Known as Irishtown

“I found it strange, but as a boy growing up in Dundee’s Glens in the 1930s and 40s, my relatives, friends and neighbours gave me the impression that Lochee was somehow different from other areas of Dundee, such as the Hilltown, the Blackscroft or the Hawkhill,” writes a Craigie regular, commenting on the item Lochee Through Time in last week’s column.

“A great-aunt and my uncles used to talk about ‘Lochee an’ Nae Lichts’, referring to a time when Lochee had unpaved streets and no street lighting. It was also called Irishtown because of the large numbers of Irish immigrants living there. They had come over to work in the jute mills.

“I reckon the Dundee dialect evolved because of the influence of the Irish accent on the local Scots dialect, plus the need to shout over the noise of the machinery in the jute mils. The broad, distorted vowels, I am sure, stem from these two sources.”