Eoghan Dalton Reports from Makerfield
IN ITS ALMOST 140-year history, the Brian Boru Club has been the focal point for members of the Irish emigrant community who came over to Ashton in north-west England for work and a better life.
It’s been the setting for snooker tournaments, tug-of-war contests, and was even once raided by police for illegal drinking in the 1930s – now it provides a far less illicit environment via Irish language lessons and bingo.
Husband and wife Tom and Helen Moran are the current stewards of what is considered to be the oldest Irish club in the country, having taken over the running of the non-profit in the past decade. The club runs a busy schedule of events – both in the morning and the evening – regularly attracting up to 70 people.
Moran’s own father came from Athenry, Co Galway, and his connection with the Brian Boru goes back half a century:
“I started Irish music lessons here when I was 10 so I’ve a long affiliation with the club.”
The Journal / YouTube
In the years following the Famine, Irish people immigrated to the likes of Ashton, as the town sat in between key industrial hubs like Manchester, Liverpool and Wigan.
“They were massive areas for mining, cotton mills and glassmaking,” Moran told The Journal when we visited the centre this week ahead of a crucial vote in the wider constituency.
The centre, named after the famed Irish leader who saw off Vikings at Clontarf, recently welcomed the man dubbed the ‘King in the North’, Labour’s Andy Burnham, who is standing for election as a local MP this week.
If Burnham wins this Thursday’s vote and sees off Nigel Farrage’s Reform, then he is expected to quickly mount a leadership challenge against party leader and prime minister Keir Starmer.
Burnham is running on his record as Mayor of Greater Manchester, an office he took up in 2017 after leaving Westminster politics behind, and it’s a role that several people at this week’s bingo draw cited when explaining their own affection for Burnham.
The Journal spent 48 hours in the constituency at the start of this week, in the final few days before the byelection vote, and we’ll hear more from the other parties tomorrow.
During our time in the Brian Boru, it wasn’t long until photos from Burnham’s recent visit were produced.
Several people had their own photo taken with Burnham and printed out as a keepsake of the day. Burnham himself continued the time honoured tradition of a politician pouring a pint of Guinness during the visit.
Anyone who was more hesitant about offering him support said they would likely still back him this week anyway, on the basis that he “seems like a genuine northerner,” as one man explained to us.
Before another word could be said, another man whipped out his photo with the mayor and would-be MP.
Burnham’s main rival for this week’s vote is Robert Kenyon, a local Reform councillor and plumber – but he has come in for criticism in this campaign due to social media comments made in the past about women and immigration.
He said in online posts that women who have abortions do so for “vanity purposes”, and so they can “shag anyone they want”, while, leaning into a racist trope, he has also claimed that asylum seekers coming to Britain were mainly “fighting-age males”.
Kenyon recently told the BBC that he accepted he “made mistakes” and had made “crass” remarks on women, but added that comments made several years ago were being “dragged up” by opponents.
On the buses
To Connie Collier, who is aged in her 70s, this record meant she views Kenyon as “a sexist and a racist”.
Burnham, on the other hand, was a prominent supporter of the campaign for justice by Liverpool supporters, said Collier, referencing the 1989 disaster that saw 97 people died in a crush at Hillsborough.
“I’m a Scouser so that’s important to me,” she explained, adding that she had family in the stadium that day.
What really got the room going for Burnham, though, were his cost-cutting bus policies.
As mayor, he has slashed bus fares to a flat £2 rate and extended free travel beyond 9.30am-6pm for pensioners and college students. (Mayors in the UK have far greater scope for local policies than their Irish counterparts, who, save for the mayor of Limerick, fulfil largely ceremonial roles)
One man in his 50s recounted how these public transport measures have “helped a lot” when caring for his mother, as it no longer limited them to travel during the daytime.
Expert view
Burnham’s attempts to ease the cost of living have been particularly important for gaining his support in light of the energy price shocks seen this decade, according to lecturer Nicole Martin, who has a doctorate in politics at the University of Manchester.
“One thing the current government is really struggling to deal with has been the cost of living,” Martin told The Journal.
“Incumbent leaders in general are having a tough time with inflation and energy price shocks.”
Recent polling by Ipsos suggests Burnham’s strategy is working. In a head-to-head on who would make the best prime minister, Burnham held a 13% lead over Starmer.
Some 25% felt Burnham would make a better leader of the country – more than twice that of the current occupier of No 10 Downing Street.
Part of Burnham’s strategy, added Martin, has been to “really make a big deal on the buses” as a policy he implemented to ease those pressures.
She outlined how economic growth that has seen Manchester become the best performing region in England has allowed Burnham to use as part of CV, even if “some of the economic success has been due to policies set in place over the past 20 years” in the north-west.
Back at the Brian Boru
The Irish club is apolitical, but on one wall hangs a statement from its constitution, declaring that it would “welcome all people regardless of age, gender, sexuality, colour, ability of religion”. It also wants to “celebrate a contemporary Ireland”, the statement reads.
Some members wonder if this could leave it in a tricky position in years to come if the likes of Reform were to continue gaining ground. Nigel Farage’s party won almost every seat up for grabs here at a recent council election, giving it around a third of seats on the local authority.
Sue Holt, who joined the club as vice president five years ago, said that some moves elsewhere have raised eyebrows in the non-profit sector, pointing to a newly elected Reform-led council’s decision to pull support for some local Pride celebrations in parts of Merseyside.
“That’s a big thing. You’re meant to be all-inclusive and it’s very difficult to see how that will pan out with what people go for over the next few years.”