Irish clubs and pubs

As I gather stories from The Irish in Leicester the conversation inevitabley turns to the clubs and pubs that we would gather in for the drink, the music, the camaraderie and the craic. I hear about lots: The Jolly Miller, The Hare and Hounds, The JFK, The Corn Exchange, The Highfields Working Men's club and so many more buy unfortunately I have very few photos of any of them apart from the ones here of St. Pat's club, The Palais and The Secular Hall. I'd really like to begin to gather more stories and photos about the clubs and pubs so please do get in touch if you have any.

St. Pat's.

Jimmy and Benny McEneaney

Upstairs Bar. Jim Stretton wearing the St.Patrick's tug of war shirt.

Doug McCarthy with the pool cue, Mick Shearer in the background,right, with the dark shirt and Patsy Feeney in the foreground, white shirt.

The Palais

Etta and Patrick at The Palais.

The Secular Hall

Humberstone Gate.

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. 

Fosse Rd

Fosse Rd North Park

The Phelan family came over to London in 1959 with 8 boys and 3 girls, including Bernadette. Mum and Dad and the children lived in Holloway for a while and then moved to Greenwich.

They lived in Greenwich for about 18/20 years in total but, sadly, Mrs. Phelan died just before Bernadette’s 6th birthday and her dad had to bring up the family. It must have been very hard for him with all the kids: the older ones helped out most, but all of them helped out when they could. It was very much make do when they first went to Greenwich.

Bernadette remembers having to share a house with an old lady, Mrs. Mathews, who scared the life out of the little ones. They all lived in 2 rooms and the dining room was turned into the second bedroom at night. She says “Mum and Dad slept in the front room: it was like the bloody Waltons but now looking back very good times, but very hard.” She remembers keeping chickens in the back yard: the kids used to hate going out to the toilet because there was an old chicken they used to call Granny and it would fly at them as they tried to go to the toilet. When the kids were trying to eat, the chickens would come in the window and try to eat from the plate as well. She says” I swear to God that is why we all eat so fast now.”

Bernadette left home at 15 and went to live with one of her sisters in London and met her husband John Elliott who was working down there at the time. That was back in 1972. She had only known him 2 months when they got engaged and then came to Leicester where his family lived-she was 17. They lived with his mum for a couple of the weeks then moved into a bedsit on Fosse Road North: but all her family were still in London. 

Fosse Rd North

Her first job in Leicester was with an agency. Then she had a job in a card shop on Belvoir St. She only worked there about 8 months because she was having her first child. Her first was born when she was 17, the next when she was 19 and her last when she was 23.

Belvoir St.

 She stayed at home with all her kids: there were no hand outs then so her husband, John, used to do taxi work at night and building work a few days a week to keep them going. He has been self employed in the building for over 40 years. They used to go to the Palais and the Adam and Eve for their nights out when they could afford them, which was few and far between. They used to shop at a small supermarket on Fosse Road and remember getting 2 weeks shopping for £9.00 at Xmas time. They got the shopping like that at the time because the shops used to shut for days on end (but they could get milk and bread from the corner shop if they ran out).

She remembers going to Wickstead Park once with the brother in law’s kids when she was 8 months pregnant: she went on the kids' ride with her nephew and they had to stop the ride to let her off because it made her so bad.  "Talk about lose all street cred! "

Stuart St.

After Fosse Road they moved to a flat on Stuart St off the Narborough Road: it was a shared bath room then and she thinks the rent was £3.00. This flat was in the next street to where John’s mum and dad used to live.

After that they got a council place in Braunstone Frith that was newly built and they thought they had won the lottery. It was a 3 bedroom house “all that room after the bed sit”. The bed sit had been furnished so they had nothing of their own. They bought the kids’ beds and got theirs from his mum. She remembers they only had one chair which they took turns to sit on while watching the TV. Then they bought a house on Liberty Road where they lived for 10 years. It was a 3 bed room semi but they did it up and made 4 bedrooms. While all the work was being done they lived in the garden: they had a caravan and 2 large tents to live, sleep and eat in. They had the 3 girls and a dog at the time. The garden was 150 foot long and the cooker was in the house so when it was dinner time it was a dash to the house and back with the dinners. She only had the cooker and an upturned box to get the meals ready but they had some fun while they were doing the house up. Her father-in-law took ill so they were going to Kettering hospital and back to see him.

One night they didn't get back until 1.30am and it was pouring down, they both had had enough of it all and just stood in the garden singing “Rain drops keep falling on my head” but they had a good laugh. They were there 10yrs and then bought another house to do up. They lived there for another 10 and then they moved to Glenfield where they have been for 7 years.

Bernadette only went back to work when all the kids were in full time school and worked at New Parks (which is now New College) in the kitchen. She worked for 1½ hours a day to start with but after about a year she got full time hours in Forest Lodge Primary School where she has been ever since, that’s 28 years .

She says “My first wage at Forest Lodge was £2.10 per hour until we got our pay rise a couple of years back. “My hourly rate was £6.40 an hour.I used to ring up management and tell them I did not want a pay rise cause every time they got a pay rise of say half a per cent we were always worse off ‘cause they used to cut our hours down. I once worked it out from starting until the pay rise I got the grand total of 24 pence per YEAR pay rise. I told the managers to keep it and leave us alone with our hours. I have my old hours in the office even now-what a joke!”

They have been married 39 years. “I don’t know where the time goes (could have got less for murder).“ They have 3 daughters and 5 grandkids. Her youngest is a child minder so they have lots of kids calling them Nan and Grandad which is funny at times because they are all nations. Some people do look when they are all shouting when they are going home.  Bernadette has worked for the council for 28 years now, all that time cooking school meals

Thanks to Colin Hyde for the photos. 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 or join The Irish in Leicester group on Facebook.

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.

Gotham St

George Corry came to Leicester in 1958 where his cousin Michael Howard was working as a ward orderly. Michael had told George that there was work in Leicester and that the money was good.

Michael worked at The Hilcrest, Sparkenhoe St. and spoke to the ward sister/assistant matron who was from Belfast about George needing a job and she told him to come up to see her. He went up on the Monday and started work the next day earning 15/- a week. Most of the staff, nurses and ward orderlies where from either Ireland or the West Indies.

George first lived in was a room in a terraced house in Gopsall St but only stayed a couple of weeks. He then had a room around the corner in 22 Gotham St which cost him 7/6d a week. He got all his food at work and worked 7-5. Some shifts included a break between 2 and 4 which meant you had to then work till 8.

Gotham St.

He lived in Gotham St for a couple of years and shared a room.

A friend of his lived in Tichbourne St, but he and his girlfriend, were killed by a faulty gas pipe in the house.

A friend in Gotham St asked George if he’d like to move over to another place and so he moved to Tennyson St. Here he had a room on the top floor of a 3 storey building. He did his own cooking using a cooker on the landing shared with a lady who had the other room.

Gotham St.

George remembers going to 7.00 mass at Holy Cross on a Sunday and being late for work. However, the Matron was Catholic too and he’d have been in more trouble with her if he hadn’t gone!

He remembers dances at The Corn Exchange, Sacred Heart, the Palais de Dance. and Joe Willis running dances at The Trade Hall.

George married Sorca Gregan and they  moved to Eastleigh Rd then Latimer Rd.

He worked at Wolsey Hosiery.

George’s two children Gerard and Sara went to Christ the King and later English Martyr’s school.



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.