Where have all the thousands of Irish gone who used to live in the Holloway Road area?

Once, large Irish communities settled in Holloway, Camden Town and Kilburn – they were all known as Little Ireland.

But for years the Irish diaspora has been vanishing in Holloway. To chronicle the exodus, a retired painter and decorator, Finbarr Wall, has written a lilting song called “One for the Road”, which has become popular on the folk scene.



The 71-year-old, who studied metallurgy, opted for a life as a builder and has lived in Holloway since the 80s.

But he is as much a philosopher as a builder. When he realised how the Irish began to leave Holloway he produced his nine-stanza poem set to a tune that suddenly came to him.

“Irish youngsters always used to come here to pick up the spade and settle down,” he said.

“But that was a long time ago. When Ireland joined the EU the trek back to the Emerald Isle began. Now, young Irish men and women are likely to be in the professional class.”

He was saddened by the exodus because it meant that all the Irish pubs and dance halls closed, to be replaced by gastro-pubs, boutiques and internet cafés.

In his “One for the Road”, he writes:

There was scarcely a youngster straight off the boat alone in the stranger’s land

But found a home far from home in the Holloway Road and familiar things close at hand

The strains of a jig sidling out a pub door, the hurling games played in the park

In the shops, country papers and Barry’s fine tea

Things dear to an emigrant’s heart…

On the Holloway Road now there is hardly a pub that doesn’t serve wine and haute cuisine grub

Where bacon and cabbage was once all the rage, it is polenta and scallops and salad to graze

Where a pint of good stout was the drink you would order it’s now white wine spritzers and mineral water

• Keywords
  IRISH PEOPLE, POETRY
• Geographical keyword
  HOLLOWAY ROAD
• Persons keyword
  Finbarr Wall