On Thursday night I was at the Dockers Club with my wife to enjoy Kabosh perform the stories of Italian families who had emigrated to Northern Ireland.
Those first Italian immigrants to Northern Ireland had it tough – picked on as schoolchildren for being foreign, and bombed by the IRA who did not regard them as Catholic, but legitimate economic targets. One family watched from the beach as every Italian business in the seaside town was blown up. A man was in his slippers when a bomb went off and all his shoes, clothes and possessions were destroyed because he lived in a small room above his premises.
A family that made figurines, typically religious figures like nativity characters, were persuaded by a Belfast Protestant trader to make figurines of King Billy (King William III of Orange) that sold like hot cakes. An Italian businesswoman in the 1920s who had businesses in the Falls (Catholic) and the Shankill (Protestant) got arrested on a regular basis for being out after curfew (about 8.30 p.m.)
Some came looking for work, others were en route to America and others had fallen in love with someone already living in Ireland. When they arrived they found a cold climate, dull cuisine and a style of clothing that suggested Russian peasant. To get olive oil they had to go to the chemist who stocked it for earache sufferers. The only herb that was readily available was mint.
Something must have induced them to stay, most likely the warmth of the Irish people. My wife went to school with a girl called Cristina, whose mother is of Italian parentage, met an Irishman and came to Belfast to set up a home and family. She and her mother were at the Dockers Club for the evening’s entertainment which included wine, ice cream and dancing.
odespinner 