Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
We had McAlpine's Fusiliers up our way today
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Permalink Reply by Con on
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I don't know if that means a lot to people anymore? The first time I heard the song was in a old Irish Pub near Kilkee. Pecker Dune was a traveler who was quiet famous in the seventies and toured with the Dubliners and Thin Lizzy. Anyway I was reminded of the song when I first came to Harringay in 2010. We moved into the church on Mattison Rd. A very shy man from Galway, who was older than his years, stood outside for days. He would nod to say hello but it would not engage in conversation. After a three or four days he came in for a cup of tea and told us his story.
He has come over to London when he was sixteen and worked digging trenches in the road for McAlpine, Murphy and other such contractors. His first language was Irish and all he knew was work and pubs. When he stopped working he lost the network of friends he had. He attended the church on Mattison Rd for years but when that closed as a parish church he lost an other network.
His health was going further into decline and he was self neglecting. In the first year we were able to help tidy up his flat and put in a new bed but after that he was too anxious to let us near his flat. Over the next four years he got worse. People would being him clothes and they piled up in his bedroom and living room. Others would give him money and he would walk around with a ball of cash in his pocket. He didn't eat and his health got worse.
Eventually social services intervened and he is living in an environment that is safe for him and but the life he knew is gone.
I often see old Irishmen in the around North London sitting in cafes idling over a cup of tea. I wonder how many of these McAlpine veterans are still around. Before I came to London there was a recognition by the Irish government that many of those Irish people had been failed by the state. Arlington House in Camden was refurbished and other projects like the Aisling Project started to bring people back to Ireland. Many of those had not returned for years. There is now Homeless Project workers are funded by the Irish State to work with many Irish people who find themselves living on street.
Our London is a shared city and experienced differently by those who live here. I feel ashamed that I haven't visited Peter for months. I haven't done so because its an uncomfortable and out of sight its easier to forget. I will try to see an old McAlpine Fusilier this weekend. Thanks for the reminder.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Devine on
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Well said Con.
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Con and Eugene, thanks for that reminder. I "worked for Laing but not for long" myself in Coventry back at the start of the 1960s.
More seriously, I wonder what has become of Mairtín from Connemara who stood at Harringay's corners for years. He used be glad of a cup of tea at the beginning but later declined with his shy smile but was still happy for a brief exchange in Irish or English and would walk a block with me to the next junction. Another victim of "the Lump", no doubt, with nothing to fall back on when age kicked in prematurely. He may well have attended St Augustine's back in Fr Noctor's time, though I don't remember him then.
Eddie
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Permalink Reply by EMC2 on
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I bumped into an elderly neighbour yesterday walking home and you and Con's reminiscences led me to find out more about his life. Long story short- he moved here with his wife in 1958 when he was 27. Up to the mid-sixties he drove steam trains out of Kings Cross and he remained a train driver until he retired in '95. I ended up in his parlour and I borrowed his picture of his last steam train, the Bongrace, named after the the winner of the 1926 Doncaster Cup, which I've scanned and attached below for the steam enthusiasts on here.
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