This cartoon, which shows Irish women mill-workers asleep on the job as their horrified employer looks on, is one of a series of five. In both appearance and dialogue, it displays crude racial stereotyping.

The story of Irish workers and the Preston Lock-out embraces racial stereotypes, popular prejudice and the way immigrant labour was used an expendable commodity.

Between October 1853 and May 1854, 20,000 mill workers were locked out of the cotton mills of Preston in a dispute over wage cuts. Some firms, such as Birley Brothers, just off the North Road in Hanover Street, sent recruiters to Ireland to find strike-breakers to work at the mill. Many paupers from the Belfast workhouse came to England as a result, and were known as 'knobsticks'.

Court depositions and reports in the Preston Guardian reveal how many of these Irish immigrants were intimidated into turning back on arrival. Others who stayed were sacked after the dispute was settled, and then shipped home - often to the wrong part of Ireland - under the poor law removal system.

You may also like to study catalogue item (PRO) PL 27/13 for more information on the Preston Lock Out.