Cleator Moor /ˈkliːtər ˈmʊər/ is a town and civil parish in Cumbria, England, within the historic county of Cumberland.

It was populated by Irish immigrants in the latter half of the nineteenth century to work in the mines and otherwise, leading to the colloquial title of Little Ireland.

The Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway suffered from subsidence which forced it to build two deviation branch lines and stations.

In 1938, Jakob Spreiregen founded the company Kangol in Cleator, situated across the road from St Mary's Church.

[2] It may be that the Irish Famine prompted some increased migration to the town, but links between West Cumbria and the northern counties of Ireland had been established before that time.

Labourers crossed to work the harvest and, more permanently, to take jobs in the mines and ports long before the Famine.

As Donald MacRaild writes, "...formative economic developments, urban growth and the mass arrival of the Irish, took place entirely in years beyond the Famine.

"[3] The Irish in Cleator Moor were predominantly Roman Catholic, but the general influx into the mines and industry of West Cumbria also brought Protestants from Ireland and with them a particular sectarianism to add to the anti-Catholicism of Victorian England.

During the late 1860s the Irish Protestant preacher William Murphy led anti-Catholic meetings throughout the country, inciting people to form mobs to attack Catholic targets.

When Murphy visited Whitehaven in April 1871, the Catholic iron ore miners of Cleator Moor were determined to confront him.

The following evening there was more concerted opposition as 200–300 Cleator Moor miners marched to the Hall and assaulted Murphy before the meeting began.

That was the year the local Orange Lodges decided to hold their annual gathering at Cleator Moor, a deliberately provocative move: "as if to court disturbance the Orangemen... decided they would this year hold their annual demonstration in the stronghold of the enemy"[4] The marchers including eight bands paraded past the Catholic church and held their assembly at Wath Brow.

The local Catholic priests defended their parishioners, saying they had been provoked beyond measure by the foul sectarian tunes and the weaponry.

[citation needed] Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Border.

[11] The club has supplied players to Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Carlisle United, Ipswich Town, Liverpool, Sheffield Wednesday, and West Bromwich Albion.