‘The Irish was educated out of us’

A Liverpudlian writer’s new novel explores issues of class, culture, identity and anti-Irish discrimination.  For the first time Jack Byrne publicly discusses the tragic loss of his brother at Ebrington Barracks – a British soldier who couldn’t bring himself to kill ‘his own people’.

A Liverpudlian writer has released his debut novel which examines the complexities of identity while growing up in England as the son of Irish immigrants.

Jack Byrne's ‘Under the Bridge’ is the first in a four-part series, The Liverpool Mysteries.

The title is inspired by an area of the same name in the city and the book is described as ‘a love letter to the Liverpool Irish’.

Under the Bridge in Garston has historic links to Wicklow in Ireland where Jack’s grandparents were born before setting off for the Mersey Docks in search of work.

Jack’s mother was born in Liverpool and his father moved across from Wicklow after the Second World War.

For the children of migrants, schools privileged Catholicism over Irish culture or nationality, a trend followed internationally as the struggle in the North of Ireland became more militarised.

The novel follows reporter Anne and student Vinny as they become involved in a story of unions, crime and police corruption after human remains are discovered at a construction site.

It’s also an important commentary on British and Irish relations via Liverpool - a city known as the ‘real capital of Ireland’ with three quarters of the city’s population having Irish descent.

Although not biographical, a chapter in the novel reflects on a family tragedy.

One of the characters has a son who joins the British Army and is deployed to Northern Ireland where he commits suicide. 

Jack was 15-years-old when his family received the heart-breaking news that his 19-year-old brother, Peter, had killed himself at Ebrington Barracks.

Speaking to the Derry News, Jack recalled those painful memories: “At 16 he joined the British Army, he was what was known as a boy soldier, and he spent a couple of years in the Far East.

“Then he went to Northern Ireland in 1975 and he killed himself; he committed suicide in November of 1975.

“I haven’t mentioned this before but it’s in the book.  If you look at the theme: class, nationality and identity then there is nothing more sharply indicative of that.

“Someone from a Catholic Irish family joining the British Army and ending up in Northern Ireland.  Literally fighting against Catholics, nationalists, however you want to term it.

“You can understand the psychological pressure that that must bring to bear.”

RECONNECTING

The writer says that for Liverpudlians of Irish descent, they discover their roots in an elongated way over time.

But his brother was dropped into the middle of a war zone where he was reconnecting with his Irish heritage while being told that his ancestors are the enemy.

“This goes back to our schooldays in Liverpool where the Irish was educated out of us,” Jack explains.

“Imagine my 19-year-old brother in the British Army in Northern Ireland.  It takes decades for us to reconnect, that must have happened as a lightning bolt for him.

“There are other issues with male health and depression, but if you ask me, putting somebody in that position is not going to do much good.”

A visibly emotional Jack says that his family have never come to terms with Peter’s premature death.  Even decades later his father would break down when the event was broached.

“It’s very, very difficult even to this day.  When he died it was called an ‘accidental death’.

“It was so traumatic for my parents given their Irish roots.  They hated him joining the army but couldn’t stop him.  It’s what he was determined to do.
“Priests are not even supposed to let you be buried on consecrated ground if you commit suicide so there’s that shame and guilt connected to the issue,” says a tearful Jack.

It wasn’t until decades later Jack (below) got the Coroner’s report where he discovered it was in fact suicide.

DISCRIMINATION

That experience motivated him to explore wider attitudes to culture, class and nationality.

The struggle for identity today is not isolated to the descendants of Irish people, the division around Brexit is evidence of that, he believes.

The issue of anti-Irish discrimination has risen to the surface in recent months, most notably with Derry footballer James McClean revealing details of death threats and constant online abuse.

On Friday at Westminster, SDLP MP Colum Eastwood launched a parliamentary motion calling for stronger legal protections for Irish people living in Britain.

The move was prompted by James McClean’s experience and an Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation into Pontins for the use of a blacklist to discriminate against Irish people and members of the Traveller community.

In ‘Under the Bridge’ Jack touches on anti-Irish sentiment when a character shares his fear of joining a trade union. 

The man says: “I’m f***ing Irish, I wasn’t born in Garston, I was born in Wicklow, what do you think’s going to happen to me if I get out on the streets with bloody placards and slogans.”

Despite the huge size of communities of Irish descent, growing up in Liverpool there were no St. Patrick's day parades, or public celebrations of Irish independence. 

Jack casts his mind back: “The most common reference to 'Irish' were the jokes told by comedians on Saturday night TV.

“Throughout the 70s and 80s The Troubles and Prevention of Terrorism Act, created what might be recognised today as a 'hostile environment'.”

Against that backdrop, Jack says, a real hunger for identity outside of religious confines emerged.

This partly explains the vibrancy of adherence to Liverpool/Scouse culture.  A common phrase and a banner seen at football grounds is ‘Scouse not English’.

SOLIDARITY

While home to Irish people of a Catholic background, Liverpool is also known as the main centre of the Orange Order in England – it holds major rallies every year.

In 2012, efforts were made to kick-start annual St. Patrick’s parades.

However, tensions were stoked in Merseyside when organisers of the parades were accused of being IRA fronts.

That narrative garnered support from Liverpool’s Loyalist Orange Order and the parades were attacked by far-right groups including the National Front and English Defence League, Jack says.

Consequently, Liverpool’s Irish community was subjected to sustained abuse and hit with missiles.

But parades have continued in recent years and Jack hopes his book can be part of a healing process.

“Streets in Liverpool are just the same as the streets you’ve mentioned in Derry, with the same houses and the same people.

“This isn’t some abstract humanitarian appeal to goodness.  It’s saying that the trick that’s been played on us is to get us to oppose each other which leads in extremis, being sent to kill each other.

“That is what my brother was sent to do, and why he couldn’t do it, you know.  It was his own people, like looking in a mirror.

“The problem is that some of us have accepted the story that the enemy is always another part of us.  It might be Black, it might be Asian, it might be Muslim or it might be Catholic or Protestant.”

He continues: “The reality is that the people running our society are the people we need to challenge.

“Are they the enemy? If they close down hospitals, cut wages of nurses and people trying to survive, then yes, they are.

“Your friends are the people who can help you change that situation.

“The clear message from my book is that we are all the same people.

“It’s about humanity and solidarity, irrespective of where you’re from or where you are.

“Solidarity is to make sure that if I don’t want it to happen to me, I should object when it happens to someone else.”

Under the Bridge is available now  online or through your local bookstore it can also be ordered from the publisher  www.northodox.co.uk/bookstore