Tyrell’s, the O’Hara’s and the Dempsey’s.

The family knew the Silks, Josie and Tom and the children, and Tom built the extension on their house on Stonesby Avenue.

Their mixed race background was still quite unusual in the 70s and Billy remembers being called” Double Dutch Paddy Pakki “ by other kids.

Billy and Paddy were altar boys at St John Bosco and Suzanne later married her husband Mark Porter there in1981.

Billy and Suzanne remember that if you danced on the bar at St Pat’s club you’d get a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps.

Billy now has a son of his own, named William Michael (known as Will).

All 3 generations of Williams uncannily have birthdays on the 22^nd of the month:

William Patrick, January 22: William John, May 22 and William Michael, August 22!

If you know any of the other people mentioned in the O'Keefe story please get in touch and tell us about it. If you'd like to tell your own family's story contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to:

The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.

Cecilia Rd, Clarendon Park

Cecilia Rd, Clarendon Park

Teresa Delaney’s parents came to Leicester in 1964. 

Joseph Michael Delaney, from Dublin and Ann, nee O’Toole from Cooladine, Wexford had previously lived in Armagh and Germany where Joseph served with the British Army. 

They came to Leicester to stay with Joseph’s mother,Winnie, at 14 Cecilia Rd, Clarendon Park and later moved to Tudor Rd. 

In between these two addresses the children Teresa, Ann, Deidre and Lee were taken into care and lived at the Carmel Catholic Children’s Home in Kirby Muxloe. There were several other Irish children there and the Irish nuns ensured that there was Irish dancing and enough cultural support for the children to feel at home. In fact Teresa said that she felt more Irish there than she ever had!

Teresa Delaney is now Senior Community Librarian at New Parks Centre Library.

Thanks to Colin Hyde for the photo: East Midlands Oral History Archive

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to:
The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.

Victoria Park



Car park entrance, top of Regent Rd/Granville Rd.



 From where I lived on Upper Conduit St,Victoria Park seemed a long way away and I actually have no memory of going there at all as a child. But the pictures below show how well used and important it was to many of the Irish community living in Highfields. The classic "lungs of the city" Victoria Park was originally a racecourse, (doesn't that make sense!) and New Walk was laid out partly to provide access to it from the town.

My secondary school was Collegiate Girl's on College St and I would often go up to the park with friends during the dinner hour (or even during lessons). I later went to Leicester University and lived on Clarendon Park Rd where Vicky Park became an integral part of my everyday life.

Josie Silk with Martin and Gabrielle.

What do you remember of Victoria Park?

Did it give you that space and time to forget the mines, the buildng sites, the factories and the offices?

Did it give your children that precious green space to run free?

Greta Holt

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to:
The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.

Mere Rd, Holmfield Rd Sileby.

Mary Warrener (maiden name MacCarthy) came to England  in 1956 with her parents when she was 15½. Her father was a business man who had been unsuccessful in Ireland and came over to Birmingham  to find paid work. He then went to London where he lived in an Irish boarding house and worked in the Post Office sorting office.

Mary’s mother and sister came over to join him in summer 1956 and Mary stayed at home with her Grandma. Mary herself arrived at Euston, 11 Nov 1956, on the same day her grandmother was buried and was sent to a convent school in Harrow.

She married at 23. Her husband was a civil servant from Lincoln working in London and she was a stenographer.  Geoff Warrener applied for a new posting in the Civil Service and was offered Crawley or Leicester. They chose the Leicester post where Geoff worked for the Official Receiver; it was also convenient for visiting Geoff’s family in Lincoln. They married in Harrow-Weald on 12 September 1964 and the Polish priest who married them was the only person they knew who had been to Leicester.

Mary came up first by train in early January 1965 to find accommodation. She went to Holy Cross Church for advice and a priest suggested an Irish landlady on Saxby St. who gave her lodgings while she looked for something more permanent. This was a lodging house mainly for Irishmen working in Leicester but Mary was able to share a room with another woman for a couple of nights. The landlady turned out to be a distant relative of Mary’s from home!

Mary and Geoff’s first place together was 131 Mere Rd, the top floor of a 2 storey house with a tiny back yard facing Spinney Hill Park. The landlady was a Mrs Keeley from the Isle of Man. A kleptomaniac, single Irish woman lived downstairs on one side of the hall door.  The kleptomaniac lady was an attendant at daily mass.

Mary and Geoff had first looked at a house in Clarendon Park but hadn’t got enough money for a deposit.   A few months later, they were able to put down a deposit on a not-yet built house, enabled by an Irish Free State Bond Mary had inherited from her grandmother.  And so they bought their first house in Sileby Leicestershire, 168 Homefield Rd in August 1965. It was a 3 bedroom semi-detached house, up a hill, with a view over to the Charnwood Hills, 15 mins. by train from Leicester. It cost them £2,400.  Mary’s father, working for the Co-op in Harrow, gave them a second hand bed and Geoff’s parents emptied their attic to provide them with furniture in their new home.

In Sileby in the 1960s Mary remembers having a grocery book from the local Co-op, leaving a shopping list in the shop on a Tuesday and the groceries being delivered before the weekend. She would then go in on Saturday to pay.

Mary started working for East Midlands Gas shortly after arriving in Leicester, in mid January 1965.  About three years later, Geoff also started working for East Midlands Gas because he would otherwise have had to return to London to continue working for the Board of Trade.  Both preferred living outside of London.

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to: 

The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester or join The Irish in Leicester group on Facebook.

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.