When Islington was not yet part of London in the early 1800s, it already attracted 6,000 Irish migrants who settled around Angel and Archway. They worked in domestic services, construction and building canals and roads still in use today. Go on a history walk this weekends and trace the hidden Irish history in Islington.
1) London Irish Women’s Centre
While this site lies just outside the borough of Islington, Islington Council funded the London Irish Women’s Centre in the 1980s. After it was officially opened by the iconic Irish feminist Nell McCafferty in 1986, the Greater London Council, which initially funded the centre, was disbanded. Conservative and Liberal councillors also defended the funding cuts, claiming that the Irish did not represent an ethnic minority. Luckily, Islington Council granted it a sum of £3,000. It used the money to buy gym mats for lesbians’ self-defence classes and hold a conference to promote Irish lesbian history.
It was far more than a women’s support centre providing training programmes and music classes. Paying all workers the same rate and campaigning against abortion, it was seen as a radical group before it closed in 2012. More Irish women than Irish men emigrated to London in the early 1980s, but their story has been overlooked. The centre is crucial for making Irish women more visible in their important role in shaping Irish history.
Address: 59 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0AR
2) HM Prison Pentonville
Opening in 1842, Pentonville is now a men’s prison in Barnsbury. It had held many prominent Irish figures including Oscar Wilde, who was convicted of homosexuality in 1895 and sentenced to two years of hard labour. The Irish revolutionary, Sir Roger Casement, was also imprisoned there until he was hanged for high treason in 1916. As a British diplomat, he was captured by British forces for working for Irish independence. He was buried in Pentonville, and in 1965 the British government finally permitted the repatriation of his body to Ireland.
Address: Caledonian Road, N7 8TT
3) Former Barnsbury Hall
The seemingly ordinary house was once the secret meeting venue of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organisation pushing forward the establishment of an independent democratic Ireland between 1858 and 1924. In 1906, a young Irish man called Michael Collins entered the building and was initiated into the society. He was later a key political leader in the Irish War of Independence and drawing the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921.
Barnsbury Hall no longer exists but there is a heritage plaque honouring Collins. The plaque was unveiled in 2023 to remember him as “one of the greatest Irishmen to have ever lived”.
Address: 2B Barnsbury Street, N1 1PN
4) Islington Business Centre
Do you know Islington hosted the annual Smithfield Cattle Club Show between 1862 and 1938? Discontinued in 2004, it was once the largest livestock show in London. Every year, thousands of dairy experts and cattle from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and British colonies gathered in the Royal Agricultural Hall, competing to be the best in the industry. The Irish always won. In 1919, Miss Nanette Buchana, a 17-year-old girl from the Ulster Dairy School, won the best butter-making championship. Her peers secured second and third place, and the Daily Mail said “England was out of it”. As the 1902’s number shows, 97 cows entered the butter competition – it was difficult to win the competition!
The site, currently the Islington Business Design Centre which holds international exhibitions, is always a local marker of the diversity of British businesses.
Address: 52 Upper Street, N1 0QH
5) The Pig and Butcher
In the late 20th century, the pub known as Minogue’s Bar, a famous Irish pub that was always recommended by journalists in papers. Walter Ellis, a Northern Irish journalist at The Times, recalled when he watched the 1990 World Cup’s semi-final between England and Germany with other Irish friends in the pub. They met a group of Germans, and all “shook hands” and showed “proper respect” to each other after the game.
Guinness is the most famous Irish drink, but Irish whisky and its relationship with Islington should not be overlooked. In 1906, two licensees were each fined £1 for selling a blend of pot and still spirit as Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey. Islington Council investigated for a whole week with a commission appointed by the Board of Trade, then concluded that Irish whiskey could only be a pot still and “made in Ireland”. Islington played a crucial role in properly defining Irish whiskey.
Address: 80 Liverpool Road, N1 0QD
Nowadays, Islington has one of the biggest populations who identify as Irish in the UK. The Irish community has shaped Islington and will continue to enrich a multi-cultural Islington through its unique heritage.
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