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Improving the Housing Conditions for the Irish Migratory Potato Workers in Scotland: The Work of the Bishops' (Gresham) Committee, 1920–1923

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Heather Holmes
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Extract

In central and south-western Scotland, squads or groups of Irish migratory seasonal workers, largely comprised of women and teenagers from Mayo, Donegal and Galway, were employed by Scottish potato merchants to harvest the potato crop throughout the harvesting season which extended from June until late October or November. As migratory workers, they started their employment in Ayrshire and Wigtownshire, to deal with the first earlies, and then moved eastwards into the Lothians, and northwards into Fife, Perthshire and Angus, to harvest the later ripening first earlies, second earlies and maincrops. As they moved their employment from farm to farm, staying at each from a few days to as long as six weeks, they lived on or close to the farms where they worked. They were usually accommodated in ‘bothies’, farm buildings such as byres, stables, lofts, stores, barns, stables, potato sheds, disused farm cottages and farm houses, all of which were converted into temporary accommodation for the workers. This accommodation was subject to much criticism and many attempts were made to try to improve its condition, not only by legislative control, but through other action, for example by trade unions and specially appointed committees. Of these channels, the latter (non-legislative means) has received very little attention by scholars and much of it is little known.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , April 1998 , pp. 57 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh Mathematical Society 1998

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References

Notes

1 Bell, Jonathan, Economic Change in the Dunfanaghy Area of North Donegal, 1900–1940, unpublished PhD thesis, Queen's University of Belfast, 1982, pp. 151–162Google ScholarBell, Jonathan, ‘Donegal Women as Migrant Workers in Scotland’, Review of Scottish Culture 7 (1991), 73–80Google ScholarO'Dowd, Anne, Spalpeens and Tattie Hokers: History and Folklore of the Irish Migratory Agricultural Worker in Ireland and Britain (Blackrock, 1991), pp. 176–202.Google Scholar

2 Irish Opinion, 13 July 1918.

3 Bell, , ‘Donegal Women’, p. 77Google ScholarGreaves, C. Desmond, The Irish Transport and General Workers' Union: the Formative Years (Dublin, 1982), pp. 203–204Google ScholarMcCabe, Anton, ‘“The stormy petrel of the transport workers”: Peadar O'Donnell, Trade Unionist, 1917–1920’, Saothar 19 (1994), 42–43, 50.Google Scholar The notable exception is McCabe, 42–3, 50.

4 O'dowd, , Spalpeens and Tattie Hokers, p. 192.Google Scholar

5 Voice of Labour, 17th May 1919 Glasgow Herald, 22nd June 1920 The Ayr Advertiser, 7 July 1921 The Ayr Advertiser, 20th June 1912.

6 O'Dowd, , Spalpeens and Tattie Hokers, p. 199.Google Scholar

7 Holmes, Heather, ‘The Kirkintilloch Bothy Fire Tragedy of September 16, 1937: An Examination of the Incident and the Resulting Legislation’, Review of Scottish Culture 9 (1995–1996), 63.Google Scholar

8 For example, Greaves, , The Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, pp 203–204Google ScholarGlasgow Herald, 18th July 1918 The Ayr Advertiser, 7th July 1921.

9 Ballina Herald, 18th June 1938.

10 Ayrshire Post, 25th June 1920.

11 See for example, Scotsman, 10th June 1971. O'Dowd was aware of the work of Father Cassidy (Personal correspondence); O'Dowd, , Spalpeens and Tattie Hokers, p. 202.Google Scholar

12 Bell, , Economic Change, p. 156.Google Scholar

13 Western People, 27th March 1965 Scotsman, 10th June 1971.

14 Irish Independendent, 24th September 1937. Father Hayes was a native of Clare, Ireland.

15 Scottish Record Office (SRO), DD13/1591, ‘Migratory labourers in Scotland. Report of Fr. Joyce’; AF59/64, letter from Canon Lord Archibald Douglas, Girvan to Robert Munro, Whitehall, London, 6th August 1918; Catholic Herald, 7th December 1918.

16 See for example, SRO HH62/13, Dumbarton, pp. 60–67.

17 PP 1917–18, C. 8731, XIV, Royal Commission on the Housing of the Industrial Population of Scotland, Rural and Urban, pp 193–5.

18 9 & 10 Geo 5 C. 60; The Parliamentary Debates: Official Report (London, 1919), 5th series, volume 119, column 2132.Google Scholar

19 Glasgow Herald, 14th August 1920.

20 Glasgow Herald, 18th July 1918.

21 Voice of Labour, 17th May 1919; Glasgow Herald, 24th June 1920.

22 National Archives Dublin (NAD), AG1 G2661 1926, letter from Scottish Board of Health to the Secretary of the High Commissioner for the Irish Free State, 28th November 1924.

23 Viet 60 & 61 C. 38.

24 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Migratory labourers in Scotland. Report of Fr. Joyce’, p. 2.

25 Mayo News, 4th June 1921.

26 Glasgow Herald, 10th July 1908; Glasgow Herald, 1st July 1929.

27 The Ayr Advertiser, 7th July 1921.

28 Mayo News, 4th June 1921.

29 Holmes, Heather, Potato Harvesting in the Lothians 1870–1995, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1995, pp. 393–394.Google Scholar

30 Mayo News, 4th June 1921.

31 For example, PP 1917–18, Cd. 8731, pp. 193–4.

32 SRO, DD13/1591, papers sent by P. J. Joyce, 4th November 1920; Glasgow Herald, 14th August 1920; Glasgow Daily Record, 14th August 1920.

33 SRO, DD13/1591, papers sent by P. J. Joyce, 4th November 1920.

34 PP 1917–18, Cd. 8731, p. 191.

35 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Bishops’ (Gresham) Committee for Improving Conditions of Irish Migratory Workers in Scotland. Diary showing work during 1922 of the Committee's inspector Mrs G., Bland’, p. 2.

36 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Report by Fr. Joyce’, pp. 4–6.

37 SRO, DD13/1591, Diary showing work during 1922 of the Committee's inspector Mrs G. Bland’. She was funded by the Congested Districts Board in Ireland (Bell, , Economic Change, p. 156Google Scholar NAD, AGI G2661 1926, Department of Trade and Shipping to Smith, H. G., Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, 4th September 1923).Google Scholar

38 Bell, , Economic Change, p. 156.Google ScholarThe Ayr Advertiser suggested that she was a representative of the ‘Irish Board of Agriculture’ (The Ayr Advertiser, 7th July 1921) A note by Henry G., Graham to the ‘Clergy’ stated that the Committee ‘have been looking into the question of the housing of the Potato Workers and especially the women and girls who come over here from Ireland, beginning in June’. (SRO, DD13/1591, papers sent by P. J., Joyce, 4th November 1920).

39 The surviving reports are ‘Ayrshire potato growing districts. Housing, etc., of Irish migratory labourers as seen in August, 1920’ (SRO, DD13/1591; NAD AGI G2661 1926) ‘Irish migratory workers in Scotland. Report on farms visited in Ayrshire during August, 1920’ (SRO, DD13/1591) ‘Irish migratory labourers in Scotland. Second report by Miss G. Thornton. The Edinburgh District’ (SRO, DD13/1591; NAD AG1 G2661 1926); ‘Irish migratory labourers in Scotland. Third report by Miss G., Thornton (October 1920)’ (AGI G2661 1926); ‘Bishops’ (Gresham) Committee for Improving Conditions of Irish migratory workers in Scotland. Diary showing work during 1922 of the Committee's inspector Mrs G., Bland’ (SRO, DD13/1591); ‘General synopsis of inspections 1922’ (SRO, DD13/1591).

40 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, pp. 1–11.

41 Mayo News, 4th June 1921; SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, for example, pp. 2–3, 8.

42 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 2.

43 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, pp. 1, 3, 4. So that her work was made easier, she suggested that the gaffers should be given postcards stamped with her address so that they could inform her of the next farm they were employed at, together with the length of time they would be employed there. In 1920 she did give her address to gaffers so that they could inform her of their location as they moved northwards (SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 2).

44 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 2.

45 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘General synopsis of inspections 1922’, p. 1.

46 The Ayr Advertiser, 19th August 1920; SRO, DD13/1603, number VIII, number IV.

47 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 4.

48 Ayr Observer, 10th May 1921.

49 SRO, DD13/1S91, ‘Ayrshire potato growing districts. Housing, etc., of Irish migratory labourers as seen in August, 1920’, p. 2 ‘Irish migratory workers in Scotland. Report on farms visited in Ayrshire during August, 1920’, pp. 1–10; ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 1.

50 NAD AGI G2661 1926, ‘Third report’, p. 4; SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Report of farms visited in Ayrshire during August, 1920’. Canon Lord Douglas of Ardwillan, p. 2 reported the ‘appalling’ conditions.

51 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 7; ‘Third report’, p. 2.

52 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Migratory workers in Scotland. Report of Fr. Joyce’, p. 3.

53 For example, PP 1917–18, Cd. 8731, p. 192.

54 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Report on farms visited in Ayrshire during August, 1920’, p. 8.

55 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, pp. 1, 3–4, 8; ‘Report on farms visited in Ayrshire during August, 1920’, pp. 5, 8, 10; Glasgow Herald, 14th August 1920.

56 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 3.

57 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Ayrshire potato growing districts, 1920’, p. 2.

58 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, p. 2, 11; NAD AGI G2661 1926, ‘Third report’, p. 4.

59 For example, SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, pp. 3, 5, 8, 9, 10; NAD AGI G2661 1926, ‘Third report, October 1920’, p. 5.

60 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 1.

61 Glasgow Herald, 14th August 1920; Ayr Observer, 8th August 1922.

62 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 4.

63 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 3.

64 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Migratory labourers in Scotland. Report of Fr. Joyce’, p. 3; ‘Report on farms visited in Ayrshire during August, 1920”, p. 3.

65 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 1.

66 The Ayr Advertiser, 19th August 1920; Ayrshire Post, 20th August 1920.

67 NAD AGI G2661 1926, letter from SBH to The Secretary, High Commissioner for the Irish Free State, 28th November 1924.

68 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘General synopsis of inspections, 1922’, p. 2.

69 Ayr Observer, 20th June 1922; SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, p. 1.

70 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, pp. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11.

71 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, p. 5, 7.

73 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘General synopsis of inspections 1922’, p. 1.

74 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘General synopsis of inspections 1922’, p. 2.

75 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘General synopsis of inspections 1922’, p. 1.

76 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘General synopsis of inspections 1922’, p. 1.

77 NAD AGI G2661 1926, letter from Scottish Board of Agriculture to Secretary of Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, 1st February 1923; letter from Department of Trade and Shipping to Smith, H. G., Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, 4th September 1923.Google Scholar

78 For example, SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 5.

79 NAD AGI G2661 1926, letter from Board of Agriculture for Scotland to T. P., Gill, Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for I reland, 31 st December 1920; letter from Scottish Board of Agriculture to Secretary of Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, 1st February 1923; SRO, DD13/1591, see general reports from file.

80 Ayr Observer, 8th August 1922; The Ayr Advertiser, 3rd August 1922; Ayrshire Post, 4th August 1922; SRO, DD13/1591, ‘General synopsis of inspections 1922’, p. 1, 2.

81 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, p. 2.

82 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘General synopsis of inspections 1922’, p. 1.

83 SRO, DD13/1S91, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, p. 3.

84 NAD AGI G2661 1926, letter from Scottish Board of Health to Secretary Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, 1st February 1923 Ayr Observer, 8th August 1922.

85 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, p. 10.

86 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, p. 4.

87 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, p. 6.

88 SRO, DD13/1591, enclosure to IX.

89 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Diary showing work during 1922’, pp. 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11.

90 Holmes, , Potato Harvesting, p. 330.Google Scholar

91 NAD AGI G2661 1926, letter from Scottish Board of Health to Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, 1st February 1923.

92 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 1.

93 SRO, DD13/1591, ‘Second report. The Edinburgh District’, p. 1.

94 SRO, DD13/1603, letter of 31st January 1921.

95 SRO, DD13/1603, number IV; DD13/1625, number IV.

96 SRO, DD13/1603, number IV, p. 8.

97 SRO, DD13/1603, number XVIII, enclosure to XXIII.