The Beatles may seem quintessentially English to many international fans, and they certainly are. But some may not realize that the group and their native Liverpool are also very Irish.
That's why Q is taking a look at the band's Hibernian heritage to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
Irish refugees began pouring into Liverpool during the Great Potato Famine in 1845.
Liverpool is an immutable part of the U.K.'s urban fabric these days, but it's actually a relatively new settlement. It wasn't chartered until 1207 and remained a small town until the early 18th century, when its port became a lynchpin in the British Empire's vast overseas empire. The many industrial jobs that followed brought large numbers of migrants from Scandinavia, Wales, Scotland and the rest of the world.
Irish refugees began pouring into Liverpool during the Great Potato Famine in 1845. The city was also a key waypoint for many Irish emigrants trying to get to the U.S., but many couldn't afford the full journey and ended up settling there instead. By 1851, it was estimated that nearly a quarter of Liverpool's population was Irish, National Museums Liverpool reported.
The port that brought these Gaels to the city also had a big impact on the regional music scene which incubated the Beatles a century later. American cultural imports like records, clothing and guitars arrived in Liverpool earlier than they did in other parts of the U.K. That's because many working class young men from the city were employed on freight routes that shipped goods between Liverpool and New York City. The cultural imports they brought back had a massive influence on the region's Merseybeat and skiffle scenes which preceded the Beatles.
"We’re all Irish," John Lennon said when the Fab Four toured their ancestral homeland in 1963, according to a blog post from The Beatles Story Museum. The songwriter didn't spend much time with his father Alfred, who was of Irish descent. But he rediscovered his Gaelic roots later in life and became a staunch advocate for the end of British rule in Northern Ireland. Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote two protest songs called "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "The Luck of the Irish" following the 1972 Bogside massacre in Derry, a pivotal event in the Troubles.
Lennon even hoped to retire to Ireland someday. That's why he and Ono purchased an island off the nation's western coast.
"I'm a quarter Irish or half Irish or something, and long, long before the trouble started, I told Yoko that's where we're going to retire," the musician said in 1971. "We went around Ireland a bit and we stayed in Ireland and we had a sort of second honeymoon there."
Each member of the Fab Four had some heritage from across the Irish Sea.
The Beatles' other frontman Paul McCartney had Irish heritage on both sides of his family. His mother was Catholic, which is why he and his brother Michael were baptized in the faith. But his father came from a Protestant background.
McCartney and his wife Linda also penned a Bloody Sunday protest song called "Give Ireland Back to the Irish." It was banned in the U.K. but made it to No. 1 on the Irish singles chart.
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John Lennon and Paul McCartney even wrote songs about the Troubles in the early 1970s.
George Harrison may have been the most Irish member of the Beatles. His mother Louise was a proud Irish Catholic with family members who remained on the northside of Dublin. Harrison would often take a ferry from Liverpool across the Irish Sea to visit his relatives there.
Ringo Starr has been described as the most English Beatle, but even he had a little bit of Irish heritage. The drummer has distant roots in County Mayo.
Of course, having Irish ancestry is far from rare rare in England, nor a phenomenon that's limited to Liverpool. Immigrants from the island also settled in industrial cities like Manchester, Birmingham and London.
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