Is Digbeth still Birmingham’s Irish Quarter? We meet community leaders & businesses in the district

Wind the clock back a few decades and the Irish community in Birmingham was associated with many areas across the city.

I was born in Sparkbrook in the 1960s and back then it and Sparkhill were neighbourhoods with large and prominent Irish populations.

Areas like Small Heath, Erdington, Handsworth and Perry Barr also stood out for their ‘Irishness’ for want of a better word. Birmingham’s demographics have changed massively over the years and while there are no longer suburban areas that are specifically Irish as such there is still a perception of Digbeth being Birmingham’s Irish Quarter.

It was even identified as such by Birmingham City Council and over the years many schemes to enhance its Irishness (Connaught Square being one of them) have come and gone.

Digbeth has evolved too and is currently a cultural hotspot with a host of individual and often quirky bars, restaurants, clubs and more.

The Irish character of the area has certainly been a thing for a long time. Back in 1964 when I first came on to the scene Digbeth was a focal point for the Irish community.

St Anne's Catholic Church

At its heart was St Anne’s Catholic Church, a church which to me has always felt like a church transplanted straight out of Ireland into the middle of Birmingham. It also had a huge social club next door - St Anne’s - which still exists today, though not in the way it once did.

Once upon a time it was a hub for community concerts and even pantomimes, along with the regular weekend nights of country and Irish bands performing to a full hall of people. There was also an upstairs bar which was well patronised and could be used for private events.

Around it were many pubs frequented by the Irish community and down the road Birmingham’s Irish Centre, which more recently moved out to Kings Heath. For some that might have been seen as a sure sign that Digbeth was no longer the city’s Irish Quarter, but in some ways that would be missing the point.

The Irish Centre served an important purpose for many years and was almost a home from home for some of the thousands of Irish who had emigrated to Birmingham.

Touring artists and showbands from back home like Larry Cunningham and Big Tom and the Mainliners and a host of others would perform on weekend nights and if you fancied a plate of bacon and cabbage for your Sunday dinner but didn’t fancy making it yourself there was no better place to go.

There was also Minstrel Music - an amazing shop where you could buy everything from Irish records and tapes (later CDs) to Claddagh rings and Irish dancing shoes.

The Spotted Dog

Back in the day Digbeth was a thriving industrial area and much industry still remains but not to the extent it once did. That meant that many of the old style pubs in the area enjoyed great day trade, among them the Spotted Dog in Warwick Street.

The Tighe family who run it have been there for 38 years and have seen a lot of changes but the pub has survived and remains at the heart of the Birmingham Irish community and makes a huge contribution to the status of Digbeth as the Irish Quarter.

Step inside and it’s a classic industrial area old-fashioned boozer yet it is also like a genuine Irish pub you might wander into in the middle of a town or village in Ireland.

Irish maps, paraphernalia and memorabilia adorn the walls and every other Monday the pub hosts a traditional Irish music session enhancing the Irish atmosphere to the hilt.

Yet it’s far more than merely a themed Irish pub - the sort of thing you can now find in any city in the world. Every Tuesday it hosts its famous jazz nights and there are other regular music events there too.

Anne Tighe, who is married to the pub’s larger than life landlord and Digbeth legend John, says that when they first took over the pub it was a gathering point for the Irish community, as well as enjoying busy lunchtime trade from workers at the factories and engineering workshops nearby.

“It was almost like a little club for older Irish people,” she said. “Quite a lot of women would come too, in an era when women didn’t tend to go to the pub on their own. People had their own seats - it was fun.

“It was an industrial area and busy at lunchtime. It was only the publicans who lived in the area back then. I’m not sure whether this pub is anachronistic now.”

Yet step into the Spotted Dog of a weekend and it is generally a busy spot, whether in one of its inside rooms or the covered outdoor area that is probably larger than the components of the pub put together.

I recall being there during the annual Birmingham Tradfest, which returns again later this month, and there being not one but four traditional music sessions taking place within its confines.

It is not the only Irish pub in the area either. There’s also Cleary’s on Moseley Street nearby. St Anne’s Church is down the road and is still thriving having thwarted plans by the Diocese of Birmingham to sell it off some years ago. The former St Anne’s social club is still there and hosts occasional rather than regular functions, though it is also home to the Birmingham Irish Association and caters for all its needs and activities.

Anne feels the Digbeth area retains its Irish character and says: “I can’t think of any other place in Birmingham that would be more of an Irish Quarter and we still get people turning up here who used to come here years ago.” Anne says Birmingham Irish Association is still the place people from the Irish community would go to get help relating to a range of issues.

In terms of places that are gone, Anne does not feel that the Irish Centre relocating to Kings Heath sounded the death knell for Digbeth as the Irish Quarter, though she does lament the loss of distinctly Irish pubs such as the Dubliner and more recently the Kerryman.

She also welcomes the arrival of new pubs and venues that have almost stepped in to replace things that have gone, notably Nortons in Meriden Street. “Of course you have Nortons, a big Irish venue and not just a pub. I take my hat off to Peter Connolly who set it up.”

She also admires its spirit of adventure, adding: “A lot of people thought it wouldn’t work. I love the fact that they try things and if it doesn’t work they do something different.”

Nortons

I decide to set off from the Spotted Dog for Nortons and on my way take in some of the Irish landmarks of Digbeth, including St Anne’s Church, the Birmingham Irish Association base and St Anne’s social club and Cleary’s.

Doing an about turn I get to a pub that’s hard to miss - the Old Crown. It might be the city’s oldest pub but it’s also a pub and venue that is at the heart of the Digbeth Irish community. It has been transformed by Ciaran Healy into a pub that boasts everything from cosy rooms resplendent with their historic features to a gigantic covered venue out back which features touring bands and shows big sports events on a giant screen.

Close by is the John F Kennedy memorial - an impressive giant mosaic in memory of the assassinated US President, which was paid for by the Birmingham Irish community. It originally resided in St Chad’s Circus but when that area was redeveloped it was relocated to Digbeth - a process which involved considerable time and expense.

Walking towards the city centre you encounter another popular Irish pub the Big Bull before reaching the former Kerryman, which displays a sign advertising the leasehold of the premises.

Shortly after if you turn right into Meriden Street you reach Nortons and if you keep going you get to another great Irish pub and venue in the shape of Hennessey’s Bar on Allison Street.

Hennessey’s is arguably THE place to go if you want to watch a big sporting event on a screen the size of a house, or just one of the many screens dotted around it. The big screen is located in an outdoor covered space that is usable all year round thanks to heaters.

The atmosphere there for a big Irish sporting event, such as the recent Rugby World Cup quarter-final between Ireland and New Zealand, has to be experienced to be believed.

It was standing room only and the whole place was a sea of green. I was accompanied by a few Irish cousins who said they had never experienced such an Irish atmosphere in England and didn’t know pubs like that existed. I didn’t make it to Hennessey’s on this particular wander, stopping off at Nortons to catch up with its owner Peter Connolly.

Peter oozes enthusiasm and charisma and has an unbridled passion for all things Irish in Birmingham. Despite his relatively young age he has been involved in events in the Birmingham Irish community - including the famous St Patrick’s Parade - for many years.

It was always his ambition to open his own pub and venue and he managed to do just that in 2019. It was perhaps the worst time ever to open a pub - Nortons started trading early that year just ahead of the coronavirus pandemic.

It not only survived it but has managed to thrive since then. It is one of the go-to places for people from the Birmingham Irish community and though it is not a young people’s venue per se, it’s fair to say it’s particularly popular with people of a certain age, many of them third, fourth and even fifth generation Irish.

It also has a massive main room which serves variously as a gig venue and a nightclub. It’s easily as big as the cavernous Leinster Suite at the heart of the old Irish Centre and while bands like Big Tom and the Mainliners (the legendary Big Tom departed for showband heaven some time back) no longer entertain Irish people across the water it sees performances of some of the big names in modern Irish music such as Sharon Shannon.

Which makes me think, is it, combined with other places such as Hennessey’s, the Old Crown and the Spotted Dog and others effectively the new Irish Centre - all catering for slightly different markets though at the same time overlapping in occasion in what they offer?

Peter admits he learned much of what he needed to about running Nortons from having some involvement in events at the Irish Centre. He says: “What I used to love was I knew it really well. I learnt everything I know about bars and how to put events on. Their way of being Irish and putting events with big bands on with free entry, which is exactly what we do here.

“As far as the Irish Centre and I guess the spirit of it goes, it is still there. We have just divided up the responsibility among the rest of us. I don’t think there is a need for it now. Ultimately there is nowhere in Birmingham that is more Irish than the Irish Quarter. You walk around and you have the JFK memorial, Digbeth coach station has a sign saying a hundred thousand welcomes and there are 12 Irish pubs within a mile.

“Back in 2008 the Irish Quarter was supposed to be developed with Connaught Square and a huge hotel. Then there was a massive recession. But despite that everyone has stepped up to make it an Irish Quarter.

“I actually think it is more Irish than Ireland. I have Irish cousins who have been in this bar and said this is ridiculous - why don’t we have this back home?”

A new era for the Irish Quarter

So, it would seem that Digbeth is very much alive and kicking as Birmingham’s Irish Quarter. Digbeth may have changed from the days of backstreet boozers, social clubs and an Irish centre. The industrial aspect has declined - being replaced by the bohemian bars and restaurants that now add to its flavour - indeed Nortons was once an industrial unit.

To be honest the area’s bustling night-time economy complements the Irish element rather than detracting from it. And the future would seem to be bright too. After the crippling effect of the pandemic on the hospitality sector, many businesses, including the Irish ones, seem to have come back stronger.

Birmingham’s iconic St Patrick’s Parade is returning to the streets of Digbeth on Sunday, March 17 2024 and the new Midland Metro tram line extension - when it eventually opens - will have three Irish Quarter stops. Now if that isn’t really putting it on the map I don’t know what is.