"Who Do You Think You Are" Series 13, Episode 5 Ricky Tomlinson

[Rena]

I'm not familiar with the actor Ricky Tomlinson but I thought he had a chip on his shoulder for some reason.  I would have loved to have pointed out to him that his ancestors were fortunate to have had a trade, as many had none and lived a precarious life as a jobbing day labourer.

[Blue70]

Dockers had it worse than carters. Ricky's ancestors were better off working class.


Blue

[JAKnighton]

I think Ricky's point was that Liverpool was a booming town of commerce and none of that wealth actually reached the workers who toiled day in and day out. I never got the impression that Ricky only had carters in mind when he made that point. It's just that was the focus of the programme because all his ancestors were carters.

[philipsearching]

This seemed to be  a programme particularly driven by the values/personality of the subject.  Ricky Tomlinson is passionate about poverty, unionism and social class, so the research focussed on these - giving him the opportunity to reinforce his opinions.

I completely agree with the comments below that there were some unproved assumptions which devalued the programme.

On a flippant note - I wonder how RT would have reacted if the research had turned up a wicked industrialist or slum landlord!

[Blue70]

I think Ricky's point was that Liverpool was a booming town of commerce and none of that wealth actually reached the workers who toiled day in and day out. I never got the impression that Ricky only had carters in mind when he made that point. It's just that was the focus of the programme because all his ancestors were carters.

Agreed. The money put into the mansions of the rich merchants was folly in a lot of cases as they often moved away due to the expanse of towns and cities. Many were not sustainable in the long run and ended up as ruins or converted for other uses. The grounds often becoming public parks as a sort of thank you to the workers who helped to pay for them.


Blue

[Skoosh]

Blue,  the Irish population boomed in the 19th century until the great famine of the 1840's when it crashed & folk starved while the landowners continued to export grain & livestock.   The same famine hit the Highlands & Islands & folk who were used to a life of self-sufficiency on a croft, (however poor!) moving to a Glasgow slum was no different from those in Liverpool. Their new diet was insufficient to maintain their famed stature, & like Donegal, the tallest people in Britain, their descendants literally shrank.

Skoosh.

[Blue70]

Blue,  the Irish population boomed in the 19th century until the great famine of the 1840's when it crashed & folk starved while the landowners continued to export grain & livestock.   The same famine hit the Highlands & Islands & folk who were used to a life of self-sufficiency on a croft, (however poor!) moving to a Glasgow slum was no different from those in Liverpool. Their new diet was insufficient to maintain their famed stature, & like Donegal, the tallest people in Britain, their descendants literally shrank.

Skoosh.

The Irish people who came to Liverpool in the 19th century were mostly from the labouring class who were starving on the land, before and after the Famine. There was work available for them in Liverpool and the support of neighbours and a network of RC churches. They were better off in Liverpool that's why so many settled. It was easy for them to return to Ireland if they wanted to go back.


Blue

[Andrew Tarr]

The Irish people who came to Liverpool in the 19th century were mostly from the labouring class who were starving on the land, before and after the Famine. There was work available for them in Liverpool and the support of neighbours and a network of RC churches. They were better off in Liverpool that's why so many settled. It was easy for them to return to Ireland if they wanted to go back.

I always understood that many of the Irish who settled in Liverpool had gone there as the first stage in emigrating to America, as that was where most emigrant ships sailed from.  Some got no further, either because they 'liked' it, or they didn't want to pay the fare.

[Skoosh]

For most of the people there was no going back, the landowners had got them off the land & wouldn't have them back. There was no security of tenure in Scotland until the Crofting Acts of the 1880's, Ireland would just pre-date this & once a generation had grown up in the city, life in the country was alien to them. The hardship & inhumanity suffered at that time sowed the seeds of the rebellion, civil war. partition & the troubles which have continued to this day.

Skoosh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_%28Ireland%29