For many in Edinburgh, St Patrick's Day is considered a celebration. Throughout the city on March 17, people will be proudly wearing green and the abundance of Irish pubs will be packed as they celebrate.
Edinburgh's links to Ireland goes deeper than punters drinking Guinness on Rose Street, as one area was locally known as 'Little Ireland' back in the 1800s.
While the Cowgate is now known as having an electric nightlife, the street used to have a flourishing black market and populated with Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine of the 1840s.
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The street became part of Edinburgh in the 16th century when Flodden Wall was built and attracted some of the wealthiest families to the new area. However, as the New Town was being built between 1767 and around 1850, many moved away from the Cowgate and slum landlords took over.
Throughout the 1840s, Edinburgh saw an influx of Irish families move to the city, and as the population boomed, Cowgate saw multiple families, many of whom were Irish, squeeze into one room flats. Over time, the once affluent street became a slum with 14,000 people living in Cowgate by 1868.
But this didn't stop the residents from building a strong sense of community that thrived through the Cowgate. St Patrick's Church was built in 1770 and became a Catholic church to serve the locals. The Irish had been facing bigotry through the years and were not well integrated with the rest of Edinburgh's community. To help fix this, the parish priest, Canon Hannon founded a football team that would compete with other local clubs in the city.
With Michael Whelahan as its captain, and Hannon as its manager, Hibernian Football Club was founded on August 6 1875. This then lead to the creation of other Irish clubs in Dundee with Dundee Harp, Dundee Hibernian, and Glasgow's Celtic.
Along with Hibs, Irish revolutionary, James Connolly was also born in the Cowgate in 1868 to Irish parents. Although he joined the British Army at 14, he went on to despise it as an institution and fought passionately for socialism and Irish independence.
By 1896, he moved to Ireland and found the Irish Socialist Republican Party, and with James Larkin and William O'Brien, he founded the Irish Labour Party as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress in 1912.
In 1916, Connolly was the Commandant of the Dublin Brigade during the Easter Rising and his leadership was seen as formidable. As a result he was sentenced to death by execution on May 12.
From the mid 1900s the Cowgate started to move on from its slum reputation and by the 1980s it thrived during the Fringe as the Gilded Balloon first opened in the area.
But at 8.11pm on December 7, 2002, a massive fire engulfed more than a dozen buildings in the Cowgate.
While fire crews were on site within minutes, it was 52 hours before the flames were fully extinguished. Millions of pounds worth of damage was done, historic buildings left in tatters, and 150 people were forced to flee their homes.
Buildings housing loved places of business and academic study such as the Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh University's School of Informatics and Leisureland were destroyed in the blaze.
Historic Scotland said in 2002 that it was ‘impossible’ to quantify the impact the fire would have on the historic core of Edinburgh. They added: “What is certain is that many of the buildings’ interiors are irreplaceable.
“A piece of Edinburgh’s history has been lost.”
Now the Cowgate is home to an electric nightlife and still attracts hundreds of acts during the Festival Fringe. Parts of Cowgate's history can still be seen, with some of its oldest buildings hidden to the west end of the street. St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church stands at the east end but was extensively remodelled in 1929 after tenements were torn down.
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