Coatbridge Irish

The town quickly expanded during the late-eighteenth century as a centre of iron making, in part because it had a direct canal link to Glasgow.

Cheap unskilled labour was in large demand and as result, the town became a very popular destination for vast numbers of people arriving in Scotland during this period.

[3] According to James Handley,[4] by 1901, the percentage of Irish-born in Coatbridge had fallen to around 15%, but remained the highest of all the major towns in Scotland.

Handley's figures excluded the offspring of Irish-born immigrants and Handley argues that taking into consideration the culturally higher birth rates of Irish Catholic families at this time; the true figure of Irish population in Coatbridge at this time was in fact much greater.

In the late-nineteenth century, the largest and most generous Irish Home Rule organisation in Britain was found in Coatbridge.

Modern-day writer Des Dillon also writes at length about the descendants of the nineteenth-century Irish immigrants in present-day Coatbridge.

In 2006, Coatbridge (along with Port Glasgow and Clydebank) was voted 'the least Scottish town in Scotland' due to having the highest percentage of Irish names in the country.

In 2006, Des Dillon's anti-sectarian play "Singin' I'm no a Billy he's a Tim" was performed at St Bartholomew's Church hall.

In 'Celtic minded',[21] Des Dillon wrote about the notion of a separate Coatbridge accent influenced by the successive waves of Irish immigrants into the town.

The Coatbridge accent has been categorised as generally less usage of the Scots tongue and the tendency to stress the 'a' vowel differently, e.g. stair (sterr), hair (herr), fair (ferr) etc.

Another notable language trait reminiscent of Hiberno-English that is practiced commonly in Coatbridge is the use of the 'reaffirmative' after a sentence, e.g. "I need to go up the street tomorrow so I do," or "Tommy Tango's is always open so it is".

[23] Eddie McAteer who was born in Coatbridge was perhaps the most important nationalist political figure in pre-troubles Northern Ireland.