Abersychan author tells story of Irish in Gwent

'ANOTHER cargo of starving Irish was thrown ashore upon our muddy beach - some with the hand of death upon them and all presenting a most wretched spectacle.'

Thus begins an account of the arrival of the Irish in Gwent, driven here in the middle and latter part of the 1840s by famine that had desolated their own land.

All but a handful were Catholic and poor and thus despised upon two counts.

"But the descendants of those early immigrants are still here and thriving" says Brian Foster, himself a Roman Catholic who has taken upon himself the task of chronicling Gwent's invisible minority.

His book is entitled Famine, Furnaces and Franciscan Missions. The Eastern Valley Irish 1845 - 1880.

It is the twelfth local history book by the former lorry driver turned local historian.

Previous works have dealt with the Llanerch Colliery exploision of 1890, Pontypool Union workhouse and includes a tribute to the Valley's miners and the story of Abersychan ironworks.

"The ironworks once lit up the sky around where I live now. For the most part I've dealt with local industry but this book is subtly different in that it deals with a human group" says the 70-year-old who is a member of Abersychan and Garndiffaith Local History Group and Pontnewynedd Historical Society.

"In the first part of the book I deal with the miserable conditions these people who often had been duped with the prospect of money and jobs in South Wales were forced to endure.

"Many arrived more dead than alive and some simply dead.

"The Monmouthshire Merlin which was the newspaper of the day said of Newport 'The streets of our town present an alarming and lamentable appearance being literally crowded with famishing and half-naked strangers from the most distressed parts of Ireland.'

"I have included reports of the tragedies of squalor and disease along with incidents of drunkenness, manslaughter and court cases but also the Hibernian societies, the confirmations and schools and churches and finally, in the third part of the book the coming of the Franciscans who vigorously went about reclaiming those who had lapsed from the Faith."

In 1860 Pontypool had a Roman Catholic priest was barely able to keep body and soul together on the stipend provided by the resident Irish, themselves for the most part desperately poor.

Enter Father Elzear Torregiani, a Franciscan Capuchin who after the departure of his secular predecessor arrived in Pontypool only to meet a deputation of Irish insisting that they did not want a foreign priest.

"Most men would have despaired at such a welcome and with such a task ahead of them but Father Elzear concluded it was just the place for the Franciscans and with the zeal of a Franciscan set to work."

At this point there is a walk-on part for Miss Mary Peterson, a Catholic convert from England with a fervent wish to devote herself to God's work as a teacher in the Pontypool area.

With a cheerful optimism which would have daunted a lesser soul Fr Elzear wrote to the earnest young woman 'I have found a lodging for you so will you come as soon as possible?

"All the people here are very poor but Our Lord was born poor and lived poor and died poor and so here you can be like Him."

A century-and-a-half later the descendants of the early Irish arrivals are seamlessly a part of Gwent society.

"It hasn't always been the case.

"Just as there was friction between the Welsh and the English so both of them often turned against the Irish" Brian Foster says.

"But time brought acceptance.

"The priests moved up the Valley establishing churches and schools many of which are with us to this day.

"The Irish have penetrated every level of local society which is underscored by the fact that they provide a large proportion of the county's Members of Parliament."

A slender volume gleaned from Gwent County Records Office dealing with early Irish immigration provided the stimulus for the book.

"I trawled county records and libraries and newspaper cuttings which I spent so long putting together that my word processor became obsolete and I had to write it on an electric typewriter!" Brian Foster laughs.

"I seem to have the habit of writing books with long titles and this one is no exception but then it's a big subject which has not so far had the attention it deserves."

*Famine, Furnaces and Franciscan Missions. The Eastern valley Irish 1845-1880 by Brian Foster (01495) 774220 56 A4 pages costs £4 and is available from local shops and some churches.