Biddle Rd

Susan Quilter was born in Leicester to an English mother and Irish father.  Her father, William Greally (called Bill in Leicester) was born in Roscommon in 1922. He was the eldest  of 7 brothers and a sister.

The family moved to New Parks from Moira St in 1961. Mum, Dad, Pete, Sue, Maggie, Dette and Gez moved to 145 Biddle Rd when Sue was 14: her younger brother Paddy was later born here.  Her father Bill had had an accident down the mines in the late 60s and was pensioned out.

Bill Greally's pit tag.

With the money he got he bought a van and rented a shop selling second hand clothes, bric-a-brac etc. He also had a stall on Leicester Market.


Maggie Greally's birthday at Biddle Rd. Gez, centre left in a stripy dress, Dette centre right, blond hair,
Susan the older sister at the back.

Ann Morrisey and Maggie Greally st Biddle Rd.

Later the family moved to Beatrice Rd to a 4 bed house with a shop attached so he gave up the first shop but kept the van and stall on the market. Sue remembers playing hide and seek and skipping with her friend Linda Illiffe.

Sue had married in 1969 and became Susan Quilter but divorced in 1995. She later met her own Irishman, Pat Cullen in 1998 and they have been together ever since.  She was in The Standard having a drink when they got talking and it turned out that Pat knew Sue’s Dad and her uncles. He took her to an Irish music session at Molly O’Grady’s and the rest is history!

Pat had come over himself from Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon in 1963. He says “I came here on the Saturday, I was 18 on the Sunday and I started work on the Monday”

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.

RIP Susan Quilter

Susan making her First Holy Communion. Our Lady's Church, Harrison Rd.

Sadly, the community lost a delightful lady recently. I had known Susan Quilter for almost a year and the first half of her story was posted here only a couple of weeks ago: Moira St.

She was very keen to share her memories of being an English/Irish child growing up in Leicester and gave me the most fabulous photos; so many in fact that I'm able to make two fascinating stories. Sue's partner, Pat, has kindly given me permission to complete her story by posting the next part, Biddle St.

Thank you Pat, and we are so sorry for your loss.

The netball team at St. Patricks school, Harrsion Rd. Susan, top left, with the lovely bow in her hair.

 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 Steven's Rd.

John Walker on St Steven's Rd. Tall fella, centre right.

John Walker was born in Tubbercurry, County Sligo in 1937. He came over to England when he was 19 on October 5, 1956 and arrived in Leicester the next day, a Saturday. He was met by his brother James who was the eldest brother and had already come over “for money".

The Black Boy, Albion St.

John first stayed in South Albion St. with a Kerry man, John Brosnan and his wife. James warned him that the food wasn’t very good and that he’d soon look like a greyhound.

After a few months the brothers found a room in a house on Avon St with a cousin, Johnny Armstrong, and they cooked for themselves. They lived here for 2 yrs. and during this time John worked for John Laing. John and James  paid £2 a week rent, a pound each. John did the shopping and James did the cooking and when James left John had forgotten how to cook!

He met two fellas from Charlestown who got them work with cars," no tax”. John first worked in Derby,  Matlock, Sponden and finally back to Leicester. In Leicester he worked for Johnson and Stubbs, a Birkenhead firm, digging trenches and laying gas pipes. After 2 or 3 months he was transferred to Northampton, then Runcorn and back to Leicester. He was then 23 years old.

Back in Leicester he got a room on his own at 8 Tichbourne St. and then 43 St. Peter’s Rd. with 2 other fellas, Johnny Quinn and George Callaghan.

George “ never washed a shirt”. He would buy a new shirt each week, wear it till it was black and then buy a new one. He’d be spending £2 for a shirt when John was paying £4 a week to have his entire washing done at a local laundry. When John told him George couldn’t believe how all his shirts came back clean and pressed: he didn’t buy another shirt for 6 months!

Johnny Quinn would take his dog to the pub; he’d buy two pints, one for himself and one for the terrier sitting on the bar!

They had a cooker in the room and John did the cooking and shopping. The first week they paid £3 each and John kept a tally of all the costs in a book.

John had been a Pioneer since he was 16 in 1953. People used to say “drink is a bad dog you have to muzzle” and ” Drink never made a strong man or a great nation.”

The other fellas liked a drink and would be dying for a drink on Sundays when the pubs were shut. Although John was a Pioneer he could see how much the fellas wanted their drink; once he bought bottles of beer and hid them under the sink. He told them he could get them drink on a Sunday and charged them £2 for it! They couldn’t understand where he’d got it from and he could never understand why they didn’t do that for themselves. (He gave them their money back when it he told them what he’d done.)

John would often make a big stew. One time he put the 4lbs of stewing beef in the pot but fell asleep and forgot to turn it on. When he woke up he put it on for a while and went out. That night George Callaghan brought a fella back from the pub saying “John always had a great stew on” but this time it was half raw!

In 1963 he bought a house on St. Steven’s Rd for £1,800. His friend, Big John Ward was amazed: “You buy a house? You couldn’t buy your breakfast!”

Like many fellas John would go home to see his family and would help out on the family smallholding. One time, in 1966 he met Mary McDonagh at a dance in Cloonacool. This was a fundraising dance for the local priests in a marquee and cost 2/6d to get in.

Mary had a great musical ear and could pick up a lilt. She could go to a dance, sit up with the band, come home and lilt a tune to her father. “Daddy, I have a nice tune” He’d say ” bring me the fiddle from under the bed” and between them they’d get it! They were married in 1968 by John’s brother, Michael, who was a priest.

Dunlop, Leicester.

Mary had already been over to England: she had lived in Birkenhead with an Aunty and trained as a bookkeeper. When she came to Leicester she worked at Dunlop filling in for a woman but they wanted her to stay on. Their first son, Michael, was born in 1969 and she went back to work after wards.

He remembers going to the pictures regularly on Melbourne Rd. and an off-license called Walker’s on Biddolph St  (which is now a funeral directors.)

They used both Holy Cross and Sacred Heart Church. They were in Sacred Heart Parish but the other side of St. Steven’s Rd was in Holy Cross.

John doesn’t recall experiencing any prejudice during those early years and one friend had even asked why so many people talked to him. John says “If you’re alright with people, people will be right with you.” “I often meet a black man and stand up and have the craic.” "When I go in if they don’t speak to me I speak to them."

Both children were born in Leicester; Michael in The General in 1969, John in The Royal in 1972.

Once both his uncle and father had died John says " Being as I was supposed to go home anyway” he went home and the family stayed in Ireland for the next 14 years.

John came back to Leicester in 1986 while Mary and the boys stayed in Ireland. They'd had a very bad year on the farm and eventually John decided to rent all the land out  and the whole family returned to 14 Linton St, Evington, a 3 bed-terraced. (The family still own that land.)

Linton St today.

Michael went to Charles Keene College and John went to St.Paul’s. It was only after a visit from the Headmaster that John realised his youngest had been ”schemin’ school” for months. Young John had done the work in school in Ireland and was able to miss school here in England and still keep up. The Headmaster even said " If he was my son I’d take him out and get him a job”. John went on to night school and continued his education getting a degree in Electrical Engineering.


 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.

Thank to Colin Hyde at EMOHA for the photo of Linton St.

First Holy Communion

How many of us have the exact same photo?
Lynda Callaghan, Sacred Heart Church.

Anyone else have one of these?

With my cousin Les Holt, Sacred Heart Church

 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.

Moira St

Susan Quilter was born in Leicester to an English mother and Irish father.  Her father, William Greally (called Bill in Leicester) was born in Roscommon in 1922. He was the eldest  of 7 brothers and a sister. His grandparents had a small farm but, although there was plenty of work to be had at home, the money was better in England. He first came over with three or four other fellas when he was 17 in 1939.They came to Reading where he got a job as an apprentice electrician. This was a reserved occupation which meant he was not conscripted when war broke out.

He later moved up to Leicester to work in the mines at Desford and had rooms at 2 Moira St.

Bill Greally's pit tag.

Susan’s Mum, Irene Lismore, had come to Leicester with her family when they moved from Bisceter, Oxfoshire. They lived at 4 Moira St!

Bill and Irene met and were courting for about 2 years before they married in 1944.

Irene’s parents moved back to Oxford and, after they had married at Leicester Registry Office, Irene and Bill lived at no. 4. They had 5 of their 6 children here: Pete, Sue, Maggie, Dette and Gez. It was a 3 bedroom rented house and Irene’s Mum came back to live with them after she was widowed.

Pete Greally in the backyard of Moira St.

 The older children, Dette, Sue and Mags went to St. Patrick’s school on Harrison Rd and Sue later won a scholarship to go to Wyggeston Girl’s school.

There was one other Irish family on the street called Quinn, and Kathleen Quinn went to St. Patricks School too.

Sue can remember Griffith’s shop; potatoes in sacks, sweet jars full of collar studs and buttons, slabs of cheese and bacon. She says “Even though they might be closed you could always knock on the door and they’d serve you.”

The family used Our Lady’s Church on Harrison Rd. which is now a Hindu temple. She remembers the May Day procession which went down Moira St, along Melton Rd, up Canon St and back along Harrison Rd to the church.

The picture below is taken on Coronation Day, 1954 under an archway on Moira St. There had been a street party to celebrate the Coronation with tables set out in the street. Unfortunately it started to rain and the women pulled the tables in out of the wet. Susan's mother, Irene, is left of centre wearing a swagger coat and expecting Maggie.



Moira St. Coronation day 1954.

Her uncles followed their brother Bill over and would often stay with the family. They might then find their own rooms or even go back to Ireland and come back again. Sue remembers that her Uncle Pat, known as “Black Pat” would pawn his suit on a Monday morning and get it out again at the weekend. “He’d come round on a Friday night with a steak to be cooked and a tin of Lucky Numbers sweets.”

Bernard Greally's Travel Identity card.

Click through for more about the original St.Patrick's school on Royal East St.

 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. 

.

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.

RIP Cathleen

Cathleen and her husband , Don Nolan.

Yesterday was a sad day for The Irish in Leicester: we said goodbye to the lovely Cathleen Nolan.
Cathleen was one of the first people I interviewed for this blog. She willingly agreed to help me and turned up with more photos and stories that I could possibly use here. She had been born around the corner from my own mother in The Liberties, Dublin, and there was more than a bit of me that hoped she might remember Sarah Hill, or more likely her younger sisters. Cathleen went by many names and "Kitty"  Nolan, as I liked to call her, was the name of one of my aunties, so one away or another I felt a connection with her.

She was lively and charming, a singer and a dancer: clearly a beauty in her day and a handsome woman right up to the day she died. She had an eye for clothes and fashion and would often comment on the cut of my coat, the length of a skirt or the turn of a heel. She will be sadly missed.

Cathleen with her own photo on the Ipad.

Read Cathleen and Don's story here.

If you'd like to tell your 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.

Callaghan: No. 43 most popular Irish surname

Finally my name has appeared in the 100 most popular Irish names. No. 43: at least it's in the top 50!

www.youririshfamily.com says Callaghan...

" .. was traditionally taken to mean 'frequenter of churches', but is now thought to be a much older word meaning 'bright-headed'."

I'll take the older meaning thank you. Do we really just hear what we want to hear?

Of the many Callaghan images available I've chosen this one because it doesn't have all the heraldic symbolism, suits of armour etc. Despite the historic bloody battles and feuds I''ll just take a wolf passing through the trees.

Thanks to www.youririshfamily.com for their continuing information.

If you'd like to tell your family's story ontact 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.

The General Hospital

Julia Sullivan, known as Shelia, came to Leicester on Sept 13, 1955. She already had two sisters here: one was working as a nanny for an English family and the other, Eileen, was married to an Englishman, Eamon Snee.

Julia was one of eight children and the youngest of six girls. She was educated at the Convent school back home in West Kerry and longed to pursue her interest in horses. However, her father felt it was not a career befitting a convent educated girl and expected her to get something better.

When she first came to Leicester she lived with her married sister on Duxbury Rd, off Uppingham Rd and later moved into nurses’ accommodation at The General Hospital on the outskirts of the city near Evington. 

The General Hospital, Gwendolen Rd.

Coming from the country at home she loved living on the outskirts of town, as it was then, and hearing the animals and horses in the morning. The new Goodwood Estate had been built but not yet around the General Hospital where you could still see working farms.

Shelia earned £7/17/6d a month and the highlight of the month  was going to Brucciani’s on Horsefair St. for coffee and cherry cake. She could also buy a new skirt in M+S for 29/11d and a blouse for £1!

She loved to go dancing at the “Irish venues”: Sacred Heart, The Co-op Belgrave Rd, The Trade Hall  St. James’ St., St. Peter’s parish hall on King Richard’s Rd and the Corn Exchange (which she remembered didn’t have a bar). And of course there was always De Montfort Hall on St. Patrick’s night. She and the other nurses would search the drawers for odd 3d. bits at home to give them the money to get in to the dances. 

Sheila belonged to the Pioneer Association, a Catholic temperance group, and she had taken a pledge not to drink. She kept this till she was 23 when at a nurse’s party she held onto the same drink all night so that the others wouldn’t keep on at her!.

The nurses had an English lady, May, who looked after them in the nurses' home and lived on St. Saviours Rd. She treated them all well and the girls would bring her back presents from Ireland when they went home. Sheila remembers May having a particular present from Ireland with Irish writing on it that said…Made in Japan!

One year there was a polio epidemic back home in the National schools and Shelia’s mother told her not to go home for the annual holiday in September. Sheila was given permission to take her holiday ay Christmas which was unheard of. She travelled back with another nurse, Mona Carey from County Clare, and turned up at Holyhead without a ticket and had to wait two days with no food to get a ferry home. When she arrived in Dublin she was due to stay with another nurse, Marie before carrying on home to Kerry the next day. This arrangement fell through and Marie arranged for Sheila to stay with a blind friend. Sheila spent a long night worrying if the friend would be able to wake her up on time in the morning….. which of course she did!

Sheila says that most people at home in West Kerry were self sufficient and lived a much better life that the city people: city life in Leicester was new to her and she had never had chips or seen a Brussel sprout!

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.