Come to your census – a journey to know your relatives
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Who is Mick Lynch and what is his background?
Who are we? Where do we come from? And how has our background shaped our lives? Many of us will have been thinking about those questions after the release of the 1926 census, especially if we've been able to find our ancestors and get a glimpse into their lives. A new RTE series, Come to Your Census, sees six well-known people do just that, and one of them joins me now. Mick Lynch, former General Secretary of the RMT Trade Union in Britain, came to promise... in the UK and here during national rail strikes between 2022 and 2023. Mick Lynch, good morning to you. Good morning. Thanks a million for joining us. Before we get into the census, just tell us a little bit about your own background. Very much London Irish.
So born in London, raised in London, but the real connection to the country of your parents.
Yeah, so, well, I was born in Paddington in central London, next to Kilburn. The two places are joined together, which is... renowned as one of the centres of London Irish activity, but like a lot of people, my parents came because of lack of prospects, and they both came during the Second World War in 1941 from separate places. My mother was from near Cross McGlen in South Armagh, from a farm, one of 11 children, and my dad came from the inner city cork on the south side near St Finbar's, Barrack Street, if people know it, up that way, and he was one of six, and Out of those two families, only one from each family stayed in Ireland, so that was the prospect.
Yeah.
And it's a similar story for all my friends. I mean, my wife's exactly the same story. Both her parents were from farms in the west of Ireland, and only one... I think out of 32 siblings that my children have as ancestors on both sides of the family, only four remained in Ireland, so... 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.
So your dad sadly died, I think, when you were a teenager. So the 1926 census gave you a chance to take a look at your dad, Jackie Lynch, and his family in Cork. What did you learn?
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.
How did the 1926 census impact Mick Lynch's understanding of his family history?
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.
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