HARDSHIP and poverty is not a new thing and there are many Bolton families who can recall tragedy and sadness in their past.

Former Mayor of Bolton Martin Donaghy recently revealed his grandmother had died in a workhouse in Ireland and this prompted Tom Harrington to get in touch.

Tom thought the story of his own ancestors would be of interest to readers especially those who also came from Ireland as his grandfather did.

Bolton has strong links with Ireland and a huge number of men came over to England to work when things were difficult for them in Ireland.

Tom's grandfather, Patrick, was one such work-seeker.

He left Ireland every summer to sail to England and go potato picking in Lincolnshire or hay making in Lancashire, explains Tom.

At the age of 48 he got a job making hay at Old Rants Farm in Old Kiln Lane in Heaton.

This was doubly lucky for Patrick as with the job came food and the opportunity to sleep in the barn at night.

"On Sunday, on his day off, he would walk to town and attend mass at St Edmund's Church and after that would meet friends in the Hen and Chickens pub and also The King's Arms, next door, in Deansgate," says Tom, who lives in Daubhill.

Patrick came from a small village called Glenn, near Charlestown in County Mayo. "To support his family back home he would post money out of his wages," explains Tom.

This, in itself, was a problem, says Tom as Glenn had nine families names Harrington.

Apparently to solve the problem each family was given a nickname to distinguish them from each other and Tom's family was named Jack Faddy. Consequently Patrick would write Jack Faddy on the envelope when posting money home.

"To this day when I visit Bolton Irish Centre some members call me Tom Jack Faddy," he laughs.

The family would, however, be dealt a cruel blow. Patrick was busy at work, hay making, when he suffered a massive heart attack and was found dead in the field alongside Old Kiln Lane.

His Bolton friends decided to have a meeting in town and due to lack of funds and communication problems with his family it was decided that poor Patrick's body could not be returned to his home in Ireland.

The parish priest at St Edmund's offered a place in a grave at Heaton Cemetery which the church owned at the time but explained there was already one person buried in it.

In those days it was not unusual for different families to share graves to save money.

"This was accepted and collections were made in the two pubs and the funeral took place on July 18, 1923.

"In the next few years, due to similar circumstances, a further three people were buried in the same grave including two brothers named Cavahan and a woman called Mary O'Neill."

Tom's father and the son of Patrick — who was called Tom — was aged just 17 when his father died in Bolton and he followed in his footsteps and came to Bolton in the late 1930s.

He married a girl from Leigh and they had six children.

The second child, Kathleen, sadly died in 1941 aged just three months and was the last person to be interned in the church-owned grave.

"There has been some family sorrow because we have been unable to erect a family headstone and that is because there are other people in the grave."

Tom feels the most tragic part of this sad story is that his grandfather left home in Ireland full of hope "never to return".

Irish immigration to England dates back much further than many people probably imagine.

Rather than a phenomenon of the mid to late 19th century (as with Tom's grandfather) Irish folk had been migrating across the Irish Sea for centuries, usually in search of seasonal work or longer term opportunities.

Some towns had a population of middle class Irish traders as early as the 1650s.

In addition to seasonal movement of agricultural labourers there were also specialised migrations when hundreds of thousands of specialist workers responded to skills' shortages in England.

A year after the potato famine first struck in Ireland in 1845 to 1852 Irish immigration to England became hugely popular.

Hundreds of thousands of Irish were on the move desperate for food, shelter and to be free of the starvation and poverty that had blighted their home country.

It is clear that men such as Patrick would have been doing what some of his ancestors had possibly done and turning to England for help to ensure his family could have a better life.

How sad that it was here in Bolton that Patrick's aim to provide a better life for his own family would end his.

Bolton has a thriving Irish community and we would love to hear about that community and its stories.

Do get in touch with Gayle McBain on 01204 537269 or email gayle.mcbain@nqnw.co.uk with your stories.