Mick Lynch

That was the prospects that people had in the 40s and 50s.

And then it got even more accelerated in the 60s, I think, with the construction boom in Britain, which brought people over.

So that's the background.

Well, it pretty much confirmed what we knew.

He was from the inner cities, from some lanes, as people in Cork would be familiar with, and other Irish cities, right in the centre, near the river, not too far from the Mardyke, which have all been obliterated now.

They were taken out in the late 60s and replaced by some council or corporation blocks, as they're called in Ireland, which are now due for demolition as well, I think.

And it was a culture of those inner city people, which was quite, they were quite poor.

My grandmother was a widow because my grandfather died in 1925.

And so my son, my dad was brought up as a free state baby, if you like, born into a new state.

He was born in 22, which is as the free state was getting founded.

But I think the conclusion was that the founding of the free state didn't change the prospects of many,

people in Ireland and nor did the founding of Northern Ireland because the outcome was emigration as it had been for so long and I mean I think I've got the view which may people may not like that both states that were founded found it convenient for people to leave because they didn't really certainly for the Catholic population in the north they weren't really wanted by the new northern state but in the south

If people hadn't left in those numbers, I don't know what the Irish Free State would have become of.

It may have changed more quickly, but it became a more conservative institution, if you like.

And in terms of education and health and housing, which are the main things for any state or any society, it didn't really have a programme.

And things seemed to me to just continue or maybe even get worse with the economic war later.

happened and the loss of markets in Britain and all the rest of it.

The only market that wasn't lost in Britain seems to be the export of labor.

So I think Ireland would have been a very different country if migration hadn't been allowed or if the British had said, well, you're not coming anymore.

I don't know how the Irish Free State would have dealt with that.