Book extract: London is the cultural capital for the Irish, but that didn’t dim anti-British feeling back home over Brexit

By John Wilson Foster
Published 4th Dec 2021, 14:16 BST
Updated 4th Dec 2021, 17:53 BST
Terry Wogan — (Sir) Terence Wogan KBE, DL (Deputy Lieutenant, a Crown appointment), son of a Limerick store manager, was a cheerful fixture in the British consciousnessTerry Wogan — (Sir) Terence Wogan KBE, DL (Deputy Lieutenant, a Crown appointment), son of a Limerick store manager, was a cheerful fixture in the British consciousness
Terry Wogan — (Sir) Terence Wogan KBE, DL (Deputy Lieutenant, a Crown appointment), son of a Limerick store manager, was a cheerful fixture in the British consciousness
In this latest extract from a new pro Union book, JOHN WILSON FOSTER says the Irish are at home in Britain:

In the New York St Patrick’s Day parade in 2019, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald held up a large banner reading ENGLAND GET OUT OF IRELAND.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Sharon Horgan, who grew up on a turkey farm in Meath, moved to London in her early twenties in pursuit of an acting career. Breakthrough success came when she wrote and starred in the BBC sitcom Pulling. She married an English property developer and lives in a designer house in Hackney.

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The Wexford actress Charlie Murphy left for London in 2013 after success in a BBC TV drama and trumped that with the BBC’s Peaky Blinders.

Sharon Horgan, who grew up on a turkey farm in Meath, moved to London in her early twenties in pursuit of an acting career. Breakthrough success came when she wrote and starred in the BBC sitcom PullingSharon Horgan, who grew up on a turkey farm in Meath, moved to London in her early twenties in pursuit of an acting career. Breakthrough success came when she wrote and starred in the BBC sitcom Pulling
Sharon Horgan, who grew up on a turkey farm in Meath, moved to London in her early twenties in pursuit of an acting career. Breakthrough success came when she wrote and starred in the BBC sitcom Pulling

The convent-educated ITV presenter Laura Whitmore was born in Dublin and now lives in Camden, wife of a Scottish comedian.

Dublin-born Genevieve O’Reilly, of Star Wars fame, makes her home in east London. Niamh Algar left Mullingar in 2017, headed to London, and landed a starring role in the Channel 4 miniseries, The Virtues. Algar is now house-hunting in London.

Paul Mescal from Maynooth is not at the house-hunting stage quite yet, having moved to London just before the coronavirus lockdown to star in BBC’s Normal People.

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These are only the most recent southern Irish movie, stage and television performers trooping to London. They follow in the footsteps of countless predecessors, including Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole (born either in Connemara or Leeds), Cyril Cusack, Fiona Shaw CBE, Sinéad Cusack, Cillian Murphy, Andrew Scott, and Daragh O’Malley who grew up in Limerick; O’Malley found his place in the thespian sun by starring in Sharpe, the ITV series.

The front cover to 'The Idea of the Union: Great Britain and Northern Ireland' edited by John Wilson Foster and William Beattie Smith. Other contributors include DavidTrimble, Daphne Trimble, Owen Polley, Mike Nesbitt, Baroness Hoey, Arthur Aughey and Ben Lowry. Published by Belcouver Press, it is available for £12.99 through Blackstaff Press, Amazon & bookshopsThe front cover to 'The Idea of the Union: Great Britain and Northern Ireland' edited by John Wilson Foster and William Beattie Smith. Other contributors include DavidTrimble, Daphne Trimble, Owen Polley, Mike Nesbitt, Baroness Hoey, Arthur Aughey and Ben Lowry. Published by Belcouver Press, it is available for £12.99 through Blackstaff Press, Amazon & bookshops
The front cover to 'The Idea of the Union: Great Britain and Northern Ireland' edited by John Wilson Foster and William Beattie Smith. Other contributors include DavidTrimble, Daphne Trimble, Owen Polley, Mike Nesbitt, Baroness Hoey, Arthur Aughey and Ben Lowry. Published by Belcouver Press, it is available for £12.99 through Blackstaff Press, Amazon & bookshops

A select few entertainers become celebrities which means they settle in with the show-business equivalent of a professorial chair. I grew up in the sunny virtual presence of Eamonn Andrews CBE. He was born in Synge Street, Dublin, educated by the Christian Brothers, and was a sports commentator for Radio Éireann before graduating to the BBC in London. He was compère of the evergreen This is Your Life.

Andrews was succeeded as a cheerful fixture in the British consciousness by Terry Wogan — (Sir) Terence Wogan KBE, DL (Deputy Lieutenant, a Crown appointment), son of a Limerick store manager.

Now it is Graham Norton from Bandon, the third Irish star in the BBC firmament over the past continuous sixty years, subject of a 2013 Daily Telegraph profile, “The making of a national treasure”, the nation in question being the UK.

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Clearly the performative talent of the Irish needs a metropolis in which to take wing and London, not Dublin, is the metropolis of Ireland. And London, metropolis or not, is in England.